“describe at least one idea that changed your perspective or point of view in the film”

‘there is no gene for the human spirit’

In the futuristic film gattaca, directed by andrew niccol we are introduced into a dystopian society where your status is determined by your genetic make up. In a world where only genetic engineering can give you a perfect lifestyle as a ‘valid’ and where a natural born or genetically inferrior “god child” is identified as an ‘invalid’, vincent as an invalid overcomes his inferrior status, acheiving his goals. A piont in the film where my perception of this idea was enforced is in vincent and geromes house where we see a staircase symbolising a helix. Nearing the end of the movie we see gerome, a prevoisly perfect valid who is now only mobile from the torso up, climbing these stairs (the genetic material) with the determination to fufill vincents dream. This idea conveys to the audience that your genetic make up doesn’t limit yourself to what you are capable of, and that “there is no gene for the human spirit”. although the two men hav ecompletely diferent genetic structure they share the same spirit.

Class model answer:

the 1997 film gattaca by andrew nicol is set in a dystopian future where being anything less than genetically perfect causes you to be disadvantaged in life. the film tells us that there are some things that genetics cant determine. argueably the most important of these is ambition. at the climax of the film, jertome, who no longer has the use of his legs after a earlier suicide attemt, is shown dragging himself up a helix staircase to rescue the genetically “invalid” character Vincent from being discovered by the authorities. many point of veiw shots are used to reinforce jeromes struggly, which, because it is literally with a helix, symbolises the destructive dominance of genetics in their society. this reinforces the veiw that apparently benign genetic selection practeces could rob human society of the very forces that we value the most.

ambition cant also be influenced by genes in the sense that having a disadvantage can quite literally be the stimulis for ambition because a person who has to work harder to get where everyone else is

1. Long shot – car – high angle – nondigetic
2. Mid shot – Vicent – low angle – nondigetic music – digetic
3. Mid Shot – Gerome – level angle – non digetic music-digetic
4. Mid shot – Vincent – low angle
5. Mid shot – Gerome – level angle
6. Mid Shot – Vincent – low angle
7. Close up – Gerome – level angle
8. Mid shot – Vincent – low angle
9. Long shot – Staircase – low angle
10. Mid shot – Gerome – high angle
11. Long shot – staircase – level angle
12. Long shot – car – low angle
13. Long shot – staircase – high angle
14. Long shot – staircase – birds eye view
15. Two shot – Irene & Anton – level angle
16. Closeup – hand – level angle
17. Close up – feet – level angle
18. Long shot – car – level angle
19. Long shot – staircase – level angle
20. Long shot – car – level angle
21. Close up – hand – low angle
22. Close up – stairs – point of view/level angle
23. Long shot – car – level angle
24. Long shot – staircase – low angle
25. Long shot – carpark – level angle
26. Long shot – staircase – low angle
27. Close up – Gerome’s eyes – low angle
28. Two shot – Irene & Anton – level angle
29. Mid shot – top of stairs – level angle
30. Two shot – Irene & Anton – level angle
31. Close up – hand on phone speaker – level angle
32. Two shot – Irene & Anton – level angle
33. Closeup – hand – level angle
34. Long shot – top of stairs – high angle
35. Two shot – Irene & Anton – level angle
36. Long/mid shot – top of staircase – level angle
37. Long shot – door – level angle
38. Mid shot – Irene – level angle
39. Mid shot – Gerome “where is my kiss” – level angle
40. Closeup – Anton – level angle
41. Mid shot – Irene – level angle
42. Long shot – lounge/top of stairs – level angle
43. Two shot – Gerome and Irene – level angle
44. Mid shot – Anton – level angle
45. Two shot – Gerome & Irene – level angle
46. Long shot – top of stairs/lounge – level angle
47. Close up – Irene – level angle
48. Close up – Anton – level angle
49. Close up – Gerome – level angle
50. Close up – Irene – level angle
51. Mid shot – Anton – level angle
52. Closeup – arm – high angle
53. sound (diagenic-natural)-(non digenic -put into scene)