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Gataca

Progress at all cost – the achievements of science don't always turn out to be a blessing in the long run. It seems so desirable to conceive a child made-to-measure instead of leaving this important issue to chance or Nature. It is a brave new world GATTACA presents us with, a world without hereditary diseases, but also a world where people who don't fulfill the genetic requirements don't stand a chance. Just like lepers used to be excluded from society children conceived naturally and without interference are now stamped "invalid".

Vincent (Ethan Hawke) is one of them. Right after he is born he is genetically tested, and his parents learn that he is bound to fail. With their second son they don't rely on chance and seem to have made the right decision. But Vincent has a dream he is willing to sacrifice everything for: he wants to be an astronaut. Even the fact that only the genetic elite is allowed into this coveted profession can't stop him. At first he only manages to enter space center Gattaca as a cleaner, but then he has the opportunity to change his fate. He buys a new identity from Jerome (Jude Law) who is paralyzed after an attempted suicide and sets out to live his dream under a new name.

The future as presented in this movie is disturbing. How long until genes will rule the life of a person in a way they have never done before? Companies that pick their employees based on a genetic fingerprint? Not ones abilities are the decisive factor for getting a job but the probability of having cancer later in life or a heart condition? A society with true equality has never existed, but in GATTACA a genetic elite created in a test tube takes the place of the former nobility. A gloomier vision than George Orwell's "1984", brilliantly done in this unusual film that sticks out among the "fast food" usually served at movie theaters these days. The only loud noises in this movie come from the space shuttle starts Vincent enjoys to watch...

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