Tuesday, August 18, 2009

DISTRICT 9

“DISTRICT 9” (Sharlto Copley & Some Prawns)

It gets originality points, but the first half hour is very tough to weather, I almost turned to my wife & told her ‘If you want to go, I don’t have to see the rest of this’ - & that’s something I’ve never done. But I didn’t do that & the film did get better as it abandoned the ‘documentary’ style & turned into an actual movie with a decent storyline.
Sharlto Copley plays Wikus Van De Merwe; employed by a company called MNU & given the job of overseeing the evacuation of ‘Prawns’ from ‘District 9’ in South Africa.
He is given this task not because he’s a capable employee, but because his father-in-law runs the company.
As explained during the ‘documentary’ portion of the film (which is never totally abandoned, but has the decency to get out of the way so the interesting moments can take place) ‘Prawns’ are aliens from another galaxy that have more or less ‘crash landed’ over Johannesburg – though their spaceship doesn’t ‘crash’ to earth, it has merely run out of gas & hovers over the city like a dark foreboding cloud of metal.
The ‘Prawns’ are gathered up & put in what becomes a ‘slum’ known as ‘District 9’ (Pretty much the same set that Slumdog Millionaire used except with slumfishyaliens instead of dogs)
One rather odd revelation is that the Prawns have ‘extreme’ weaponry but since they didn’t come to attack earth, I guess they decide not to use them on us even after we treat them like they’re the scum of the universe. Another little quirk, these handheld WMD’s can only be fired by a Prawn; they won’t fire if a human pulls the trigger.
Wikus is called on the lead the evacuation of Prawns to an even more remote & unlivable situation (District 10, if I remember correctly) being filmed as he goes from shack to shack requesting each aliens ‘signature’ to properly ‘evict’ them.
While snooping thru the Prawn called Christopher’s quarters, Wikus discovers a large metal vial. He tries to open it & it spits out a black liquid that splatters on his face & hand. Almost instantly Wikus doesn’t feel well, but he keeps on making his rounds.
I won’t go any further in telling you what happens next, but it IS when the story began to catch my interest.
I am kind of surprised that there’s been a lot of good buzz about this film since it's just ‘okay’.
The Prawns are inventive beings, but they do look like they’d be more comfortable in an aquarium than a spaceship. But I can’t believe that no one has voiced their disapproval of the film’s anti-human slant. We, the earthlings, are the bad guys in this film – We’re, to quote Daffy Duck, ‘desssspicable’!
Pretty much every human except Wikus is a horrible person & the Prawns are innocent victims of our inability to NOT be racists. Now, I have no problem with this concept at all, I’m not a big fan of the human race as a whole either – I just don’t understand where all the nutjobs are in regard to this anti-human being flick. All I can figure is that they agree with everything the government of South Africa does to these creatures, so they’re all hunky dory with the story...

7 comments:

Alan Smithee said...

I agree with your overall assessment of the film, Terry. Occasionally I sit through films that a) I am not unhappy that I have seen, but b) I am certain that I shall never revisit. I have seen "District 9" as many times as I ever will -- once. It was ok.

That's too bad because "District 9" does raise issues worthy of discussion.

What you call its "anti-human" stance I should call the film's take on "the banality of evil." This concept, derived from Hannah Arendt's book on Adolf Eichmann, reminds us how much injustice and cruelty ordinary humans are prepared to inflict by conforming to orthodoxy. As Buffy Sainte-Marie wrote of "The Universal Soldier," "He's the one who gives his body / As a weapon of the war,/
And without him all this killing can't go on."

When we go along with directives and prescribed beliefs, we condone and/or overlook bigotry and torment. By acceding to the very term "prawns," ordinary residents of South Africa dehumanize intelligent life.

However, the film goes nowhere with this theme.

