The Best Movie You Never Saw: Gattaca

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Welcome to The Best Movie You NEVER Saw, a column dedicated to examining films that have flown under the radar or gained traction throughout the years, earning them a place as a cult classic or underrated gem that was either before it’s time and/or has aged like a fine wine.

This week we’ll be looking at GATTACA!

THE STORY: In a near future society where eugenics has become dominant, society is divided into two castes – valid (genetically engineered) and in-valid (natural conception). In this world, all high-paying jobs go to valids, while in-valids are stuck with menial work. Into this world steps Vincent (Ethan Hawke), an in-valid who dreams of joining the space program, and hatches a scheme to pose as a valid with the help of a troubled, genetically engineered athlete (Jude Law).

THE PLAYERS: Starring: Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Alan Arkin, and Jude Law. Music by Michael Nyman. Written and directed by Andrew Niccol.

“When Gattaca came out [in 1997], the zeitgeist wasn’t interested in that movie. But over ten, fifteen years, it comes up all the time, people always want to talk to me about it.” – Ethan Hawke Interview – The Independent

THE HISTORY: The late nineties was a different era in studio filmmaking. Back then, there was less emphasis on tentpole blockbusters. While studios definitely had movies set-up throughout the year that were expected to make their bottom line look good, singles and doubles were highly valued too. Thus, studios would take risks with interesting material. Sure, most would flop, but the occasional breakthrough (such as what happened with THE MATRIX in ’99) would make the risk worthwhile.

This is how GATTACA got made. Coming from a first-time writer-director (Andrew Niccol – whose script for THE TRUMAN SHOW helped him breakthrough just a few months later), and carrying a $36 million budget which would be high now (but was bargain basement for a studio in the go-go nineties), GATTACA was a cerebral sci-fi neo-noir character study. It likely would have never gotten made if it didn’t have a hot cast, which allowed it to get passed off as a quasi-youth market movie. The reviews were mostly excellent, but the film tanked at the box office, coming in at fifth place opening weekend, being beaten by I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER & DEVIL’S ADVOCATE in their second weekend, KISS THE GIRLS in its fourth, and most embarrassing of all, notable flop SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET in its third. Ouch.

“Gattaca is among the best first films in the history of cinema. I firmly believe this. Andrew Niccol is so smart; this movie announced the arrival of a really, really original mind.” – Ethan Hawke Interview – Time

WHY IT’S GREAT: I vividly remember the first time I saw GATTACA. Growing up, I rented virtually everything that came out on VHS on the weekends, and GATTACA was a movie that I thought had a pretty cool trailer, even if it vanished from theaters so soon that I had no chance (or inclination really) to check it out. Don’t blame me folks – I was fifteen and in high school. Money was tight! The movie also had really cool cover art, and while I wasn’t a huge Ethan Hawke fan at the time (that would come later) I figured I’d give it a shot. While I was expecting a futuristic thriller based on the trailers/posters, I remember being pretty damn riveted by this character study, which in some ways plays out like a proto-“Black Mirror”, albeit done on a massive studio scale (I miss the nineties).

Hawke’s plight was pretty easy to invest in for me as a kid. I was overweight, I was terrible at any physical activity, I had coke bottle glasses, my classmates hated me and I struggled in school. That Hawke’s character was able to dismiss a lot of his issues as cosmetic and find a way around them profoundly affected me. Soon after watching it I hassled my parents for contact lenses, dropped something like thirty pounds courtesy of hard work and a diet (I’ve more or less kept the weight off to this day – but it’s hard) and started making a real go of things despite what I perceived as my handicaps. Thus, this was something of a seminal film for me – and far from the dark thriller, it was sold as. Thank God – because it meant a lot to me at the time.

It really is one heck of a great movie, with Hawke’s performance so good I’d say it’s one of his finest to date. He’s ably supported by a young Uma Thurman as his “valid” love interest, who, despite a perfect exterior, hides her own handicap, while Jude Law all but steals the show in his first major role. He plays Jerome, a genetically perfect athlete who wound up paralyzed after a suicide attempt and is merely biding his time before finishing the job. The relationship between him and Vincent is note-perfect, with it starting off coldly before taking on a degree of rivalry, before settling into a profoundly warm friendship, with Jerome doing all he can to allow his newfound friend to achieve the excellence he himself strove for. Special attention should also be paid to the score by Michael Nyman, which ranks among the best of the era.

“Oh yeah, I think it’s one of my all-time favorite lines when I say ‘I never saved anything for the swim back.’ I love that. And when I was doing the film, I really felt very strongly that this is a film that will last. Ultimately, I think it was a really high-budget art film. More and more, there’s no place for that, and it’s a travesty. I feel like we’ve lost room in the movie theater for a whole genre of pictures. They can’t make it anymore.” – Ethan Hawke Interview – Time

Of course, there’s also the notion of eugenics itself. While it’s easy to scoff at this as a fascist, Nazi idea, GATTACA doesn’t let you off the hook so easily. If you were a parent and you had the option of assuring that your unborn child was going to be born with every genetic advantage, it would be quite tempting. Heck, if my parents had the option of making me a genetic superman before I was born, part of me would have wanted them to take it, although the flip-side of the coin would be that the person I am now would not exist. And that’s the danger of eugenics – uniformity, and prejudice against anyone who goes against the grain. The world of GATTACA itself acknowledges how flawed the eugenics thinking is, with many cases presented in the film of the genetic cocktails going awry, and at its best, the “valids” are shown to be a complacent lot lacking in the passion that allows the best of humanity to succeed. It’s thought-provoking stuff.

BEST SCENE: Throughout the film, we’re reminded that genetically, Vincent is disadvantaged compared to his younger, “valid” brother Anton (Loren Dean). Yet, he has the passion and a streak of determination his brother could never possibly understand and nowhere is this driven home more than in the now classic climax that pits them against each other. “I didn’t save anything for the swim back.”

SEE IT: GATTACA is readily available on many streaming platforms, including Amazon Prime, Crackle and the new Canadian CTV app (although you’ll have to put up with ads). You can also buy it on iTunes or Blu-ray.

PARTING SHOT: GATTACA is another one of those movies that barely made a dime at the box office, but everyone who’s seen it absolutely loves it. It’s never been an especially popular film, but it’s a well-respected one and ripe for discovery.