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Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

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Re: Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

#21

Post by recuter »

ericmcer wrote: post #16
DoctorDabadedoo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mike Judge with his Idiocracy and Office Space is almost like someone had a crystal ball for early 21st century.

How did he get away with Idiocracy? I thought it was a good movie and somewhat prescient, but if you peel back the layers it is basically advocating some kind of population control or eugenics policy. Or it is just a comedy, but I hear it frequently cited as a dramatized version of a plausible future.

It isn't advocating for anything rather it is akin to the band playing as the Titanic is sinking.

Re: Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

#22

Post by kanzure »

brmgb wrote: post #17
kanzure wrote: post #11

Gattaca set the field of biotech back by decades. Countless hours have been wasted pointing to the movie for why we should not go down the slippery slope of genetic choice. Cool movie though, that's part of the problem. "If the audience is supposed to accept that genetic determinism is true in Gattaca, then no amount of Vincent's hard work should make Vincent a hero. He's just a fraud. If the audience is not supposed…

Or as I like to put it Gattaca put the spotlight on research which had been treading the line of ethics for a decade with a dangerous lack of supervision and helped convince people that putting the brakes on it was welcome. That’s fiction playing its role.

yeah let's hope parents don't get to choose a better life for their kids, watch out?

Re: Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

#23

Post by voytec »

anonporridge wrote: post #8

The great thing about Gattaca is that the cinematography ages incredibly well on top of the amazing plot. A lot of great sci-fi is marred by cheap effects that look incredibly dated only a decade later. Gattaca chose to focus on the story and create a minimalist future environment that still looks beautiful 25 years later.

> A lot of great sci-fi is marred by cheap effects that look incredibly dated only a decade later.

I, for one, enjoy low-budget scifi very much. Crappy CGI has it's charm but CGI aside, I have the feeling that actors in lower-budget shows were more involved than those in shows written to be ratings winners.

It's kind of like with websites created with passion and websites created for SEO.

Re: Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

#24

Post by readams »

kanzure wrote: post #11

Gattaca set the field of biotech back by decades. Countless hours have been wasted pointing to the movie for why we should not go down the slippery slope of genetic choice. Cool movie though, that's part of the problem. "If the audience is supposed to accept that genetic determinism is true in Gattaca, then no amount of Vincent's hard work should make Vincent a hero. He's just a fraud. If the audience is not supposed…

I don't think that's at all what you should get out of Gattaca on discrimination. Rather, even in a world where you have people who are statistically overwhelmingly likely to be better in every way, the morally right thing to do is _still_ to allow people the same opportunities to excel, and succeed or fail on their merits.

Re: Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

#25

Post by beebmam »

I found it really hard to relate to any of the characters in the film, to the point where they were barely recognizable as humans.

Does it make sense, in a world like the one in Gattaca, for a person that is part of a discriminated class, to go into space, instead of trying to change the society around him to be less discriminatory?

It seemed to me like the whole effort was a self-motivated, flaccid revenge fantasy that wouldn't make any material difference to the others suffering from discrimination on earth. All of that effort, for what?

Anyway, I didn't hate the film, I just found it bizarre, alien-like.

Re: Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

#27

Post by chordalkeyboard »

kanzure wrote: post #11

Gattaca set the field of biotech back by decades. Countless hours have been wasted pointing to the movie for why we should not go down the slippery slope of genetic choice. Cool movie though, that's part of the problem. "If the audience is supposed to accept that genetic determinism is true in Gattaca, then no amount of Vincent's hard work should make Vincent a hero. He's just a fraud. If the audience is not supposed…

> Therefore the statistical estimates issued by genetic experts have to be true; otherwise, there is simply no story to tell.

(from your first link)

The movie obliquely addresses this when Vincent experiences a non-fatal heart attack on the treadmill. The scientific predictions are not infallible but some people seem to have forgotten that.

Re: Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

#29

Post by delecti »

DoctorDabadedoo wrote: post #6
sourcecodeplz wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely on my re-watch list, together with Idiocracy.

Mike Judge with his Idiocracy and Office Space is almost like someone had a crystal ball for early 21st century.

I've seen Office Space twice, once before and once after a job I got laid off from where my job description was quite literally to take the requirements from the clients to the engineers. It really hit different after that.

Re: Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

#30

Post by kanzure »

readams wrote: post #24
kanzure wrote: post #11

Gattaca set the field of biotech back by decades. Countless hours have been wasted pointing to the movie for why we should not go down the slippery slope of genetic choice. Cool movie though, that's part of the problem. "If the audience is supposed to accept that genetic determinism is true in Gattaca, then no amount of Vincent's hard work should make Vincent a hero. He's just a fraud. If the audience is not supposed…

I don't think that's at all what you should get out of Gattaca on discrimination. Rather, even in a world where you have people who are statistically overwhelmingly likely to be better in every way, the morally right thing to do is _still_ to allow people the same opportunities to excel, and succeed or fail on their merits.

Bingo. It's mostly a story about discrimination. Unfortunately it is mistakenly used as a cautionary tale to slow down or prevent progress on genetics.
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