DISTRICT 9
US/New Zealand/South Africa, 2009, 112 minutes, Colour.
Sharlto Copley.
Directed by Neill Blomkamp.
Quite a show! And a box office hit in the US (despite the South African accents).
Filmed in and around Johannesburg and Soweto as well as in studios in Wellington (produced by Peter Jackson with effects by the Wellington company, Weta), this is the southern hemisphere challenging the northern and doing a good job at it.
It's a rattling action show (which fastidious audiences might find too loud, combatative and grisly at times) that competes with the northern hemisphere effects blockbuster. While there are lots of special effects, very effective effects, the context is a kind of documentary reporting, offering a sense of realism so that one accepts the plot, the characters and the situations as quite real. And most of the action takes place in broad daylight rather than in the dark.
Yet, it is not in too many films where a gigantic space ship rests over a city, let alone Johannesburg for twenty years. It is not too often either that the refugee aliens, unwell, are rounded up and herded into a settlement (not unlike the old Soweto) where they are ridiculed, isolated and exploited. But, it's all here – and becomes more credible as the film goes on.
As has been noted, the film opens with television reports about the situations, with lots of interview clips with experts, informing us about the arrival of the aliens (and their not choosing the US as movie aliens are prone to do), their segregation, the squalor, the need for an evacuation plan to a newly constructed ghetto town away from the hostile locals (both black and white). And, a documentary is being filmed live, focusing on the officer of the private company, MNU, Multi-National? United, which controls the settlement, who is in charge of the evacuation. MNU is a weapons dealer and wants to collect the caches of arms the Prawns (the derogatory name for the aliens because of their prawn-skeletal appearance) as well as get their DNA.
So far, so arresting. When the evacuation begins, the drama also becomes personal as Wikus van der Merwe (South African director, Sholto Carpley) becomes entangled with the aliens in alarming ways and becomes the object of military pursuit. This leads to chases, stand-offs, gun battles and exciting mayhem. Film buffs will be noticing all kinds of movie references from ET to Robocop.
This would be all serious matinee material were the film made outside of South Africa. But, of course, we are being invited to think of black South Africans, apartheid, segregation, prejudice, pre-truth and reconciliation experience. Which challenge us in our attitudes – especially as we get to know some of the aliens, experience them as 'human' despite their appearance and behaviour. Interestingly, the villains and exploiters are Nigerians (who are notorious these days for international financial scams and computer fraud).
Within its social context and alien vs humans genre, this is very effective film-making.
1.The impact of the film? Worldwide success? Critical acclaim?
2.The South African background, the spaceship over Johannesburg, the aliens? The parallels with apartheid?
3.The introduction, the visuals, the news, the aliens and their appearance, the separation and apartheid attitudes, the aliens staying? The scientific background, video footage, the weapons and the raids, the riots? The humans clashing with the aliens? The rejection, calling them prawns? The decision to expel them, seeing them as a virus? Terrorist activity? Twenty years of their presence? Public opinion against them?
4.The background of Multinational United, hired for expelling the aliens, 1.8 million to be transferred? An allegedly safer camp? The press conference? The twenty-four hours’ notice to evict, the field officer, Wikus? His eagerness, son-in-law of the manager? His wife, her relationship with Wikus, her father? The staff, the strategies? Wikus ' father, Wikus speaking to camera and the video program being made about him?
5.The post-mortems, the comment, the critique of Wikus and his behaviour, the hindsight?
6.Wikus in action, the apartment, the policies and statements, live news, the human rights protests, the convoys?
7.The aliens and their arrival, their appearance, their names? Prawns? The riots and violence, their taking up arms, leaping over buildings? The close-ups, of their appearance? The settlements and the background of Soweto? The troops going door-to-door, the anger, the language of the aliens? Seeing them on television? The Nigerians and their rackets, the prices, cat food, prostitution? The nutrition? The prawn eggs and their popping, multiplying the population?
8.The background of the Nigerians, the underground gangsters, their cat food schemes? Their wanting weapons? The leader and his wanting to eat the aliens and absorb their power?
9.MNU, the weapons industry? Aliens as weapons, the DNA – and the testing of the weapons, especially with Wikus and his arm?
10.The aliens, their technology, the search for the fluid? Christopher Johnson and his son? The repairs for twenty years? The plan? The aliens not signing the documents, taking their child, Wikus and his attack, the fluid, his cough, the nails coming off?
11.Wikus and the infection, being seen as a weapon, spurting and his face, confronting the aliens? The helicopter, the military shooter, Wikus ill?
12.The witchdoctor, the magic? The Nigerians, the alien and the body parts?
13.Wikus and his action, the surprise party and his entry into the house, talking with his father-in-law, too many dead? The threats, the infection, his vomiting, going to hospital, the claw developing, put in isolation, the collage of his treatment, the nerves fused, the firing of the weapons? The metamorphosis and MNU wanting to keep the balance between human and alien? The DNA? Wikus and his being an experiment, the millions for biotechnology, for organs?
14.Tanya, her father’s lies? The harvesting of the organs? Wikus and his escape, running from the hospital? The military man and the helicopter? The value that he could operate alien weapons? The false accusations of his sexual behaviour, the news, the headlines? The indications of time since his exposure, his having to hide in the settlement, buying the cat food, his illness, teeth falling out? His wife phoning him, his trying to axe his claw? Going to the alien hut, discovering the computers, hiding in the cellar? Getting worse, weeping? His wife ringing again – and her father-in-law fixing his location?
15.The machines, MNU? The Nigerians, the sex taunt, the chief and his wanting to eat Wikus and become a weapon? The destruction of the Nigerians?
16.The MNU attack, the discussions of the situation, the knockout, the cellar and the military man, emerging? The rockets? Wikus captured, the alien captured? The violent attack and the battle?
17.The helicopters, the mother ship? The giant robot weapon, Wikus managing it, the son activating the machine? The Nigerians killed? The interrogation of Christopher, his not talking, the torture? Wikus and the smoke bombs? Getting into the robo weapon? Running, Christopher falling?
18.The bond between Wikus and Christopher? The promise to return in three years?
19.Christopher and his son, going to the mother ship? Trying to go home after the recovery of the fluid? The crowds cheering when the aliens went home? The interviews about the uncertainty of the future?
20.Wikus and his disappearance, the general surrounding him, the attack by the aliens and his being torn to pieces? Wikus and the complete metamorphosis? Speculation about what had happened to him? The aliens taken to District 10? His making the flower and sending it to his wife?
21.The future, for the humans, for the aliens?
22.The South African perspective, the allegory of the treatment of the aliens as a memory of apartheid?
