Hollywood Revisited: Gattaca (1997)

The movie, Gattaca, starring Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman was a thoroughly entertaining and well though out film. Overall it ranks as one of my favorite films in any genre. I was particularly drawn to the underlying theme of someone overcoming adversity in order to achieve their dreams. And the way it was shot makes Gattaca a visually stunning movie.

But I digress. What I wanted to discuss was one minor feature of the film. It is explained how in the future families can choose to have their offspring genetically engineered to prevent flaws and defects and to enhance strengths. This is what created the discrimination between natural born people and the ones who benefited from science.

Throughout the film we are shown the various way that the authorities screen and test people to determine their genetic origins through the use of blood, skin and saliva analysis to name a few. And here is where I got to questioning the script. If, in the future, everyone is so concerned about only allowing certain people to pursue certain career paths, and especially at an institute with such high security as Gattaca, then why had nobody in their security department ever thought that the finger prick blood test that is used was so easily defeated by simple props such as a flesh colored patch over the finger? You would think that someone eventually would have figured out that drawing blood from random locations rather than the same finger each and every time would have been a more secure way to keep the undesirables out.

I agree, this is just an insignificant part of the entire movie and in no way takes away from enjoyment of watching it but it is something that always stuck in my mind and I wanted to share it. So there you have it. And on a side note, I wonder if Ethan Hawke ever got his teeth fixed. He is an ugly set of chompers, in my humble opinion.

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