© Sony Pictures Entertainment
Written by: Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell
Directed by: Neill Blomkamp
Genre: Sci-fi, drama
An extraterrestrial race who arrived on Earth 20 years ago and are forced to live in slum-like conditions in South Africa suddenly find a kindred spirit in a government agent that is exposed to their biotechnology.
That’s the quick plot for all those interested in such things, but the film is so much more. The film is essentially a drama about race disguised as a science fiction movie. It’s funny, gory, violent, provocative, engaging, intellectual, disturbing, and moving. In short it’s one of the best films I’ve seen in quite some time, certainly the best in the sci-fi genre, and one which I intend to see again and again.
The film is shot as a documentary, at least initially, which follows a bureaucrat at MNU named Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley) who is charged with evicting the aliens from District 9, a slum town keeping them isolated, and moving them into another area away from Johannesburg. Whilst doing this he is exposed to an alien element and begins to transform into one of them. MNU capture him and attempt to use him to operate the alien weapons which because of genetic coding only the alien beings can use. Wikus escapes and with the help of alien named Christopher Johnson he hopes to reverse the process and change back to a human.
Due to the way the film plays, it lives or dies on the performance by Sharlto Copley. He’s actually a first time actor but you’d never know from watching this performance. He’s just brilliant. He displays a wide range of emotions as Wikus goes through his ordeal and we’re right there with him for every second of it. Whether it’s when he’s terrified when his hand is revealed, or when his teeth fall out, or when he tries to convince his wife that he’s innocent, or when he battling soldiers in District 9, we believe him without question. His performance really is a revelation.
District 9 is a very good race-related drama disguised as a sci-fi movie. I don’t think the intention of Blomkamp was to mislead people into seeing this film, but rather that he was able to tell a story based around his experience growing up in South Africa and be able to engage people in a debate about prejudice and hatred. Afterall, this is a film which parallels the real world history of South Africa very closely. The aliens are even referred to as “prawns”, a derogatory term given to them because of their physical similarity to the sea creatures, which has obvious links to the term “kaffir” which was used to describe blacks in South Africa.
Despite the deep material that District 9 deals with the film doesn’t lack in the action department. In fact, the last third of the film has a great deal of very impressive action as Wikus and Christopher set their plan in action and the situation comes to a head in District 9 between them, MNU, and the thugs which occupy District 9. It’s in this last battle that we get to see some of the alien technology in action, and where we see the damage that it can do. It also highlights the fact that the aliens could have used this technology to overrun the city if they were so inclined, but because they didn’t we get to see that they are relatively peaceful. This makes they way they are treated by the humans even more impacting.
FINAL GRADE: A
CONCLUSION
District 9 is a great race-related drama hidden under the veneer of science fiction, but with both aspects being represented equally well. Ultimately the film tells the story of flawed and fearful people who live in an environment of prejudice, intolerance, and misunderstanding. District 9 is an amazing film which is at times very difficult to watch. To see the aliens treated the way they are simply because of their differences is sometimes quite unsettling, and to realise that this is how large sections of society are treated now is even more disturbing. In the end I think this is the aim of the film and it achieves it’s goal admirably.
