Eugenics and Genetic Enhancement - Dramas
Soldier
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Country of origin and year: USA, 1998
Starring: Kurt Russell
In a futuristic society, selected persons are chosen at birth to become superior ‘soldiers’ and trained to become killing machines. But then, Sergeant Todd, one of the most successful of these soldiers is pitted against a new breed of genetically engineered soldiers, and after the confrontation is left for dead on a scrapheap. He finds himself in a semi-abandoned colonial planet, which is used as a cosmic dump, but where everything is peaceful, and he is taught about the other aspects of life. Eventually, however he must face the new soldiers again, this time to defend his new home...
Internet Movie Database webpage: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120157/
Gattaca
Director: Andrew Niccol
Country of origin and year: USA, 1997
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law, Tony Shalhoub
This science fiction drama is set in a future when one's life is determined by genetic engineering rather than education or experience. The wealthy can choose the genetic makeup of their descendants. Society has categorized Vincent Freeman as less than suitable given his genetic make-up and he has become one of the underclass of humans that are only useful for menial jobs. To move ahead, he assumes the identity of Jerome Morrow, a perfect genetic specimen who is a paraplegic as a result of a car accident. Just when he is finally scheduled for a space mission, his program director is killed and the police begin an investigation, jeopardizing his secret.
Internet Movie Database webpage: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177/
Of Pure Blood
Director: Joseph Sargent
Country of origin and year: USA, 1986
Starring: Lee Remick, Patrick McGoohan and Gottfried John
Four decades have passed since the end of WW II, and a woman returns to Germany, her birthplace, in an effort to discover the circumstances surrounding her son's death. She stumbles upon a covert Nazi organization who, through a selective breeding program, intend to create a new master race.
Internet Movie Database webpage: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091667/
Les Rivières Pourpres (The Crimson Rivers)
Director: Jean Reno, Mathieu Kassovitz
Country of origin and year: France, 2000
Starring: Jean Reno, Vincent Cassel and Nadia Farès
Parisian murder detective commissioner Pierre Niemans is called to Gueron, a self-sufficient, prestigious university in a mountain valley, to investigate the brutal murder on 32-year old professor and librarian Rémy Caillois. The film also follows Inspector Max Kerkerian as he examines two crimes in the town: a school break-in with theft of old photos and archive papers as well as a graveyard desecration of Judith Herault, the daughter of local nun Andrée, who has lived in a dark cell for 15 years. As both police investigations continue, the two sleuths meet; secrets and other corpses are found, till it seems to all tie together.
Internet Movie Database webpage: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0228786/
Making Astronauts (Three Episodes of 30 min)
Director: Nigel Levy
Country of origin and year: UK 2001
Starring: John McAndrew, Sian Reeves, Derek Riddell
It is 2008 and Adam and Martin are looking forward to becoming same-sex parents. Their friend, Susannah, will be the carrier of the child, and they choose an American company new to the UK, Proteus, who will oversee the process. In addition to finding a suitable egg donor, the company offers a new service of genetic screening. Adam is keen to opt for this service because it will screen the embryos for a set of gene clusters which might indicate not only the propensity of certain diseases like cancer but also levels of intelligence or dexterity. However, there is something else the company offers which Adam is making every effort to keep from his partner: the opportunity to choose the sexuality of the child.
Internet Movie Database webpage: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0397528/
The Gift
Director: Nigel Townsend
Country of origin and year: UK, 1995
Annie is young, intelligent, a talented footballer and the recipient of a particular faulty gene from each of her parents, which means that from adolescence onwards, she will become increasingly clumsy, lose coordination and, eventually, the ability to walk and talk. Her legacy is a premature death. Ryan, Annie’s younger brother is a carrier for the condition that will kill his big sister. When he finds that both he and his wife Jennifer carry the same ‘rogue’ gene, he decides to choose which embryo will develop into their child. Without telling Jennifer and against her wishes, Ryan selects not only an embryo clear of the debilitating gene, but also he opts for a child with special athletic abilities. Once discovered, Ryan’s actions prompt conflict and anger.
