District 9: Intelligence On Our Own Planet!
Wait a sec, was there crab in that dish? I’m really allergic. What do you mean you can see that?
Rating: 10 out of 10
Step back from your monitors, wipe your eyes and sit back down just so you can take in the full effect. The time has finally come, the perfect 10 is here!!! In certain genres, like Sci-Fi, you hope for a bunch of fun and flashy flicks, a ton of terrible pieces of tripe and one lone escapee from the chaos to shine as a bastion for this commonly maligned and under-appreciated area of filmmaking. Yet, this year we have been doubly lucky with the release of Moon, from debut director Duncan Jones (son of musical icon David Bowie) and now we have the incredibly original and yet comfortably familiar film District 9. I’ve decided to block myself from even looking into the remaining months of this year in hopes of pulling a Sci-Fi hat-trick with one more stellar addition to the ranks because the sheer hope of it makes me shiver uncontrollably. Before it gets too much and I lose the ability to type, let’s get into this wonderful and amazingly intelligent film.
District 9 is the name given to a government-created slum used to house aliens, negatively referred to as “Prawns”, who have descended into the airspace over Johannesburg with no reason as to why they are here. The initial excitement over first contact wears thin over twenty years of occupation and now the people of Johannesburg and the planet beyond have decided it is time for the government to move them even farther away from the city and human society. One man from a nearby multi-national military contractor is put in charge of the relocation efforts and what should have been the greatest achievement of his career becomes the most integral turning point of his life. “Right versus Wrong” is once again relabeled “Us against Them”.
There are a wide range of reasons why this movie succeeds so greatly in its message and mission. One of the first and most important I believe it its ability to borrow from previous Sci-Fi classics and repackage them in a new and fresh way, feeding us iconic imagery in a way which makes us feel like we are seeing it for the first time. There are no words to explain how hard that task really is. Starting from the look of the ship itself, a classic flying saucer design (very closely resembling the mother ships in Independence Day), yet the design team here adds much more of a steampunk feel to it. The ship is less shiny, less streamlined and actually looks like it is capable of breaking down, which is an important part of the story.
Moving beyond the surface, the subtext of the film is also a throwback to a number of previous Sci-Fi landmarks. Dealing with racism and segregation inside of an alien storyline is nothing incredibly new, since we all remember classics like Alien Nation and the TV mini-series V (currently getting a remake of its own), but District 9 piles on an even deeper layer by placing the whole film in Johannesburg and highlighting the already difficult class struggle inside the more poverty stricken areas around the city. They even pulled in the rampant crime syndicate that burrows through the society and seeks to gain money and power by exploiting the aliens and their technology. For many moments in the film, even with one of the “prawns” on screen, you might very well convince yourself what you are seeing is a live news broadcast. That type of realism comes from great research and great writing, learning to weave truth and real life situations into fictional worlds. Skills like that are inherent to creating a lasting and impressive story like this one.
Lastly I want to mention the arc made by the main character Wikus, played brilliantly by Sharlto Copley (a man with a whopping one single credit to his name before this one). Copley starts the movie as an ambitious, nerdy and somewhat adorable government worker looking for his big break. As he moves through the story you begin to see some cracks in the veneer, moments of rage, dangerous uncertainty and deep racism against the aliens (made apparent by his subtle but continued use of the term “prawn”). As the twists turn for our improbable hero he is forced to make a number of choices, ones that control the very outcome of his life. For such a touching, yearning and powerful performance to be given by someone with such an unassuming resume, it is one of those moments movie lovers wait for each year. I have little doubt that Copley will be seeing his list of credits grow and I hope to see that same list on this very site.
Neil Blomkamp, the director and co-writer of this amazing film, truly went beyond the norms of the Sci-Fi genre and brought together something with a contemporary and moving story. Very few times when walking out of a film with aliens, energy rifles and floating spaceships would an audience member hope to find that they have either learned something about how the world works or even more how they themselves view other people. Questions are indeed raised by this film about what we would do as a society in the face of an alien influx into our world. Would we welcome them? Would we attack them? It’s possible we’ll never know until the time comes, but District 9 lays out a very realistic and probable scenario, scary as that may seem once you’ve finished watching it.
Recommendation: Seriously, it’s the first 10 out of 10 film I’ve reviewed. What do you think I’m going to say down here – GO SEE IT! NOW!
DandyID
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