90'S GRAB BAG: Gattaca (1997)

“Maybe I’m not leaving…maybe I’m going home.”

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of suicide and depiction of suicide, eugenics, disability.

This week we discuss a film that honestly deserves a better status than cult classic. The sheer ingenuity and thoughtfulness baked into a science fiction parable about eugenics from 1997 is remarkable. Andrew Niccol has made some other great films along the way, but this stands apart as a finely crafted piece; not perfect, but not needing to be. And then you have truly great performances from three actors either on the verge or just coming into movie stardom, all with nuance and subtlety that makes this film age like fine wine. Make sure to scrub away any trace of who you are as we discuss Gattaca this week on Macintosh & Maud Haven’t Seen What?!

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Intro music taken from the Second Movement of Ludwig von Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Hong Kong (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 HK) license. To hear the full performance or get more information, visit the song page at the Internet Archive..

Excerpt taken from “The Departure” from the motion picture soundtrack to the film Gattaca, written and composed by Michael Nyman. Copyright 1997 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. and licensed to Virgin Records America, Inc.

Excerpts taken from the film Gattaca are © 1997 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpt taken from “Practical Magic” from the motion picture soundtrack to the film Practical Magic, written and composed by Alan Silvestri. Copyright 1998 Reprise Records, a Time Warner Company.