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• Rich | October 8, 2010 1:45 AMReply

  Humanitarian Lessons in District 9? Movie: District 9 Year: 2009 Producer: Peter Jackson Director: Neill Blomkamp Cast: Sharlto Copley (Wikus Van de Merwe), Jason Cope (Christopher- alien) Genre: Science Fiction. Iconography includes the giant spaceship hovering over the city in the background, alien beings who appears as oversized mammalian prawns, alien language, advance technology with complex visual equipment, powerful and unique alien weaponry Synopsis: The movie centers on extraterrestrials living with humans in modern Johannesburg, South Africa for 28 years. The aliens are assimilated with the South Africans but become marginalized and eventually segregated from the human race to a ghetto-like region called District 9. Multi-National United (MNU), the company liaising with the prawns assign Wikus (Copley) to serve 24 hour notice to all the prawns regarding relocation to another region 200 miles away from Johannesburg. Wikus contracts a mutagen during an investigation of a prawn’s domicile, modifying his DNA structure from human to prawn. His sudden unwanted fame becomes apparent when MNU and the Nigerian warlord in District 9 actively hunt him when they discover his altered DNA can harness the alien weapons. Wikus’s goal of reversing the metamorphosis and return to normality forces him to form an uncanny alliance with Christopher (Cope) and retrieve the alien fuel from MNU headquarters. In return for his aid, Christopher promises to revert Wikus’s DNA back to human in 3 years. This was unacceptable for Wikus and abandons Christopher with MNU after obtaining the fuel. He has an epiphany following an action fuelled showdown between himself in an extraterrestrial exoskeleton suit, the military might of MNU and the gang warfare of the Nigerians. Wikus wins the struggle, rescues Christopher and his offspring and watches them escape into their spaceship with a promise of a return in 3 years to transform Wikus back to human. Review: In today’s era, prejudice and discrimination are intolerable but still transpire. Humanity, compassion and tolerance don’t always prevail. District 9 reminds viewers of the recent past of South Africa’s ideology of apartheid in the last half of the 20th century including the forced removal of 60,000 blacks from Johannesburg in the 1950s. The movie parallels the similarities of apartheid including segregation of aliens from the human populace and resettlement to another region outside the city. It was only in the mid 90s when Nelson Mandela and his party, the African National Congress captured 63% of the nation’s voters and abolished apartheid. Neill Blomkamp themes of prejudice and xenophobia is eerily visible throughout the movie including derogatory naming of the aliens as “prawns”, placards of prawn’s restrictions in public places and fear, cruelty and immoral treatment of the aliens. Surprisingly, with the alien’s superior technology, strength and size, an intergalactic invasion of earth is not portrayed as in Independence Day. The aliens should be dominant and aggressive but their manners are more those of a passive scavenger. They endure name calling, physical assaults and threats from MNU soldiers. Christopher’s character displays human traits such as loyalty and friendship before his friend is killed by MNU soldiers. He shows humanitarian compassion when he helps Wikus despite the marginalization of his race and discovery of illegal tests conducted on his species in the MNU research lab. Blomkamp cleverly screenplays the movie in a pseudo newscast docudrama introducing characters and events through the interviewee’s eyes. Recurring themes of human arrogance, viciousness, and corporate greed illicit viewer compassion for the aliens and anger to MNU for allowing xenophobic cruelty. The actions were disturbing to watch because discrimination to the disenfranchised and minorities still occurs today. Movie goers are compelled to cheer for the aliens to escape from human prejudice and for Christopher and his offspring’s safe ascent into the mothership. The cloudy sky distorts the perfect computer generated images (CGI) of the spacecraft hovering above the city and reminds movie goers of the disc-shaped spaceships from Independence Day. Wikus’s individuation from the discriminatory company puppet to a morally aware entity slowly evolves throughout the movie until near the end when he turns on the MNU soldiers and helps Christopher escape. The alien’s obsession for cat food and the lack of explanation as to why they landed on earth, particularly in South Africa, was not discussed and left viewers dumbfounded. This movie depicts excellent special effects, strong story line and good acting. Viewers may remember it for the universal humanitarian message of kindness, tolerance and love to all mankind and begs for a sequel.