Gattaca: Importance of the swimming races
Throughout the film water and the sea symbolises nature, and
humanity’s desire to conquer this ever-changing element, and
essentially nature. Niccol directly addresses this issue from the start of
the film by quoting Willard Gaylin, who once stated, “I not only think that
we will tamper with Mother Nature, but that Mother wants us to.” The
arrogance of this statement, and in turn the arrogance of society in the
way that we manipulate and destroy our environment, is portrayed
through the young Anton. Proud, handsome and perfect, he is the
complete epitome of how conceited the society of Gattaca has become,
and the way our own is becoming today.
In terms of these themes and messages, Niccol then uses Anton and
Vincent’s swimming races in the wild, expansive ocean, to portray how
blinded we all have become in life by our own ambition and desire to
manipulate science and the environment. The initial swimming race
where Vincent is beaten by Anton serves as a plot device pre-empting
the climax of the film where both brothers, play ‘chicken’ once again. In
this first race Vincent loses, becoming tangled in the weed and being
forced to give up. This signifies that his lack of confidence in himself,
and that he has not yet fully realised that his true potential is not
determined by his genes, but by his desire to succeed. He did not
comprehend that he possessed everything he needed in sheer
determination and strength to overcome the boundaries and limitations
of his perfect society.
At the start of the second race, we notice a change in the way Vincent
holds himself next to his Anton, and the way he no longer
acknowledges him as a brother as he did when they were younger, but
merely as another obstacle in life that he must overcome. Anton’s
taunting of Vincent by saying ‘you know you’re going to lose,’ provides
only more incentive for Vincent to keep going, and is almost ironic in the
fact that against nature and God, society can never win. The aerial
shots of Vincent and gold filter used during the scenes of the first race
are not as prevalent in the second race, where we are instead
presented with dominating splashes of red (blood/genes?) present in
the flags, and green filter in the underwater shots. Intensifying aerial
shots are again used in this second race and in the third, only this time
they are of both boys, almost giving the impression of God looking down
them. Through these shots Niccol portrays the idea that although both
are different in terms of their engineering, they are still both “valid”
human beings in their own right, for what measurements does humanity
actually have in order to determine who constitutes a true human and
what doesn’t.
Vincent beats Anton because, like the sea and water, Vincent is a
product of nature - a man made from love. The recurring water leitmotif
suggests Vincent thrives in the aspects of the world created by nature.
His "natural” sense of humanity that Anton doesn't possess allows him
to show the human spirit conquers any man made form. We can see
that the ‘valids’ can strive for something along the lines of strive for
perfection and no more. Anton is man-made, and so cannot overcome
something so natural and wild. Vincent is completely natural, a “Godchild,” and his beating the conditions symbolises that nature and God
will always dominate.