District 9 (2009)

[Daisy-Boo]

But apartheid has been gone for quite awhile, so I'm wondering just how timely it is. I mean, stories about racism and gender inequality belong to the 20th Century, not the 21st ... right?

The system of Apartheid was dismantled but its legacy still thrives. Racism and gender inequality are still a daily part of our lives.

 

[Scifi fan]

Racism and gender inequality are still a daily part of our lives.

Yes, to a certain extent, but we have made a lot of progress, and, don't forget, Britain and India have women prime ministers, and the US now has an African-American president. But, speaking as a storyteller (which I'm not), I would say that this is pretty stale stuff. Star Trek: TOS has dealt with racism, and so has Alien Nation.

We need SF to deal with more contemporary issues, like religious fanaticism/terrorism, rogue states, environmentalism, the rise of China, and so on.

 

[clovis-man]

Yes, to a certain extent, but we have made a lot of progress, and, don't forget, Britain and India have women prime ministers, and the US now has an African-American president. But, speaking as a storyteller (which I'm not), I would say that this is pretty stale stuff. Star Trek: TOS has dealt with racism, and so has Alien Nation.

We need SF to deal with more contemporary issues, like religious fanaticism/terrorism, rogue states, environmentalism, the rise of China, and so on.

In my original post about the movie, I mentioned the similarity between the treatment of the "prawns" and the treatment of the various tent cities of homeless in the United States. The violence quotient is missing, but a lot of other factors are there: disrespect, resentment, disregard for basic rights, etc. Since the film's origin is South Africa, perhaps this is unintentional, but striking nonetheless.

 

[Blitz]

Everyone does realize that this film takes place in South-Africa, right? I'm reading a lot of reactions that link apartheid to American and Western situations, but I don't think that is what the film wants to portray.

The tent camps (I forget what they're called) are still used in South Africa and the relocation of the prawns is a reflection of what the government tried to do in the past.

Sad but true, it still lives My mum once said it is the most terrible word in the Dutch language, and having seen D9 I think I know what she means.

 

[Scifi fan]

I don't know the real situation in South Africa, but I wonder if aliens is the best way to convey the message.

Speaking strictly as an armchair critic, I wonder if it would be better to portray the Prawns as our masters and the humans as the outcasts. I say this because anyone who can come here in a large ship wouldn't have any problem conquering us. But that's just a minor quibble.

 

[Blitz]

I'm not sure, but weren't the prawns on the brink of death when they came to earth? That would explain why they didn't conquer us

There was a small piece about the World Cup in South Africa on TV a while ago, and a man was complaining at some sort of gate or fence that not enough was being done for the people in the camps football-wise. So whatever else it is, the camps are still there.

Aliens are a good way to convey the message, because it's slightly less cruel when it happens to them. Especially in the beginning of the movie when the prawns were still just yuckie and unlikeable, and things were being done to them that have actually happened to humans, but you don't think about it like that. But when Christopher (was that his name?) comes around and we start liking him, we reconcider if it was really right to treat the prawns like that. Well, I know I did anyway

 

[Scifi fan]

Quite honestly, I never got around to feeling for Christopher, possibly because the writers never really developed the character.

 

[Daisy-Boo]

Yes, to a certain extent, but we have made a lot of progress, and, don't forget, Britain and India have women prime ministers, and the US now has an African-American president. But, speaking as a storyteller (which I'm not), I would say that this is pretty stale stuff. Star Trek: TOS has dealt with racism, and so has Alien Nation.

We need SF to deal with more contemporary issues, like religious fanaticism/terrorism, rogue states, environmentalism, the rise of China, and so on.

I cannot agree that racism and sexism are stale subjects. As a woman of colour I am reminded every day about the impact of race and gender. I don't think I'm being arrogant in assuming that millions all over the globe also don't see racism and sexism as stale subjects. It's never stale when you're at the receiving end.

The tent camps (I forget what they're called) are still used in South Africa and the relocation of the prawns is a reflection of what the government tried to do in the past.

I think you're referring either to Homelands, Townships or Informal Settlements. To the best of my knowledge, tents were only used to provide temporary shelters for displaced foreigners who fled the recent xenophobic attacks.

Homelands were "independent states" within the borders of South Africa. During the Apartheid-era Blacks were not considered to be South African citizens. Instead they were "citizens" of their respective homelands - Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei. Those homelands were abolished with the end of Apartheid.

Townships are urban areas that were designated by the Apartheid regime for specific race groups - Black, Coloured and Indian. (Inadequate) basic housing and amenities were provided.

Informal Settlements (used to be called squatter camps) are areas that people took over because they had no other place to stay. They build shacks with any available material. The current government is trying to integrate informal settlements and provide basic amenities.

