District 9 - Great Flick / But what was it about, really?

Rating: 8/10 (5 September 2009)

Excellent Makeup, Amazing Effects, great cinematography, and a very, very convincing sci-fi movie. But, what was it really about? I have been to South Africa a few times, and I have seen some of the slums, and here's what I think it was about. Neill Blomkamp, and Terri Tatchell wrote, and directed a spectacular movie, with a superb story line, based "entirely" on the pre-apartheid era in South Africa. There were similar districts in South Africa, where blacks were located, and even relocated from, to other remote locations. One example is the District 6, in Cape Town. These relocations were required for exactly the same kind of reasons talked about in the movie, i.e. because the inhabitants (blacks or aliens) were encroaching on white settlements, and because of crime. Wikus Van de Merwe, in my opinion, symbolized a white, male black-sympathizer, who had strayed over to the "other" side.