Mathew Dillman 21 November 2008 The Triumph and Defeat of Individuality in the Film Gattaca

The film Gattaca imposes a tone upon the underlying message that both triumphs over prejudice and crushes the sense of individuality. The duality of the films message is supported through the repetition of scenes depicting the body as a traitor and the body in worship. It would be important to make the distinction that these differences in the film are applied tones to the same message. Gattaca expresses a clear, unarguable message that strives to sell itself as the triumph of the human spirit over all obstacles, social and physical. The ways in which the audience responds to this superficial message is created through the tone of the film. Gattaca is bi-tonal in the sense that the film emits two major interpretations, which directly affect the intended message of the film. One is shallow and one gets to a deeper reality. The effect of these dichotomous tones is to evoke a specific feeling within the audience. On one hand, they feel happiness for the protagonists achievements while on the other hand they feel strangely uneasy about the process he went through to get there. This mixture of feelings is what successfully creates the lack of a clear distopia or utopia within the film and accumulates to the audience feeling questionable over the issues presented in the film. Initially, the triumph of Vincent is portrayed through his ability to overcome his apparent physical inferiorities and place himself amongst the elite of the society, where he believes he belongs. The story of the underdog overcoming societys repressions works to gather sympathy and encouragement from the audience towards the main character Vincent. The context of the science fiction genre functions cohesively with the triumphant version to allow the audience to perceive Gattaca as a utopian society. Gattaca is representative of the future, yet that future is near and possible. It is not fantastical or ridiculous; instead it is a very serious prediction of the future which lends credibility to the message of the film. The audiences ability to identify to the situation within the film paves the way for them to perceive Gattaca as a realistic future and not a fictional one. The fact that all discrimination has

been eliminated within the society of Gattaca makes viewers feel an overwhelming sense of positivity. They feel that this new future, despite Vincents struggles, is not full of fear or hate. However, this positivism casts a forgetful shadow upon the one kind of discrimination present: genetic discrimination. This type of discrimination can be perceived as reasonable. No one really believes that someone that is ill-equipped for a job should be able to work less expertly than someone who is made perfect for that job, despite their own personal ethics. That is to say that the audience likes the character Vincent, but they do not feel that his struggle should be matched by every other in-valid in the film. In this sense, the audience is able to dull down the presence of discrimination within the film, or rather, they do not see it as a real problem within the society depicted. Continuing this point, in the end of the film Vincents success in achieving his dream is triumphant to the audience who is still inclined to affirmatively value the same society that has performed the oppression. This is because the audience has been given the sense that people like Vincent, those discriminated against, are a finite minority who will soon vanish for the betterment of society. The invalids depicted in the film are featured at some sort of fenced camp, reminiscent of a concentration camp. The audience is not led to believe that there is any kind of genocide or mistreating of the in-valids despite this grim situation. Because Vincent is the only in-valid spoken for in the film, the viewer applies his ideologies to every other in-valid. Vincent wants to be apart of the society and therefore does not resent it. If these in-valids disappear, the audience will see this as a natural process of the society to continue moving in a more improved direction; to 100% genetically engineered. The audience does not see the problem in the disappearance of these in-valids due to the behaviors of the main character. Vincent is constantly trying to fit in with society. He only wants to conform to it, assimilate, and imitate it as best he can, even if it means rejecting himself. This devalues his importance as an individual; a God Child. The audience believes in the efficiency of genetically superior people because the film never portrays them with a weakness, mentally, emotionally or physically. Admittedly, the exception to this is of course the character Jerome who is a physically disabled valid in a wheelchair. Jeromes injuries where self-inflicted because he did not feel he could ever succeed

in a world where everyone is already first place quality. This depressing illumination to the film is easily suppressible by the audience because this point is only ever revealed at a brief moment without much emphasis. The context in which Jerome informs us of his suicide attempt is disregard able due to his drunken state. The audience tends to perceive Jerome as a friendly, understanding man that is willing to help an outsider despite his unfortunate accident. Contrastingly, the message of Gattaca may be interpreted as the defeat of individuality. The context, or rhetoric, of the science fiction genre can work in this film in an alternative way to the triumph version. Instead, the genre is read as emphasizing the alienness of the situation which is mainly legible through the use of a limited palate of blues and grays creating a sense of sterility and control like in a laboratory. These impressions lend themselves to the perception of Gattaca as a distopia, one that does not provide a positive view of the characters behaviors. It is important to note that this version does not imply a negative view of Vincent but rather the motives behind his actions. Because Vincent is constantly trying to achieve inclusion to the oppressive society by any means, he projects a devalued impression of his individuality. Instead of the audience looking at him as the strong individual, they see him as one who is lacking. To gain the audiences approval, Vincent would have to take a stand for who he is and openly prove that he is just as good if not better than the rest of the society. In reality, Vincent is depicted in constant rejection of his own body, viewing it as a traitor of his commitment to society. This is seen in numerous depictions of Vincent frantically scrubbing his skin in order to Limit how much of my in-valid self I would leave in the valid world. These scenes are symbolic as well as literal in showing that Vincent does not like who he is. Moreover, Vincent is afraid of his own body for its ability to out him as an in-valid. The audience reacts to this by further lowering their approval of what Vincent has come to believe. Limited color tones and gender-neutrality achieve a sense of sameness within the film that allow the audience to fear Vincents world. Vincent does not allow himself to ever be himself, but struggles to pass off as a valid. This shows that he has no respect for himself or his individuality but would rather choose to conform to be happy, which he eventually achieves through conformity. This lack of

