Not What I Expected!

Rating: 7/10 (6 February 2010)

The movie "District 9" is done in a documentary type style and is about aliens that find themselves stranded in Johannesburg, South Africa. The alien ship breaks down over Johannesburg and remains stationary over the city for about three years. Without any activity from the ship occurring during this period, the humans decide to cut their way into the ship. Countless malnourished and sickly aliens are removed from the ship and brought to Johannesburg.
Over several years, the interaction between the locals and the aliens becomes strained. The movie theme of social oppression and prejudice becomes quite apparent when the humans decide to place the aliens in a militarized camp. The camp, which is known as District 9, quickly becomes a shanty town that subjects the aliens to squalor and deplorable living conditions. Crime runs rampant due to a local Nigerian gang having taken control of the camp. Within the camp, cat food becomes the only food that is readily available for the aliens. The gang members use this to their advantage by controlling the supply of cat food. In order to survive, the aliens must trade their weapons and possessions for cat food. As well as being brought to the brink of starvation, aliens are subjected to physical abuse by humans throughout the camp.
Even with the aliens being contained in this internment camp, the locals want "District 9" to be moved further away from Johannesburg. Sharlto Copley as Wikus Van De Merwe, is put in charge of evicting the aliens from their homes, such as they are, and move them to a new camp. During the eviction process, Merwe witnesses the murder and abuse of defenseless aliens. At this point, Merwe views this as business as usual. While going from shack to shack within District 9, Merwe is exposed to an alien substance that initiates his transformation into an alien.
What Merwe is subjected to during the next 72 hours, are the vary abuses that he and other humans subjected the aliens to. In order to have any chance of returning to normal, Merwe must befriend an alien that he had attempted to evict from his home. The irony of this situation is that Merwe starts to defend the aliens that he despised a few days earlier. Although partially for self-preservation, Merwe risks his own life to allow his new alien friend to get out of District 9 and to the alien mother ship.
Although done in a different style, the movie "American History X" has a similar theme of prejudice and involves one group's hatred for another because they are different. In addition, one of the main characters changes his perspective after a life altering experience in prison. He also befriends someone who he previously despised.
Setting plays an integral part in establishing the theme of the movie. The fact that the alien ship becomes stranded over a city that has a historic reputation for social oppression of minorities was no mistake. The aliens being place in an internment camp by the human majority helped to drive home the theme very early in the movie. Motifs were used throughout the movie to support the message of the theme. The deplorable conditions of District 9 and the abuses that the aliens were subjected to were symbolic of the socially oppressive conditions present in South Africa at one time. Stereotyping of blacks as criminals and whites as the leaders of the camp were additional reminders of the movie's theme.
The theme of "District 9" was a complete surprise to me. I didn't read the DVD cover prior to renting it, so I was anticipating your typical alien science fiction movie. This movie was anything, but typical. The message was about as subtle as being shot with one of the alien weapons.