DVDs: Ethan Hawke

Drehbuchautor und Regisseur, der Neuseeländer Andrew Niccol (der übrigens auch Jim Carreys Die Truman Show geschrieben hat), erzählt von einer nahen Zukunft, in der Beruf und Werdegang eines Menschen von seinen Genen bestimmt werden. In dieser Gesellschaft stehen den "Valids", genetisch aufgebesserten Menschen, sämtliche Positionen offen, wie denen bei "Gattaca", einem Konzern, der sich ganz der Erforschung des Weltalls verschrieben hat. Die "In-Valids", jene Menschen, die ganz natürlich gezeugt und geboren wurden, sind dazu verdammt, niedrigere Arbeiten auszuführen, da sie als genetisch fehlerhaft bewertet werden. So auch der Protagonist der Geschichte, Vincent (Ethan Hawke). Mit Hilfe eines behinderten Valids (Jude Law) gelingt es Vincent jedoch, seine biologischen Daten zu fälschen, und somit kommt er seinem Ziel, eine Karriere als Astronaut anzutreten, einen gewaltigen Schritt näher. Die Untersuchung eines Mordfalles in Gattaca entpuppt sich für ihn jedoch als Gefahr. Da er offenbar etwas zu verbergen hat, gerät er ins Fadenkreuz der Ermittler.

Teilweise ein Thriller, teilweise ein futuristisches Drama, gelingt es Gattaca vollkommen überzeugend, seine sozialen Strukturen dem Zuschauer derart plausibel zu erklären, dass alles was geschieht jederzeit nachvollziehbar (und spannend) bleibt. Neben Ethan Hawke spielt Uma Thurman jene Frau, die sich in ihn verliebt und seine wahre Identität ergründet, während Jude Law dem Film eine sehr menschliche, aber auch tragische Note verleiht. --Jeff Shannon

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Historical Background      5 von 5 Punkten
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

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