The violence quotient is missing, but a lot of other factors are there: disrespect, resentment, disregard for basic rights, etc. Since the film's origin is South Africa, perhaps this is unintentional, but striking nonetheless.

I can't say what the filmmakers' intentions were but when I saw the film I could see parallels between how South Africans treated the aliens (and the Nigerians) to how people of colour were treated during the Apartheid-era. The disrespect and disregard for human rights (and the anger and frustration of the victims) was very much a way of life back then and to a certain extent, not much has changed in that regard.

 

[Moonbat]

Wasn't that the reason why Disctrict 9 was such a good film, because we humans treated the aliens with such contempt, treating them as worse than second class citizens, calling them 'prawns' and denying them basic human rights, mainly under the pretense that they weren't human and therefore don't have human rights.

A little side query, but isn't Nigeria quite a long way from South Africa, why were there Nigerians living in the camps, or near the camps? Isn't that equivalent of English people being dispaced to Turkey? or the other way round?

 

[Daisy-Boo]

Wasn't that the reason why Disctrict 9 was such a good film, because we humans treated the aliens with such contempt, treating them as worse than second class citizens, calling them 'prawns' and denying them basic human rights, mainly under the pretense that they weren't human and therefore don't have human rights.

That's what I thought when I saw the film and I could see how that same "logic" applied during the Apartheid-era - an era I grew up in (I was 19 when then-President FW de Klerk made the historic announcement of the unbanning of the ANC, etc.).

A little side query, but isn't Nigeria quite a long way from South Africa, why were there Nigerians living in the camps, or near the camps? Isn't that equivalent of English people being dispaced to Turkey? or the other way round?

Nigeria is indeed a long way from South Africa.

We have quite a large Nigerian expatriate community here. Though Zimbabweans outnumber all other non-South African groups, we still have significant numbers of Nigerians, Zambians, Congolese, Somalis and other Africans who come to South Africa for a variety of reasons.

 

[Scifi fan]

Thank you, Daisy-Boo, for your informative post on South Africa.

 

[Daisy-Boo]

Thank you, Daisy-Boo, for your informative post on South Africa.

My pleasure. I'm absurdly happy when anyone takes an interest in my country but please tell me if I waffle on too much. I get carried away sometimes.

 

[biodroid]

I hope they make a sequel, that would be awesome!!

 

[williamjm]

Yes, to a certain extent, but we have made a lot of progress, and, don't forget, Britain and India have women prime ministers,

Britain has a woman Prime Minister? Gordon Brown might be surprised to learn that. I'm not really sure what the relevance would be to District 9 would be either.

But, speaking as a storyteller (which I'm not), I would say that this is pretty stale stuff. Star Trek: TOS has dealt with racism, and so has Alien Nation.

We need SF to deal with more contemporary issues, like religious fanaticism/terrorism, rogue states, environmentalism, the rise of China, and so on.

So because Star Trek had some treatment of racism no other film or TV series should ever do the same? That's a ridiculous statement and if you think racism isn't a contemporary issue then you are being astonishingly naive.

 

[Scifi fan]

Britain has a woman Prime Minister? Gordon Brown might be surprised to learn that. I'm not really sure what the relevance would be to District 9 would be either.

I was referring to Margaret Thatcher - perhaps I should have said, "Britain HAD a woman Prime Minister", as in past tense.

 

[Dave]

I finally got around to seeing this (yes, catching up this week on many films from 2009.)

I wish I would have went to see G-Force instead.

I have to disagree, I saw G-Force and wish I'd seen this instead.

But the fact that it was done by Peter Jackson is the fact that it damn well should do good.

I think he must have been some kind of executive producer. It didn't have anything like his budget.

Directors: No one, I mean no one, likes crazy-realistic-super-shaky camera work. Knock it off.

I was more than a little worried about both that, and also the Docu-Drama style at first, but I think it worked well, and it almost stopped after the first 45 minutes. After that it became a normal story.

It was definitely not a Hollywood type movie and was so well done.

You could never get something so original made in Hollywood, so long may there be more films like this.

It's always nice to have a protagonist who goes through an actual personal journey as part of the story as opposed to the usual popcorn guff where the hero starts off perfect and the story just churns from there onwards.

Quite a journey from pushed-around coward and office fool, to single handed killing-machine and possible saviour of Prawns. However, the ending was left open. Is he a Prawn? Is he dead? Is he a captor of MNU, being secretly experimented upon.

Also, mech suit catches rocket-propelled grenade.What's not to love?

Is that what they are called? It is exactly what I imagined a Soldier Boy from Joe Haldane's Forever Peace would look like.

I don't know the real situation in South Africa, but I wonder if aliens is the best way to convey the message.

I would say it was inspired by that situation, rather than an allegory.

