District 9

If there happens to be other forms of intelligent life out there, and they happen to watch any of our films, could you blame them for adopting a shoot-to-kill philosophy? 2009's most memorable film, thus far, hit theaters this past weekend, Neill Blomkamp's District 9, which tells the story about a race of beings (resembling large cockroaches that get excited over cat food and communicate with a series of noises reminiscent of Mr. and Mrs. Click-Click-Durk from "South Park") whose spaceship has broken down in the sky over Johannesburg in the early '80s. Shot like one of those compelling documentaries one might catch on the History Channel, we are graced with a series of professional South Africans explaining in present time how the aliens came to be, umm, rescued from their ship, placed in quarantine zones and subsequently ghettoized. The current cultural and political climate sees Johannesburg rallying to evict the "prawns" (the derogatory racial-specific term coined to describe the creatures) to concentration camp-like facilities some 200 km away from the city. We meet our main character (though certainly not a hero), Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley) who has been charged with leading the eviction, and whose evil father-in-law is a high ranking official in the Homeland Security like department that he works for. Well, Wikus, being one of those pathetic, spine-less, snivelling, typical push-over types, accidentally exposes himself to something that starts to mutate him into the alien species. Since the government, as always in these situations, sees him as expendable and attempts to murder him to study his mutated DNA to figure out how to operate the highly dangerous alien weapons, Wikus turns to the only group of beings less likely to destroy him, the naive aliens. District 9 refreshingly gives us a character that is realistically selfish, nearly to the end. And yes, the South African setting (where they have all those fun things going on, like apartheid) only enhances the obvious allegory the film is concerning how humans dangerously abuse and exploit anything different from themselves. The film also highlights another human-specific issue---repressed minorities tormenting and abusing other repressed minorities. A group of Nigerian gangsters rule the ghetto of District 9, and interesting things like interracial prostitution go on, along with extortion rackets involving cat food and weaponry.

Though it delves a little long in an extended shootout sequence, District 9 is an unsettling, action packed allegory that's intelligent and engaging. And yes, everyone will understand the allegory, but it's doubtful anyone will think of applying any changes to dealing with the disenfranchised. Since it's almost always white people in charge when dealing with alien intelligence, District 9 gives us a realistic white male response with Wikus---even though he's changing into the creatures he despises, he really doesn't learn to empathize all that much. Maybe about as much as giving 50 cents to a bum makes some people feel good, but still, not that much. Other films concerning alien contact like The Day the Earth Stood Still have understanding white women empathizing with the alien---Patricia Neal (1951) and Jennifer Connelly (2008), respectively. Though women are considered a disenfranchised group, they have a proscribed "normal" place. When we get to the point where we are more comfortable with people of color and gay people and we see main stream sci-fi movies depicting alien contact with other types of people, what's going to be the realistic reaction? Just food for thought. Everyone else will be raving (or not, depending) about this excellent film, so just thought I'd throw another little angle out there. And yes, you are a cruel person, most likely, if you're not moved to feel bad for the alien Christopher Johnson and his young, umm, roach.