Gattaca (Special Edition) [1997]

See Larger Image	List Price: £12.99 Our Price: £4.98 Availability: Usually dispatched within 10 to 12 days Manufacturer: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Starring: Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law, Alan Arkin, Blair Underwood Directed By: Andrew Niccol Average Customer Rating:


Audience Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over Binding: DVD EAN: 5035822523944 Format: PAL Label: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Manufacturer: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Region Code: 2 Release Date: 2008-03-03 Running Time: 102 Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Theatrical Release Date: 1997
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Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: The Historical Background Comment: To understand Gattaca, it helps to know a little history. About a century ago, progressives took up what the New York Times in 1912 called the "wonderful new science" of eugenics. Because of improvements in medicine and public health, eugenists said, the "unfit" were having more children than the "fit." Their solution included both positive eugenics--encouraging the "fit" to have more children, and negative eugenics--preventing the "unfit" from having children. Forced sterilization laws in some 37 states were their greatest achievement, with California being the most zealous in applying its law. But legislation in more conservative states, particularly in the South, was blocked by claims that forced sterilization was unconstitutional. That barrier was shoved aside in a 1927 Supreme Court decision, Buck v. Bell, which regarded forced sterilization laws as no different from laws requiring vaccination. Regard some children as a blight on society, and sterilization serves the same disease-eliminating function as vaccination. The feminists of that day had no problem with negative eugenics. They believed that the birthrate of the "unfit" should be lowered by any means possible. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a prominent feminist sociologist, made eugenics a key feature in her 1915 feminist utopia, Herland. What they objected to was "forced motherhood," meaning social pressures on women like themselves to abandon professional careers for children. Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger took up their cause. She was vehemently opposed to positive eugenics, but zealously championed negative eugenics. Most of those regarded as "unfit" were recent immigrants from Southern Europe (Catholic) and Eastern Europe (Jewish). Because sterilization laws were only effective against people in state institutions, they could do little to lower immigrant birthrates. Her answer was to build birth control clinics in immigrant neighborhoods, starting with the Brownsville neighborhood in NYC. Poverty would be used as a lever to force down immigrant birthrates. You can read her arguments in her still-in-print 1922 bestseller, The Pivot of Civilization. To understand what is going on today, simply substitute blacks and Hispanics for those earlier Catholic and Jewish immigrants. And of course abortion has replaced birth control as the tool of choice. Gattaca envisions a future world run by people much like those early twentieth century eugenists and birth controllers. If your parents allowed geneticists to manufacture you to the proper specifications, then life will be good, with all the best career paths open. But if, like the Vincent in this movie, your parents conceived you the old fashioned way, then you're consigned to menial jobs. In Vincent's case that meant cleaning the headquarters of Gattaca, an organization tasked with exploring the solar system. Since he was a child, Vincent has wanted to explore space. Not being a member of the genetically programmed elite, that path seemed forever closed to him. This movie describes how he worked to beat the system. I won't give away details and spoil your fun, but I do suggest you pay attention to the clash between Vincent and his genetically programmed brother in their `who will turn back first' swimming challenge. This film reminds us there are aspects to our personalities, particularly courage, that can't be programmed in. They're the result of the choices we make. Vincent wins because he risks everything for his dream, saving nothing for the swim back. This an excellent film. You won't regret watching it. --Michael W. Perry, editor of: The Pivot of Civilization in Historical Perspective: The Birth Control Classic and Eugenics and Other Evils : An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized State Customer Rating: Summary: Warning! Corrupt discs! Comment: I recently received my copy from Amazon of the film, and while the packaging is in mint condition and the dvd looks flawless, the data on the dvd is completely corrupt and unplayable in two computers and two DVD players I tried! Customer Rating: Summary: Triumph of the human spirit Comment: In some dystopian future, date unspecified, our descendants are on the cusp of a brave new world in which designer babies become the norm. Shortly before this technological achievement our hero comes upon the scene with all of the normal faults and frailties that mortal flesh is usually heir to. Having forked out for the specs necessary to redress the faults in his vision they decide to spend their cash second time around ensuring his brother has no need of such artificial aids. In due course the younger son surpasses his brother in the usual childhood games and is well on the way to fulfilling all of his parents aspirations and repaying their investment when Vincent, the elder and imperfect son, decides that his home life isn't doing his self esteem any favours and leaves to find his imperfect way in the perfect world bequeathed to his favoured sibling. He obtains a job as a cleaner at Gattaca, an institution whose existence depends upon selecting and training only the most ideal human specimens to continue humanity's quest for the stars. Demonstrating that crime is always a corollary of social injustice