Gattaca (Special Edition)
by Andrew Niccol
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DVD details
Actor: Ethan Hawke, Gore Vidal, Jude Law, Uma Thurman, Xander BerkeleyDirector: Andrew Niccol
Brand: Sony
Writer: Andrew Niccol
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Esperanto (Original Language); French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1; Portuguese (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 2.40:1
Running Time: 106 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-03-11
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Product features:
- Condition: New
- Format: DVD
- AC-3; Closed-captioned; Color; Dolby; Dubbed; DVD; Special Edition; Subtitled; Widescreen; NTSC
DVD Reviews of Gattaca (Special Edition)
DVD Review: Great premise, dull execution.
Summary: 2 Stars
Make no mistake, "Gattaca" is a science fiction film with a vitally important message. It would have made an outstanding episode of "The Twilight Zone". But for a two-hour feature film, the story feels so padded that I had great difficulty staying awake through the recycled scenes and massive amounts of Michael Bay-style sap that spent too much time affirming the audience that they are perfect just the way they are. In spite of it's intellectually sound premise, the film ends up insulting the audience's intelligence with populist tripe when it should have taken on a much darker, grittier tone. The film has it's (legions of) fans though, so if you have ever questions about whether or not human genetic manipulation is something we should explore, then I'd recommend checking this out. You'll probably like it. But if mainstream Hollywood's penchant for talking down to the audience makes you clinch your teeth, pass it up and get back with Blade Runner instead.
The premise of "Gattaca" is a future utopia where humans are able to be genetically engineered. This is to say, that parents can shop for their offspring's biological traits as one would select features on a custom-designed automobile. Innocent enough according to most people, but those of us who think these things through know where that will inevitably lead. This is a story about that inevitability. Ethan Hawke plays an abused minority in the film; he was born naturally through sexual intercourse the way we all were. This makes Vincent what is referred to as an "Invalid". "Valids" are those who had their makeup determined for the strongest and most genetically superior traits. How can a random smattering of parents' DNA with all of the intrinsic flaws compete? It can't. Hawke's character is not only gnerally physically inferior, but he was born with a heart defect that all but insured he wouldn't live to see 30. But he did. Being a stubborn underdog we can all root for, he is bound and determined to realize his dream of being an astronaut. But given that every Valid on the planet is physically better qualified, people like him are only allowed to perform menial labor. Legalized worldwide apartheid with no constitutionally unsound ramifications. The idea bears a striking resemblance to some of the practices of Communist. It's a simple system of picking the best people for the job so technically it's not discrimination. No morality involved. At all. Hitler's vision of a Master Race is just around the corner.
Great idea for a film, no? Sadly, I found the execution lacking and the film had trouble keeping my attention once the premise was established. Shots of Vincent gazing longingly at the sky as rockets take off for outer space while he mops the floor are almost humorous to a cynical bastard like myself who gets his jollies blowing spitballs at such storytelling practices. The backstory where Vincent's younger brother (a Valid; the parents didn't want to make the same mistake twice) lords his superiority over him and then loses in a swimming contest is reiterated over the course of the film again and again in such a manner that I felt that the filmmaker was treating me like an idiot. Yeah! I get it! We don't like the super-people so we revel in the guy who is just like us winning. No need to show us four more times! I about turned the film off when his ability to outdistance his physically more able sibling is explained by Vincent by saying he never saved anything for the swim back. But his brother never made it to the swim out so what was he saving exactly? So all that does is give the people a line that makes no sense to cheer about. "Yeah, you fascist jerk! He didn't save anything for the swim back except that he not only had enough to swim back, but he carried your sorry behind with him so obviously he did save something... more then you in fact since you were the one drowning. Wait, what'd he say again?" Things like that eat at the inside of my brain and make me angry that the writers and director can't even think through their own story for our benefit. They just assumed we'd be too dumb to care. This is not Transformers, damn it! If you're going to make a cerebral film with no action at all, get your stuff straight!
The vast majority of the running time is spent watching Vincent cover his genetic tracks as he enacts a plan to join a space mission by posing as a Valid by borrowing the identity of a crippled athlete. He has urine samples, nail clippings, hair, fake ID, and everything else to pass the constant genetic screenings. The screenings and the fervency of those involved seem to indicate that the innocent "best person for the job" ideology has evolved into outright racism. Along the way, our everyman courts a Valid played by Uma Thurman, who looks extremely genetically superior in this. Seeing Vincent dust his skin dust off of his keyboard and enact successively more complex plans to bypass the system got old to me quickly. I didn't much care about him nailing a hot Valid chick either. After a while, I just wanted the movie to be over already. we all knew how it was going to end from the second he looked up at that rocket. The rest was filler. Very sappy filler.
As far as using film for a device to explain a complex subject such as genetic tampering, "Gattaca" is a triumph. But seeing that I already was well aware of the social ramifications of such a practice, I have to judge it based on how the story affected me personally. It didn't. The devices were hackneyed, the characters were boring, there was no visual feast to pull it out of the fire. As nice as it is to think that no matter what, the way we do things is always the best, the fact is that once we open that Pandora's Box, Invalids will be exactly that. Invalid. It's always fun to see David beat Goliath, but a more realistic take would have been appreciated. Take District 9, for example. When the underclass was abused and treated as animals, that's practically what they became. Seeing something like that mirroring the real-life hardships of apartheid would have been much more convincing then the schmaltzy approach taken here.
2 1/2 stars, rounded down for blowing a great opportunity.
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