A sci-fi modern classic that challenges our so-called humanity ..

Rating: 9/10 (4 March 2019)

In my "Manchurian Candidate" review, I called it a fair deal that the film portrayed Americans confusing anti-communism driven patriotism with lunacy, while centering on an existing Communist conspiracy. In the same vein, "District 9" exploits archive footage of South Africans criticizing immigrants for real yet without sugarcoating immigration either. I admire a movie that shows us as a whole capable of the best as well as the worst regardless on the color of skin or demographic group.
On that level, the film is as smart as "The Manchurian Candidate" and as prophetic. Indeed, there are so many parallels you can draw between the situations of Alien refugees in Johannesburg and the massive wave of immigration in Western countries it's eerie. I read many Youtube comments comparing the Aliens to some communities, even using racial slurs to define them, actually these comments don't miss the film's point, they make it in an indirect way by showing the very rampant intolerance the film is denouncing.
And to the patronizing idea that Black South-Africans are supposed to be more compassionate toward the aliens who are undergoing a new Apartheid (District 9 is a nod to District 6, and you can find all the information on Wikipedia), the unanimousness toward the alien case actually shows a form of universal disdain toward a non-human species that ironically united old enemies. Take for instance "Invictus", a movie made the same year and set in South Africa: Clint Eastwood showed how the same passion for rugby united Blacks, Afrikaners and every layer of South Africa's new society into the same united community during the World Cup. Here we have the same effect with a common enemy that doesn't even behave like one.
The film asks a relevant question about alien invasions: what if they don't invade us? And it's a valid scenario given the way these aliens look. They aren't exactly the prettiest-looking and the little one makes E.T. as cute as Shirley Temple. They're constantly referred to as 'prawns' just like the Tutsi were called 'cockroaches' in "Hotel Rwanda". Their physical features seem to obey to scientific speculation as much as artistic licenses, but it's important that they inspire instant disgust and defiance. And that's the stuff genocides are made of.
Yes, with all the talk about "learning from WW2", the film confronts us to a very delicate question: since we care so much about humans, we defined crimes against humanity, since we believe animals deserve respect, where would creatures we consider lower than both groups stand in our standards of appreciation? And "District 9" is interesting in the way the young director Neil Blomkamp, in his debut, guides us into a journey of humility and understanding.
First the film opens with a newsreel, a masterstroke of exposition, giving us enough information and footage to accept the presence of these aliens in South Africa since 1982 as historical reality. Then we get to 2010 where a multi-national corporation named MNU volunteered to relocate the "prawns" to a bigger area with better facilities. The supervision of the operation is given to one of these "employee-of-the-month" guys I used to despise since my days in Procter and Gamble.
His name is Wikus Van De Merwe, he's played by Sharlto Copley and the act he puts in front of the camera to impress the big shots, especially his CEO (who happens to be his father-in-law) is symptomatic of that human contempt I described. The mockumentary style enhances that biased, one-sided, outsider's "civilized" perspective. And we see humans acting with the aliens as if they were a "lower race", forcing them to move from the ghetto under the threat of soldiers from diverse ethnicities.
Remember "Aliens" when the squad found the nest with the Queen and started destroying the eggs, we couldn't shed a tear for them, we knew how potentially lethal they were. But we've only seen the prawns burning trucks or being annoyances, a commentator explaining that they might not have the same behavior standards (of course, they don't), the worse they did was slashing a man's arm but even then, I hated the casual way Wikus torched the egg-place and laughed at the pop-corn sound it made.
Even his portrayal during the news' section show him as a not-so bright man, compromising and friendly. Wikus embodies our condescending nature, too cocky to even wear a mask, which will start his trouble... and eventually, his redemption. And this is perhaps the best thing about the film. As soon as he's contaminated by an accidental spray and slowly turns into an alien, his personality evolves as well. The film shifts the genre and turns from documentary to more conventional narrative and let Copley lead the show with his spectacular performance.
This is not just a director's but an actor's film. The evolution of Wikus from an slick blue-collar guy with the hair on the side and the yellow vest to a man scared out of death and realizing the extent of humans' barbarity once he's submitted to it, is the true highlight of the film. The MNU shows its true self as well, a greedy corporation resorting to torture and arbitrary killing to get the hold on a sophisticated machinery under a commander whose enjoyment to kill prawns remind of other soldiers from the darkest hours.
The parallel is even stronger when Wikus reveals that the place of relocation is no better than a concentration camp as he tells the one prawn he befriended, "Christopher Johnson". I won't spoil the third act. It might feel formulaic with its avalanche of shooting and action sequences but it's in the tradition of many sci-fi classics to entertain and thrill as much as asking thought-provoking questions.
Indeed, regarding Wikus, he might have regained his humanity. But the film teaches us not to take that word for granted.A sci-fi modern classic that challenges our so-called humanity ...