Illegal Aliens
A Review of District 9
Bryce Gerard
Last Updated: 12/28/09 Section: Books and Arts
It is a common sentiment among the literati that the summer cinema is not exactly an environment conducive thought-provoking cinema. In fact, it is usually dismissed as a sort of void where mindless entertainment rules the day, with the emphasis of movies tending not so much toward the development characters as rapidly combusting materials. So when a movie comes into this season with aspirations of social commentary, mainstream critics often seize upon the opportunity to finally discuss something, and the movie tends to receive a lot of attention. Last summer the movie that filled such a role was, surprisingly, a Batman film -- The Dark Knight -- which, while being as mainstream a superhero action movie as one could possibly be, was also a fascinating moral study of the ethics of living in an age of terrorism. This year, the movie that received such attention comes from the opposite end of the spectrum, an independent, South African foreign film with a rookie director without so much as a single Big Name, or even a name that can be pronounced easily by Americans. Yet you have no doubt heard the hype, that it is a thinking man's action thriller.
District 9 is shot as a sort of Mockumentary, complete with interviews and shaky camera work, about the events following the appearance of a Giant space ship outside of Johannesburg. We are quickly introduced to the sight of said ship, hovering mysteriously above the city. Yet instead of an invasion or a peacemaking mission, nothing happens. The ship, as well as the citizens of Johannesburg, remain in suspense for 3 years, until finally, they get fed up and decide to cut their way through. Inside they find the crustaceanlike inhabitants of the ship, malnourished and apparently without leadership. They are initially rescued by the friendly South Africans and given sort of red cross assistance.
Fast forward 3 years. Mutual Xenophobia and cultural (not to mention specieal) clash has run its course, and the aliens are now confined to a now slum of Johannesburg called District 9. The humans are now mostly discriminatory towards the extraterrestrials, but it is not at all hard to see why. The aliens, now derisively referred to as Prawns, are not the cute, misunderstood extraterrestrials of ET and similar fare. Aesthetically, these aliens are seriously repulsive, a sort of cross between Predator and Davy Jones' crew from Pirates of the Caribbean 2. Their temperament is even more repulsive. Living without leadership, rights, or any real sort of motivation for the last couple of years, they have been reduced to slum dwelling . The titular district is inhabited by aliens who give a more literal meaning to the term "street urchin." Scavenging through dumpsters for cat food (their drug of choice) and living like animals, they, like the inhabits of any slum, simultaneously evoke both pity and disgust in the viewer. To complicate matters, the aliens also possess powerful, Men in Black style weapons, which are confiscated early on when the aliens use a train for target practice. In an interesting twist, these weapons are coded to the prawns DNA, and are therefore useless to humans, but of course this does not stop the humans from acquiring them.
District 9 is shot as a sort of Mockumentary, complete with interviews and shaky camera work, about the events following the appearance of a Giant space ship outside of Johannesburg. We are quickly introduced to the sight of said ship, hovering mysteriously above the city. Yet instead of an invasion or a peacemaking mission, nothing happens. The ship, as well as the citizens of Johannesburg, remain in suspense for 3 years, until finally, they get fed up and decide to cut their way through. Inside they find the crustaceanlike inhabitants of the ship, malnourished and apparently without leadership. They are initially rescued by the friendly South Africans and given sort of red cross assistance.
Fast forward 3 years. Mutual Xenophobia and cultural (not to mention specieal) clash has run its course, and the aliens are now confined to a now slum of Johannesburg called District 9. The humans are now mostly discriminatory towards the extraterrestrials, but it is not at all hard to see why. The aliens, now derisively referred to as Prawns, are not the cute, misunderstood extraterrestrials of ET and similar fare. Aesthetically, these aliens are seriously repulsive, a sort of cross between Predator and Davy Jones' crew from Pirates of the Caribbean 2. Their temperament is even more repulsive. Living without leadership, rights, or any real sort of motivation for the last couple of years, they have been reduced to slum dwelling . The titular district is inhabited by aliens who give a more literal meaning to the term "street urchin." Scavenging through dumpsters for cat food (their drug of choice) and living like animals, they, like the inhabits of any slum, simultaneously evoke both pity and disgust in the viewer. To complicate matters, the aliens also possess powerful, Men in Black style weapons, which are confiscated early on when the aliens use a train for target practice. In an interesting twist, these weapons are coded to the prawns DNA, and are therefore useless to humans, but of course this does not stop the humans from acquiring them.
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