http://www.geneticfutures.com/thegift/story1.asp
Brave New World (1980)
Director: Burt Brinckerhoff
Country of origin and year: USA 1980
Starring: Julie Cobb, Bud Cort, Keir Dullea
In a "well- ordered" society, 600 years into the future, the citizens are required to take mind-controlling drugs, sex without love is compulsory, and test-tube babies are commonplace because of a ban on pregnancy. However, not everybody is satisfied with society's lack of humanity and feeling; the loudest dissidents are free-thinking poet Heimholtz Watson and brilliant oddball Bernard Marx. An injection of new "old" ideas are brought in by "primitive" John Savage, who lives on an Indian reservation which still honors 20th century values. Meanwhile, Linda Lysenko becomes a natural mother—and in so doing becomes a criminal.
Internet Movie Database webpage: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080468/
Brave New World (1998)
Director: Leslie Libman, Larry Williams
Country of origin and year: USA 1998
Starring: Peter Gallagher, Leonard Nimoy, Tim Guinee
In a high-tech city of a future time, humans are genetically engineered, monogamy is frowned on, and the drug Soma is consumed to eliminate stress in a society where the citizens are niched into rigid classes (Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma). Scornful looks are directed at high-level Alphas Bernard Marx and Lenina Crowne, a couple who have become interested in each other beyond the commonly accepted one-night stands. When Bernard and Lenina visit an outlying Reservation, their copter crashes, and they are under attack by the locals when Shakespeare-quoting "savage" John Cooper intervenes. When John takes Bernard and Lenina to the house where he lives with his alcoholic mother Linda, Bernard is fascinated by John's retro way of life and his collection of literature.
Internet Movie Database webpage: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0145600/
The Lawnmower Man
Director: Brett Leonard
Country of origin and year: USA, 1992
Starring: Jeff Fahey, Pierce Brosnan and Jenny Wright
A scientist performs experiments involving intelligence enhancing drugs and virtual reality on a simple-minded gardener. He puts the gardener on an extensive schedule of learning, and quickly he becomes brilliant. But at this point the gardener has a few ideas of his own on how the research should continue, and the scientist begins losing control of his experiments.
Internet Movie Database webpage: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104692/
The Twilight of the Golds
Director: Ross Kagan Marks
Country of origin and year: USA, 1997
Starring: Gary Marshall, Faye Dunaway, Jill Bernstein
When Suzanne Stein has a genetic analysis done on her unborn child, she discovers that although she has a healthy baby, the child will most likely be born gay, like her brother, David. She must decide whether to keep the child, or to have an abortion. Her family enters a crisis about love and acceptance as she makes this difficult choice.
Internet Movie Database webpage: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120392/
Immortal (Ad Vitam) (Original title: Immortel (Ad Vitam))
Director: Enki Bilal
Country of origin and year: Belgium, 2004
Starring: Linda Hardy, Thomas Kretschmann and Charlotte Rampling
This film is set in the year 2095, where the presence of mutant humans and extraterrestrials is not uncommon. The main character, Jill, is not human. When she is discovered by Dr Elma Turner she is diagnosed as being the most interesting genetic test subject Turner has ever come across. Turner, gives her a break, gives her an identity card and a place to stay, in exchange for being her guinea-pig to work on and discover more about.
Internet Movie Database webpage: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314063/
The Black Stork
Director: Leopold Wharton, Theodore Wharton
Country of origin and year: USA, 1917
Starring: Jane Fearnley, Allan Murnane and Harry J. Haiselden
The film begins with a eugenic mismatch, Claude, who has an unidentified inheritable disease. Despite repeated graphic warnings from Dr. Dickey, Claude marries his sweetheart, Anne. Their baby is born so severely disabled that it needs immediate surgery to save its life, but Dr. Dickey refuses to perform the operation. Anne is torn by uncertainty until God reveals a lengthy vision of the child’s future, filled with pain, madness and crime.
