Themes of Gattaca the Movie

Gattaca is a movie in which many common themes are apparent. The themes that will be discussed are Potential, Determination and Perfection. Although many more themes occur in Gattaca, these are the most relevant ones.

Potential comes up a lot during Gattaca because that’s what the entire movie is based on. The reason some one would get gene modification in the first place would be to increase there “potential”. The doctor even said, “don’t you want your son to be able to have the best life possible?”. That dialogue is all about potential. Society wouldn’t even accept in-valid because they were “incompetent” and “inconsistent”. The police didn’t even accept Vincent because they could not fathom an In-valid cheating the system let alone becoming the best in his field. Near the end of the movie, however, there are many examples that people do “exceed” there potential. One easily discernable example is the scene where Vincent beat Anton in the swimming competition. Anton had everything going for him, good genetics, good job, good health, and Vincent had none of these. Yet Vincent was the one who went the farthest and had to save Anton from drowning. The movie, in conclusion, shows you that you can “exceed” your potential.

Determination also plays a huge part in the film because Vincent needs to have determination to over come all the obstacles on his path to a better life. Vincent as a little kid would look up into the night sky and say “I’m gonna make it there some day”. He was adamant on the fact that he would prove to everyone he was just as good, or even better, than his genetically superior competitors. Determination is blatantly apparent in the scene where Vincent and Anton have their last swimming match and Vincent keeps striving for the win. Even though all the odds are against him and he knows it he is determined to show his brother that he can do anything he sets his mind to.

The idea of perfection is the general theme in the plot. All the people who had been genetically altered where, from a relative point of view, perfect. They had immunity to all health effects, superior intellect, denser muscle and bone mass, high metabolic rates, and fast reflexes. Gerome aka `Eugene` was so obsessed about being perfect that he tried to commit suicide because he got second. He said “See this medal? It`s silver“. The police didn’t believe that an invalid could have a perfect record at Gattaca. To take the idea to the extreme Eugene committed suicide because he couldn’t deal with the fact that he got second place and wasn’t perfect.

Gattaca shows many different points of view on an even more many themes. The themes in this are easily understandable and are portrayed in such a way that it appeals to the viewer. The film is fallacious because the plot is terrible but if you pay attention the dialogue makes it interesting because it makes many allusions to add to the themes.

Bibliography:

Gattaca the Movie, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gattaca, www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177/, www.rottentomatoes.com/m/gattaca/