A second theme that is apparent but unexplored is that such orthodoxy, conformity, and injustice are supported by perpetrators and persecuted under South Africa's apartheid. Just as the Pilgrims escaped religious persecution, then used religion to rationalize the killing of Native Americans and women/witches, victimized become victimizers straightaway in "District 9."

The film does little with this theme beyond show it to us.

I was also interested that "the prawns" had similarities to the alien in "Predator," to Louis Gossett, Jr. in "Enemy Mine," and to Jeff Goldblum in the remake of "The Fly." Given the genre, I guess such associations were unavoidable.

That the aliens' technology was no only bio-mechanical [as in "Independence Day"] but also DNA-specific was interesting, since homo sapiens has so far gone in a different direction.

So some features of potential interest made "District 9" promising, but "District 9" made good on none of the promises.

At film's end, the audience may well ask, "So what?"

movie luva said...

I think it was bold of the writer and director to show a story like this. Unfortunately, if this actually was a reality, what do you really think us humans would do ? I would think more in the direction they do in the film sadly.

Now that's not how I would personally be, but everytime I try to have faith in my fellow human being more than not I get let down. Whenever there is pressure put upon us or we feel threatened, we tend to react with a gang like mentallity. Strength in numbers. And in some ways that has helped the human race and in others it has not. You have to really think to yourself, how would you react if that was a reality. Would you let them live among you ? Would/could you trust them ?

I think the movie is a very original concept and requires you to think. How many films, let alone sci-fi of any movie genre, can you say that about these days ?

dbm said...

I liked it. It had me thinking even after I saw it. And everytime I'm reminded by it, it again makes me think.

I have a funny feeling if there were aliens in the universe, they'd be so intellent it would be so much more than us, it would be truly mind blowing. My uncle is an alien believer and he thinks they were here since the creation of earth and that they are even spoken about in the bible.

Either way, the subject matter is thought provoking.

Terry R said...

Leave it to dbm to bring religion into a discussion on 'science fiction' (Wait a minute, that's
MY job!)
What I'll probably do is tape it & just FF thru the first 20 minutes because it IS original & worth taking a 2nd look at.
I did forget to point out how the 'prawns' were eerily similar to what Jeff Goldblum turned into at the end of 'The Fly' & wondered
why they didn't call them 'Goldblums' instead of Prawns.
Although Alan S. makes his usual astute comments, I would have to disagree with his final 'So What?'
Look at all the interesting points you made on the film - & I liked the ending; it gave me hope that perhaps someday the Prawns will return to earth & destroy us all for being such a--holes.

If you think I was disappointed with the way humans were depicted in 'District 9' that's not what I meant - I'm surprised that 'certain' sanctions of society haven't spoken out against it - I'm NOT one of the weird-ohs that feel humans can do no wrong, just the opposite is true for me - so yes, movie luva, I could easily see the fictional side of this 'sci-fi flick' by the way the human race treated the aliens.
& finally, dbm... I'm afraid it's time to put Uncle Goofy in a home.

dbm said...

Actually, my uncle is a little older than you. It takes more to undertsand what he was talking about than just writing something he spoke of once in one little comment section here. Our conversation about other " beings " in this universe was over 30 minutes long. He mentioned that in the bible in one passage there are mentions of bright lights in the sky. Also, this analogy is one tough to argue. How do we really know if they aren't out there ? The universe is infinite. I actually think it's kind of ignorant of us beings, who use less than 20 percent of our brain, for us to think we inhabit the whole sprectum of space all by ourselves ?

Terry R said...

If Uncle Goofy is older than me THAT'S PRETTY FREAKIN' OLD.
To say that aliens were 'here' since the 'creation' of earth is absurd. Nothing could have survived the Big Bang.
Now, let's all pick on Alan Smithee for actually quoting a hippy named Buffy & trying to pass it off as poignant...

dbm said...

He meant them already being in the universe. They could have survived the big bang because they were actually not ON earth. And the universe could possibly have different dimensions. The possibilities are endless when it comes to other life forms in the universe.