Internet Movie Database webpage: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0160056/
My Sister’s Keeper
Director: Nick Cassavettes
Country of origin and year: usa, 2009
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Jason Patric
Two parents have just been informed that their young daughter Kate has leukemia, and that she only has a few years to live. The doctor suggests to the parents that they try for a saviour sibling child, whereby a number of embryos are created through IVF and then selected so a resulting child maybe become a immunological perfect match to an elder sibling. When born (a daughter) the umbilical cord of this saviour child is used initially. As years go on, however, the doctors must take bone marrow from this small girl to attempt to treat Kate. Eventually At age 11, the daughter has had enough of all of these medical procedures, and she decides to sue her parents for medical emancipation and the right to decide how her body will be used. The whole family is being torn apart by the decision because everyone knows what will happen to Kate if she does not get a new kidney.
Internet Movie Database webpage: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1078588/
The Twilight People
Director: Eddie Romaro
Country of origin and year: USA, 1973
Starring: John Ashley, Pat Woodell, Jan Merlin
A scientist kidnaps a man and transports him to an island, intent on turning him into a super-being. The kidnapped man does not want to be transformed, so he tries to escape with the help of the scientist's daughter and a band of half-human, half-animal creatures.
Internet Movie Database webpage: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069426/
Homunculus, 1. Teil
Director: Otto Rippert
Country of origin and year: Germany, 1916
Starring: Olaf Fønss, Friedrich Kühne and Theodor Loos
Foenss, a Danish star, is the perfect creature manufactured in a laboratory by Kuehne. Having discovered his origins, that he has no 'soul' and is incapable of love, he revenges himself on mankind, instigating revolutions and becoming a monstrous but beautiful tyrant, relentlessly pursued by his creator-father who seeks to rectify his mistake.
Internet Movie Database webpage: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0006820/
The Unborn (Original Title: Tomorrow's Children)
Director: Crane Wilbur
Country of origin and year: USA, 1934
Starring: Diane Sinclair, Donald Douglas, John Preston
A young woman wishes to marry her boyfriend and raise a family, but because her own family has been deemed "defective" by the state health authorities--her parents are lazy alcoholics and several of her brothers and sisters have mental problems--she is ordered by a court to undergo sterilization so that her family's "defective genes" won't be passed on to any more children. Her boyfriend and a kindly priest desperately search for a way to stop the forced sterilization before it is too late.
Internet Movie Database webpage: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0220107/
A Case of Eugenics
Director: Sidney Drew
Country of origin and year: USA, 1915
Starring: Sidney Drew, Bobby Connelly
Mrs. Drew is so enamored with children that Mr. Drew decides to regress into infantilism so she will pay more attention to him.
Internet Movie Database webpage: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0005064/
The Giver
Director: Phillip Noyce
Country of origin and year: USA, 2014
Starring: Meryl Streep, Jeff Bridges, Brenton Thwaites
A youth named Jonas lives in an equalized, literally colorless, but pleasant society with no knowledge of love or pain and such. When he comes of age, he receive his societal role, which is the rare position of Receiver. Because of this, he meets a mentoring elder Receiver. They look at memories of the past world, of joy, of pain, and of love. As Jonas receives these memories, he breaks the cardinal rule against sharing them with others, thereby getting in trouble with the watchful Chief Elder. When Jonas discovers that an infant boy named Gabriel will be terminated, his efforts to save the child puts him squarely against his society. Deciding that all must re-learn to see color, to feel pain, and to show and receive love, Jonas becomes public enemy number one.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0435651/
The Perfect 46
Director: Brett Ryan Bonowicz
Country of origin and year: USA, 2014
Starring: Whit Hertford, Don McManus, David Neher
Geneticist Jesse Darden comes up with an internet start-up, theperfect46.com that will analyze the genome of two prospective partners and give them the possible results of their coupling. Partners then know if their potential child is likely to develop disorders such as sickle cell anemia or cystic fibrosis. Rather than try to find a cure for these diseases, Darden hopes that in the future these diseases will cease to exist as a result of selective breeding. However noble the intention, there is an ethical quandary with this type of technology, and in turn, a dark side to how it could be used.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2771506/
Anya
Director: Jacob Akira Okada, Carylanna Taylor
Country of origin and year: USA, 2019
Starring: Anthony Aguilar, Ali Ahn, Mary Theresa Archbold
ANYA is a contemporary sci-fi love story about a newlywed couple who turn to a scientist for help having a baby and find themselves at the center of a genetic puzzle with far reaching implications and an ethically ambiguous solution.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7488288/