District 9, a South African Perspective
On the opening night of District 9 I was interviewed for an American Radio station on my thoughts about Distrcit 9. The lady interviewing me, from New York, was specifically probing me with regards to Apartheid and the Xenophobic attacks of recent years. I am sure this is a common thought on every journalists mind, ‘How can I get into the politics of this movie?’
Politics?
I am not going to get into the politics and draw relationships between the movie and South African history. I am young enough to have completely missed Apartheid… I have no memory of it, therefore will not comment. As I said to my American Interviewer, ‘When I enter a movie theater I do so to leave my world behind!’ I really do! Honestly how many of you directly associate your movie viewings to the real world? None?! I thought so! We go to movies as a form of escape from reality, we ask the directors to take us away from our trouble and give them permission to guide our minds and show us new and amazing things. In reality I cannot stomach people having their heads blown off, but in my movie world I see it everyday! I detach my mind from the world (and I am sure I am speaking for many of you) when I enter a movie, therefore the last thing on my mind was South African history. Yes its there, and by all means go forth and spot them!
The Movie?
I walked out of that movie house proud to be a South African. Proud to have seen a movie of such excellence and of world standards made by a cast made up of roughly 92% South Africans. Okay so the post productions was done off shore which kinda sucks, but at least they did an amazing job of it!
Nothing please’s me more than to see a scifi movie that is firmly grounded in reality, its a trend some of the new scifi films and tv series have picked up, and its working. Take Battlestar Galactica for example, people cannot ‘beam’ from ship to ship and their guns shoot bullets not beams of light.
Its a movie that evokes emotion! You seriously feel for these aliens, they’re stuck and simply want to get home but obviously the human governments have a better idea. I had a good chuckle at their portrayal of Johannesburg and the fact that they blatantly point out that the aliens settled over joburg instead of New York or any other american city. They make Johannesburg out to be a straight forward city filled and surrounded by squatter camps. That however may be my perspective since I spent 25 years of my life in Joburg, but international viewers may well see all the shots of squatter camps and assume them to be ‘District 9′.
To some viewers it may be pretty gory, it is shot in a pretty ‘real’ manner, but the gun that simply makes people splatter and disappear made me laugh! On another note I am not a big fan of swearing in movies and District 9 throws out swear words like the actors are simply exhaling. Yes they may be in afrikaans and the rest of the world might not pick up on it.
On the other hand I do have some questions about the film, why did a clearly superior race of aliens (their ship remains hovering without its power source) decide to live in squatter camp style? Why didn’t the aliens make the doors and roofs higher because clearly the prawns are taller than humans. Why did the aliens trade an all most invisible robotic suit for cat food when they could have clearly walked into the nigerian stronghold and simply killed everyone and taken it all. The film was riddled with oddities and questionable scenarios, that really has left me wondering.
The film also sets itself up for a sequel, but I hope that they don’t make one.
All in all District 9 is so far my movie of 2009, it takes the cake over and above Star Trek and Transformers 2 in the Big Release category!
A big congratulations to all involved, the SA Cast & Crew and to all those in Post and Editing! A job well done!
Upside:- This is going to be a movie that is spoken about for a very long time. It puts SA on the map and its Awesome!
Downside:- Swear words are used a bit to often, but if for nothing else, see it because you are South African.