These Are Conservative Films? - #20

Continuing the countdown of NRO's "25 Best Conservative Films"...and why they are wrong most of the time.

#20 - Gattaca (1997)

The commentator is Wesley J. Smith, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute. You may recognize DI as the hidey-hole for intelligent design/creationist "scientists" who just can't handle that the Theory of Evolution is proven and well-established. I can't imagine how Smith feels about this movie...

In this science-fiction drama, Vincent (Ethan Hawke) can’t become an astronaut because he’s genetically unenhanced. So he purchases the identity of a disabled athlete (Jude Law), with calamitous results. The movie is a cautionary tale about the progressive fantasy of a eugenically correct world—the road to which is paved by the abortion of Down babies, research into human cloning, and “transhumanist” dreams of fabricating a “post-human species.” Biotechnology is a force for good, but without adherence to the ideal of universal human equality, it opens the door to the soft tyranny of Gattaca and, ultimately, the dystopian nightmare of Brave New World.

Has anyone on the Left been preaching the necessity to abort babies with Downs or that we need clones?? I must have missed that one.

What I like here is Smith talking about the "ideal of universal human equality." Because Gattaca isn't just about the flawed idea of using genetics to softly segregate society and promote the welfare and well-being of a selected class. It's about using anything as an excuse to segregate society. Like color, gender, sexual orientation or religion.

If Gattaca was reworked as a sci-fi tale with Muslims as the have-nots because they weren't Christians, would Smith be holding this up as a conservative film? Would NRO? If it was a tale of a gay man being forced to act straight to pursue his dream, NRO would be slagging this film non-stop as some kind of vehicle meant to corrupt American morals.

Verdict: Wrong

Gattaca doesn't celebrate conservative values. It celebrates humanity and the resilience of the human spirit. That isn't the exclusive ground for any party or mode of political thought. We all share it.