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Bookmark this pageGattaca (1997)
Director: Andrew Niccol
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
In the future, geneticists will design test-tube babies to be disease-free. Physical perfection will become the norm, and those flawed specimens born the old-fashioned way will form the new underclass - the 'in-valids'. Vincent Freeman (Hawke), an in-valid with a heart defect, is only taken seriously in the powerful Gattaca space programme when he assumes the identity of Jerome (Law), a 'valid' who supplies blood, tissue and urine samples in return for shelter (he himself having been crippled in a car accident). The subterfuge is successful - until a murder draws unwelcome scrutiny from the authorities. Self-consciously at a remove from the trashy B-movie sensibilities which have dominated science-fantasy movies in recent times, this harks back to the vacuum-packed, classically alienated dystopia of Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451. Chilly, elegant, and a little bloodless.Author: TCh
User reviews of this film
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- John Cooper said...
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Posted on Jun 15 2009 13:40
One of the more intelligent science-fiction movies of recent years. Remarkable for its realistic take on developments in eugenics and succesful use of low budget futuristic
sets, the film is more convincing that Star Trek in its depiction of space exploration . Despite its short length the script incorporates a murder mystery and a romance between
Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman However, where the film really scores is with Michael Nyman's soundtrack which lends resonance and depth to the main theme of the film which is that of human striving against the genetic odds. - Report as inappropriate
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- Magmabulle said...
- Posted on Jun 09 2008 11:41 An interesting idea for a movie, and also carried out well, albeit somewhat predictable.
- Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Andrew Niccol
Producer: Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Alan Arkin, Jude Law, Loren Dean, Gore Vidal, Ernest Borgnine, Blair Underwood, Tony Shalhoub, Elias Koteas full cast
Duration: 106 mins
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