individuality is expressed through the stylistic choice to evoke sameness through a limited color palate. Limited tones of blue and gray evoke a cold, sterile feeling of order and conservativeness. Stiff moving, unsmiling people add to this effect and spark a curiosity in the viewer to wonder, for just a moment, if these people are feeling much emotion. Vincent does not seem to show emotion any more exuberantly than the valids in the film do. The suppressed emotion in the film parallels to the color tones in a monotone effect. Additionally, the film applies gender-neutral features to everyone in the film. Of course, genderneutral should really mean androgynous, both male and female, but as the term is generally used, I mean to say that both men and women in the film are made to look like men. All of these components function to express a quality of sameness and a lack of individuality. This aspect is not appreciated or viewed positively by the audience because it takes away from the sense of meaningful living. The film has one possible exception to this characteristic. In the date scene where Vincent and Irene are at a 1940s styled club, Irene is wearing an evening gown with her hair down. This stylistic choice can be discredited by the fact that when the female worker is allowed to appear less formal, meaning male, she chooses to mimic male fantasies of what a woman should look like, a glamorous 1940s movie star. The aspect of sameness shines through once again when we see that every other woman in the club has come wearing a near identical dress, albeit in a different color, and wears her hair in a similar femme fatale style. Similarly, Vincent does not, as you might expect, exhibit any such individuality. He has no personality quarks, no accent or hobbies, nothing that differs him from society. Nothing about him is very unique or individualistic. The audience takes note of this and uses it in the defeat version to ignore the negative effect of conforming to society because, in reality, Vincent never really had to conform. He was just like them already, despite his physical differences, which is all the film really emphasizes. This means that the real tragedy of the film is not Vincent sacrificing his individuality just to fit in, its that he never even wanted to be an individual. The perception of discrimination in this defeat version expresses less of a sympathetic response for the invalids. This is because, through the example of Vincent, we see that they do not wish to be as they are and would strive to conform if possible. Without a strong sense of

discrimination, the audience is able to realize the full extent of the quality of sameness through out the film. This sameness equates to a sense of dictatorship and an unsettling communistic effect. The audience begins to feel that this society is not free or flawless and the word distopia pops into their heads once again. The viewer is left feeling disturbed that the protagonist of the story worked so hard just to blend in and disappear. Vincent never stood up for himself or the rest of the in-valids. He never wanted to prove to anyone that he could be just as good as the valids. Vincent did it all for himself and the viewers are not sure they can continue to support his actions. As a result, the back and forth shifting of the audience interpretation of the films message does not end decidedly. Instead, it is important to end in confusion because it encourages the audience to consider specific questions. What is discrimination? What qualifies it? What is equality? What is the value of individuality? And can individuality and equality ever co-exist? These questions are more important than the films superficial message. These mimic what the film Gattaca does. They look into the future and wonder what it looks like. Gattaca is a story that questions morality and ethics. The film appears at first to uphold the trivial theme of the triumph of the human spirit. But then the audience is prompted to see that this theme is distorted through the films blending of two contrasting tonalities. Gattaca fails to express the triumph above prejudice while simultaneously manages to express the defeat of individuality. The triumph over prejudice translates to how Vincent eagerly strives to achieve his dream despite the obstacles placed in front of him by society. This perspective is attributed to a positive response from the audience and a generally happy ending. The defeat of individuality translates to how Vincent, in finally reaching his dream, had to conform to society and literally give up his own identity to become a cookie-cutter member of Gattaca. This perspective is linked to an uneasy feeling from the audience as to how they should feel about his actions because he never really proved society wrong but instead he proved them right by eliminating himself as a threat. The colliding effect of these two tones situates the audience to interpret Gattaca as neither a distopia nor a utopia. Because they cannot categorize the film as one of the two, the audience is prompted to start asking questions, not of the movie, but of themselves and their

surroundings.