Review on District 9

Review on District 9 (2009)

District 9

The film's director Neill Blomkamp originally tried to make a film based on Microsoft's popular first person shooter video game Halo. Blomkamp even made digital shots promoting the game's 2007 release, but unable to get financing for a Halo film he stated to work on a science fiction story with similar traits which Andrew O'Hehir mentions in a review. 'When Financing for that fanboy wet dream finally fell apart, Blomkamp began working on a long-percolating idea: Take an archetypal science-fiction story - in this case, the story of humans' first contact with extraterrestrial aliens - and set it against the explosive social realities of contemporary Johannesburg, South Africa, his hometown.' (O'Hehir, 2009) Although it was being filmed in South Africa they needed somewhere that would portray a slum. They found a place where people were really being evicted and what was seen in the film as dirty run down huts used to be homes to occupants, as explained by Meredith Woerner in a review. 'The District 9 alien homes were actually shot in a recently evacuated area of impoverished housing. The homes you see the aliens getting evicted from were homes that humans had recently been kicked out of, for real.' (Woerner, 2009)   

Alien Eviction

The aliens in the film are symbolized as illegal problematic aliens which is what this world deals with all the time. Chris Hewitt addresses this in a review on Empire online. 'Like District 9, Alive in Joburg addressed the problems faced by genuine illegal aliens, stranded in a city and a country whose track record on tolerance is, shall we say, questionable. But this is not just a comment on apartheid (to wit: it's wrong); District 9 has more pressing matters on its mind, not least the savage treatment meted out to Zimbabwean refugees by indigenous black citizens. As we see the aliens exploited, abused and treated like pieces of meat by a corrupt government, it's clear that they operate as allegory, albeit one so thinly veiled it might as well be wraped in cling film.' (Hewitt, 2009)

Alien Armored Suit  

Rating;

            

List of Illustrations

Figure 1. Blomkamp, Neill (2009) District 9 [Poster] At: http://moviecarpet.com/2009/07/09/district-9-new-poster-and-trailer/ (Accessed on: 31.10.11)

Figure 2. Blomkamp, Neill (2009) Alien Eviction [Screen cap] At: http://www.trespassmag.com/invictus-district-9-a-south-africans-perspective/ (Accessed on: 31.10.11)

Figure 3. Blomkamp, Neill (2009) Alien Armored Suit [Screen cap] At: http://ajmass.blogspot.com/2011_06_01_archive.html (Accessed on: 31.10.11)

Bibliography

Hewitt, Chris (2009) District 9 http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/ReviewComplete.asp?FID=136353 (Accessed on: 31.10.11)

O'Hehir, Andrew (2009) Is apartheid acceptable - for giant bugs? http://www.salon.com/2009/08/12/blomkamp/ (Accessed on: 31.10.11)

Woerner, Meredith (2009) 5 Things You Didn't Know About District 9 http://io9.com/5341120/5-things-you-didnt-know-about-district-9 (Accessed on: 31.10.11)