Brave New Gattaca

So I don’t know about you guys, but Gattaca reminded me a lot of Brave New World.  From the very beginning of the movie, I kept jotting down things that made me think of Huxley’s Utopia.

Towards the very beginning of the movie, when Vincent is vacuuming his keyboard, he says to his supervisor “Cleanliness is next to godliness.”  That common idiom immediately made me think of Brave New World and the ridiculous slogans they used to brainwash their citizens, one of them being “cleanliness is next to 

Fordliness.”

 The scene where Vincent’s parents are consulting the local geneticist to “create” their second child reminded me of the test tube children of Brave New World.  The object of both worlds is to create a society, through generations of genetically modified people, that is comprised of perfect people.  The only difference is that, in Gattaca, the family dynamic still remains.  Children (at least Vincent) are brought up in families with a mother, father, and siblings.  In Brave New World, there is no family structure or nurturing environment.  Children are trained to join the army of perfect people.

Gattaca’s society is said to have “discrimination down to a science.”  A caste system, or something similar to it, is also a main focus in Brave New World.  With the Alphas, Betas, and Epsilons, everyone is segregated based on their predetermined fate.

The fact that Jerome kills himself at the end of Gattaca is what fully convinced me that the movie is eerily similar to Brave New World.  Watching Jerome enter the incinerator and close the door is too similar to John’s body hanging from a rope in his home.  It seems there is always a person who can’t handle the imperfection of the “Utopian” world they live in and feel the need to take their life.  It’s a sad ending, but it drives home the point that the world is one that isn’t worth living in.

I thought it was cleaver how the screenwriters took the definition of Utopia (social dreaming) and embodied it in a character.  Vincent’s dream of someday flying into space is the concept of “social dreaming” taken to a personal level.  Vincent’s idea of Utopia is to become an astronaut, and his dream eventually comes true.