Balls and Walnuts
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GREAT SF!
The wife and I just caught District 9 on TV, and wow. You have to see this movie.
Ordinarily, I dislike pseudo-documentary films (can’t watch Blair Witch Project, for example, since the camera work nauseates me) but the technique was so well executed, the film sucked me in within the first few minutes. In those few minutes, we learn about the arrival of an alien ship over Johannesburg, the sorry state of the ship’s occupants, and their subsequent ghetto-ization in District 9. Any superficial resemblance to Alien Nation quickly dissipates when we meet the ETs, who are most decidedly not cute humanoids plastered with a little silly putty and face paint. In a brilliant move, the movie’s creators made the aliens chitinous, segmented beasties whom the humans come to call Prawns. They’re hideous garbage-rifling, cat food-devouring creatures with more than a passing resemblance to cockroaches. They’re easy to hate, and the only thing that arouses our sympathies is that the humans in the movie are oh so much uglier.
The movie focuses on Wikus Van De Merwe, son-in-law to the CEO of Multi-National United, the corporation tasked with relocating over one million Prawns to District 10, a concentration camp located 200 km outside of Johannesburg. District 9 is too close to home, and the resident humans are tired of having aliens in their midst. MNU execs decide Wikus (portrayed by the movie’s producer, Sharlton Copley, who is kind of a good-looking Steve Carrell) is just the man to lead the relocation. As he makes the rounds of District 9 evicting Prawn after Prawn, military with guns drawn covering his back, Wikus proves to be an odious ambassador of humankind, lying to the aliens, perpetuating stereotypes, chuckling over the sound alien eggs make when they explode in the fire — “Just like popcorn! Do you hear it?”
Wikus is the hero.
Some historical background courtesy of Wikipedia:
Like Alive in Joburg, the short film on which the feature film is based, the setting of District 9 is inspired by historical events that took place in South Africa during the apartheid era, with the film’s title particularly referencing District Six. District Six, an inner-city residential area in Cape Town, was declared a “whites only” area by the government in 1966, with 60,000 people forcibly removed and relocated to Cape Flats, 25 km (15 mi) away.
District 9 surprised me several times; on many instances, it ran contrary to standard Hollywood tropes, but it didn’t so at every plot turn. It was unpredictably unpredictable. Does the relocation program end in genocide? Are the aliens planning some nasty surprise for their human oppressors? Ooh — they’ve made a getaway in a vehicle — now’s the obligatory chase scene, right? And will there be a happy ending? You gotta watch and see. And so I advise you not to read the IMDB entry or the Wikipedia article, but to view this one cold.
D.
Agreed here. This movie was amazing. I was moved. And normally, such movies don’t move me. Familiarity with South African politics is a pre-req. I was horrified when they were forcing Wilkus to kill a prawn. Blech.
Super awesome movie. Glad you enjoyed it too. Here’s my review, if you’re curious: http://lovelysalome.blogspot.com/2009/09/disctrict-9-2009.html
Charles: yeah, the movie has some intense moments.
Carrie: great review!
urggghhh i can’t handle aliens unless they’re funny aliens like in Men in Black or something.
on a different note, i wish i could send you a picture of my tonsils right now. they’re icky. lol. left one’s white and red and hurts when i swallow, right one is just all white. rapid strep test said negative, so i guess all i can do is salt water and tea…
Hydrate like crazy, m’dear.
oh i am. i had chicken noodle soup for dinner, just made some jello for later, and have a huge water bottle at hand. i just wish i could do something more or that i knew what exactly caused this!