Everyone does realize that this film takes place in South-Africa, right? I'm reading a lot of reactions that link apartheid to American and Western situations, but I don't think that is what the film wants to portray.

The relocation of people living in this kind of squalor, as if they are an inconvenience without any rights, is happening in India, is happening in Brazil, is happening in China, and most likely happening in other places. (On a lesser scale it is also happening in East London around the Olympic Village site!)

Even though I'm familiar with the bad rep Nigerians have here (all Nigerians are unfairly tarred with the same brush), I was uncomfortable with the way they were demonised. It was one of the jarring notes in the film.

I see now why Nigerians got so worked up about this now.

Re: Sour Milk.
I know you are talking about Alien Nation here, but in South Africa, where District 9 is set, many do drink sour milk to become intoxicated.

They did have the Prawns eating rubber tyres, and the Cat Food thing was funny. This was much funnier than I expected it to be. I laughed a few times.

Quite honestly, I never got around to feeling for Christopher, possibly because the writers never really developed the character.

He only became a main character half-way into the film, but there was a strong Alien Mine relationship developed with Wikus. I really believe that he will return to save his people, though whether he can reverse Wikus who knows.

Why did he get a human name - Christopher Johnson on the News broadcasts - when none of the other Prawns did? Do you think he was from a leader/drone/queen class of Prawn and the others were worker class? Or did he just have an education? Or did he come down from the mothership in the control section and have access to the equipment? His friend (that got shot) and him were certainly different to the others. And no other Prawns were shown any caring for their children like him.

The other thing that jarred was the relationship between Wikus and his wife. An English and an Afrikaans speaking white South African getting married isn't unusual but the kind of Afrikaaner Wikus is, and the kind of English SA his wife is...I don't know. It seemed unlikely to me.

Before I read your comments, I also wondered how someone so obviously unsophisticated would be allowed to marry a Daddies girl like her. I then wondered if the father could be so scheming that he would have her marry Wikus, just so that he could have someone working for the government's Alien office working for him. Why else would he promote him?

I was also puzzled about why a white middle-class South African couple would go to what looked like a rather down-at-heel state hospital. Her father is a high-ranking executive at MNU. She'd have money even if Wikus maybe didn't. They'd have a good medical aid that would allow them to check into a private hospital.

I think we need to bear in mind that the mother-ship has been there for 20 years. Unless this is an alternative reality, then I don't see one in the sky at the moment, this is set in the future. The Aliens have obviously been a huge drain on South African finances. Who can say what the knock-on effect of that on the Health Care system would be after 20 years? That would be a part of the reason why there was such intolerance of them remaining.

 

[Connavar]

Wasn't that the reason why Disctrict 9 was such a good film, because we humans treated the aliens with such contempt, treating them as worse than second class citizens, calling them 'prawns' and denying them basic human rights, mainly under the pretense that they weren't human and therefore don't have human rights.

'

Thats why i enjoyed the movie. It had a message,a different story that we wouldnt be seeing from hollywood.

They would make a The Day Earth Stood Still remake kind of action sf.....

I almost laughed at the idea of racism,inequality is something of the past.... Thats a naive way,comfortable way to look at the world.

Plus the apartheid is only 20 odd years old, people in Gaza live in similar ways,in Uganda there are millions that live in permanent refugee camp inside their own country.

 

[Daisy-Boo]

I think we need to bear in mind that the mother-ship has been there for 20 years. Unless this is an alternative reality, then I don't see one in the sky at the moment, this is set in the future. The Aliens have obviously been a huge drain on South African finances. Who can say what the knock-on effect of that on the Health Care system would be after 20 years? That would be a part of the reason why there was such intolerance of them remaining.

It's possible but I doubt it. Private medical care is a big issue here and will be even bigger in the future. Just about anyone who can afford it has private medical insurance. It's simply highly unlikely (to me anyway) that a middle-class couple with a wife that has a wealthy father would avail themselves of state hospitals.

Also, I think the story was set in the recent past, not the future. But I stand open to correction on that. (Just got it, haven't had my coffee yet, too tired to Google.)

 

[Daisy-Boo]

I almost laughed at the idea of racism,inequality is something of the past.... Thats a naive way,comfortable way to look at the world..

Amen to that.

Plus the apartheid is only 20 odd years old,...

I assume you meant the end of Apartheid?

Officially, Apartheid ended and the new South Africa began, on 27 April 1994, which makes our democracy nearly 16 years old...with all the problems that teenagers usually have.

 

[Anthony G Williams]

Also, I think the story was set in the recent past, not the future. But I stand open to correction on that. (Just got it, haven't had my coffee yet, too tired to Google.)

One of the aspects of the film of interest to military weapon specialists is that it is packed with a huge variety of guns, especially from Denel, including some that are currently only prototypes, so I would assume a near-future setting.