4th September 2018

NCEA Formal Writing

Andrew Niccol’s film Gattaca presents us with a warning about the future. Its “New Eugenics” have a distinctly early 20th Century resonance. How does Niccol convey his warning by using visualreferences to the past?

Nicole is trying to tell the viewers that in the future  there is going to be genetically made humans, and that they are going to be the superior human race.

“Modernist Architecture – define and explain how it further’s Andrew Nicole’s ideas about the future”
In the movie the architecture of the buildings were reminiscent of the 1940’s which was when Hitler was active in promoting the concept of the ‘superior race’. The buildings were copies of the buildings that were prevalent when Hitler was in power.
These buildings were setting the scene for the movie’s themes of modernism and genetic modification. All the buildings in the movie are the same as the ones in the 1940’s when Hitler was creating the Aryan Race.

In the movie Gattica, the cars looked like they were out of the 1940’s. They were made to have a futuristic tone as they were electric. 
Hitler himself drove a Rover and everyone in Gattica were driving Rovers, this is a direct comparison to the movie. The electrification of the cars  helped emphasise his (Hitlers) obsession with perfection. 
The changes to the cars (electrification) are meant to represent Hitlers need to change the human race. As we are introducing electric cars today, this signifies a comparison to the genetic modification we have today and that occurred in the movie.

 “The Helix – when paired with names like “Eugene” tells us that Niccol is referring to eugenics, which was a prevalent scientific idea in the early 20th century.”
Eugenics as a science is a form of modifying DNA (which has a helix structure) . This is exactly what Hitler was doing when he wanted to breed people to have blue eyes and blonde hair.
Andrew Niccol through the modernism of his movie, is warning us that we might be doing the same thing today (genetic modification) as Hitler was doing in the 1940’s.

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