the movie has Vincent obviously managing to save enough from his cleaner's wage to take advantage of the black market in false identities and we meet Jude Law, the antithesis of Vincent in many ways: the golden boy made bad. They `swap' identities and Vincent becomes the `perfect' Jerome and begins to take pleasure in all the fruits that perfect specimens, or `valids' enjoy as part of their birthright, including those provided by off-screen wife, Uma Thurman in the person of the perfectly lovely Irene. He gets accepted for flight crew training at Gattaca and loses no opportunity to gaze at the stars his soon to be destination if all goes well! Vincent encounters his brother again, in the form of the senior investigating officer, when a member of Gattaca's senior people gets his perfect cranium clobbered and all of its `employees' become subject to interrogation thereby threatening Vincent's dream. This is an unusually thoughtful Sci-Fi film which asks all of the usual, who are we, where are we going type questions about human existence and forces an examination of the current preoccupation with genetic engineering, celebrity, `extreme makeover' shows and the type of air-headed celeb mags such as Hello that push the air-brushed perfection to which we are all supposed to aspire. But it's also a masterpiece of film making with superb art direction, the welcome presence of such Hollywood veterans as Alan Arkin and Ernest Borgnine, an intelligent script by director Andrew Niccol and a hauntingly beautiful Michael Nyman score. As such it ranks alongside Blade Runner as a let entry into to the pantheon of true masterworks of Sci-Fi film making. Customer Rating: Summary: Brilliant ! Simply brilliant ! A little known treasure to discover. Comment: I just discovered this movie and I was very, very impressed. I simply can not understand why did "Gattaca" slipped under the radar when it was released in 1998. The 90s were not a good time for SF cinema - for a long time I considered that only three SF movies made between 1991 and 2000 were really good: "Starship Troopers", "12 Monkeys" and "Strange days". Well sice yesterday it is official - make it four! When watching this movie I had the impression to make a comeback to the great age of SF, which were the 70s, with "Soylent Green", "Planet of Apes", "Alien", "Westworld", "Andromeda Strain", "A clockwork orange", "Close encounters of the Third kind", "Star Wars", etc., a blessed time in which even "Star Trek" movies could be great (just think about the first one, "Star Trek: the Motion Picture" which opened in 1979). Making this time travel back was a really great experience. I like spectacular, fast paced movies and I am not really a great intellectual - but when a movie is REALLY intelligent and well done, sometimes I like them even better. And "Gattaca" is an exceptionally well thought, well conceived, well directed, well paced, well balanced and VERY well interpreted movie. It is amazing how much you can do with a modest budget if you have a brilliant scenario and a good idea how to use it, when you keep a good control over your movie and when you hire half a dozen of really excellent actors, who clearly enjoy playing much more than "being a star". The director, Andrew Niccol, managed to do all of it very well (oh, why, but why, couldn't he direct the "Terminal" rather than only writing the scenario). Ethan Hawke, Jude Law and Uma Thurman gave everything they could in this movie and the result is impressive. Four other actors seconded them impressively well: Gore Vidal (yes, the writer Gore Vidal, in one of his very unfrequent appearances on the sivler screen), Ernest Borgnine, one of the few survivors of Golden Age of Hollywood who is still standing, Loren Dean (an actor who for the moment didn't really make a great career, which I find a pity after watching this movie) and finally Alan Arkin, who long time ago played Yossarian in "Catch 22" and who returns here (I am CERTAIN it was made on purpose) as a REALLY smart and tenacious cop. I am not going to say anything on the movie itself - no spoilers. Let's just say that this is a tale about a horribly unfair society in which a member of discriminated and opressed minority will challenge the fundamental rules which govern this world. It is not gonna be easy and is gonna hurt... But you will have great time watching it. Customer Rating: Summary: A masterpiece to enjoy Comment: A masterpiece to enjoy Whenever I'm asked to recommend a good film to watch, I usually offer this one up first. Gattaca is a beautifully crafted movie that does not fit neatly into any category. It's not entirely a murder mystery, a love story or a sci-fi film, more of a moving dramatic amalgam of all three and a story of ambition fighting against the odds set in a future where the privileged, genetically engineered population rule the roost over the genetically inferior `invalids'. There are no whizzy cgi effects or blistering action sequences in this film and it's the better for that. Instead a proper story with proper characters unfolds before your eyes in a way that will have you rooting for the underdog from the start and may change your emotions as the plot progresses. There are excellent performances from all of the ensemble cast - and an inspired casting it is too. This film also has a great and very moving final scene. A masterclass on how to end a movie properly. The film contains some wonderfully lit shots making full use of a scant budget with some very clever touches as revealed in the `making of' featurette, one of several short features amongst the extras on this special edition. Michael Nyman's wonderful moody and sometimes very moving score matches the mood and pace of the film to perfection. The transfer and sound are excellent though I could not detect any difference from the original release, which also contained some of the extras on this special edition. There is, incidentally, a nifty and very subtle special light effect on the front DVD sleeve. Ties in with the inventive blue coded end credits. A recommended watch for all and it still will be in 20, 30 and 40 years time. More Reviews