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Gattaca - the theme of corruption

 

            "Gattaca shows us how easily people can be corrupted.
             Andrew Nicccol's film presents viewers with a society that has been deformed by its power. The underlying theme of humanity distorting itself is reminiscent of Lord Acton's famous dictum; "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely". Indeed , it is the dominant class of "vitro" humans that is shown to be responsible for the "burden of perfection" and "routine discrimination", while the unfortunate "in-valids" are subjected to such oppression. What makes the scenario so interesting is that humanity has not been able to create itself a perfect race of people, as shown by the character flaws inherent in Eugene, Josef, Anton, Irene Their superiority is merely illusory, making the concept of Gattace not only pessimistic but frighteningly real.
             Vincent's narration at the beginning of the film provides the audience with knowledge as to the state of this futuristic world, and the plot to follow plumbs the depths of the ramifications of excessively advanced technology. It cannot be said that this technology is solely responsible for the degraded state of humanity in Gattaca, since Vincent, a natural born human, has his own shortcomings such as the selfishness revealed in his determination to achieve is goal. It is a truth that is reinforced in viewer's minds by their own knowledge that today's natural-born society is far from perfect.
             What Gattaca explores is how people can be corrupted further by power given to them. The potential for wrongdoing is ever-present, but wrongdoing is exacerbated by power. People today, for example, are often immersed in desires for perfection, and Gattace demonstrates how corrupted humans can become when this innate desire is given its full potential by a greater ability to achieve perfection. We see that the pressure of modern culture has permeated in the future to the extent that people "have you looking so hard for any flaw, that after a while that's all you can see".


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