'District 9': Inhumane Treatment of Non-Humans

by Brett Parker

If Close Encounters of the Third Kind is an alien contact story built out of hope and optimism, then District 9 is one generated by hard cynicism. The film imagines a situation where grotesque aliens from another planet seek refuge on Earth and become subjected to extreme prejudice, confinement, and abuse. Given that certain chapters of actual human history has shown certain minority groups subjected to racism and genocide, this fantasy concept doesn’t feel as far fetched as you’d expect. The fact that this idea generates objectively truthful traits of human nature is disturbingly nightmarish. The fact that this film doesn’t develop its underlying themes to their fullest potential is considerably disappointing.

The film explains how 30 years ago, a gigantic alien spaceship of supreme craft hovered over Johannesburg, South Africa and froze still. Instead of attacking Earth’s surface or sending ship representatives down, the ship stood there immovable. After some time, the South African government gathered the resources and courage to break its way into the ship’s corridor and discover what was really inside this hovering vessel. What they found was thousands of starving aliens, huddled together with no power in their ship and no governing organization of any kind. The aliens are tall, hideous looking creatures that look like a cross between an amphibian and an insect. Realizing they need help, the humans brought them down to Johannesburg and tried to help them.

The aliens, who eventually earned the nickname “prawns,” became confined to a slum-filled ghetto named District 9 while world leaders tried to decide what should become of their fate. Meanwhile, the citizens of Johannesburg became extremely fearful of the prawns unpredictable and aggressive behavior. Over time, District 9 developed into something of a prison camp, in which they are given very little resources and must live in the most poverty-stricken conditions. They occupy makeshift shacks while rummaging through garbage for food. Nigerian gangsters trade weapons and food with the aliens for high prices and even develop strange rituals to try and activate their alien weapons. It turns out that the prawns’ weaponry can only be activated by their DNA and this causes a shady corporation known as MNU (Multi-National United) to try and figure out how to replicate their technology.

MNU eventually develops a plot to relocate all of the aliens to District 10, an even shabbier environment, in an attempt to recover all of the weaponry hidden within the ghetto to experiment on them. In assembling a relocation task force, they appoint Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), a dim-witted office drone who bumbles hopelessly through the relocation efforts. He tries to force them to sign papers of relocation consent while searching for hidden weapons within the shack. During one of his shack raids, Wikus comes across a strange alien tube that covers him in a mysterious spray. That spray turns out to carry a virus that begins altering Wikus’ DNA into that of a prawn. This sets off a chain of events in which Wikus goes on the run from the government, learns some dark secrets about MNU’S agenda, and even begins a friendship with a prawn named Christopher Johnson.

Director Neill Blomkamp grew up in South Africa during the time of apartheid and the film is indeed a parable reflecting the racial segregation and neglect that went down in the country’s history. Apartheid was a time when specific races were separated and removed from certain areas by the government and we’re given restricted freedoms. The prawns endure the same structure, in which they are removed from the general population and signs and regulations are created to make sure they stay segregated. On a deeper level, the prawns could’ve been the Jews during the Holocaust, the Africans during slavery, or any minority group that has ever been persecuted. District 9 exposes the horrifying lack of empathy a general population can show towards a minority group and the depraved amorality they are capable of in their actions. If it’s a known fact that humans have treated their own kind with such hostility and nihilism, what’s to say we wouldn’t treat green men from outer space in the same way (perhaps even worse)? If big corporations have been proven to deceive and violate everyday people, then what would they honestly do to alien beings? It seems highly naïve to think that we humans would show true acceptance and peace towards an alien race integrated into our society.

I’m sure the prawns’ appearance has much to do with their isolation. The filmmakers purposely have made their appearance repulsive, with long slimy tentacles covering their face and bug-like antennas sprouting out from their reptilian-like skin. It’s hard to even look at them on celluloid, making it seem unbearable to do so in real life. If one of them stood behind me in line at the supermarket, I’d probably freak! Yet their repulsiveness brings into light the idea that a race not having the same physical qualities as a superior race could very well lead to perverse mistreatment. Remember Hitler’s “master race” plot? It’d be something of a miscalculation to make these aliens more physically accessible, with sleeker bodies or a subtle cuteness.

All of these deep musings probably make District 9 sound like a transgressive masterwork, yet the film’s great failing is that it’s underlying ideas are not nurtured all that substantially into the main narrative. What should’ve been a sci-fi Schindler’s List comes across more as a twisted, spaced-out play on The Power of One. As Wikus forms an alliance with Christopher Johnson, to simultaneously find a cure for his alien infection and return Johnson to the mothership, we notice the film shifting from a plunging parable into typical space-adventure territory. The filmmakers and effects department pull off an amazing feat with the Johnson character; they find subtle ways to make this member of an ugly race feel sympathetic and likeable (they even give him a cutie-pie son that works in the same vein). Even Wikus finds him sympathetic and likeable, allowing the story to fall down the path of the returning-the-nice-alien-to-the-mothership plotline, which is very limiting considering the territory we’re in. The film reaches its conclusion by way of action standards and our hearts sink at this realization. With Peter Jackson producing, it was probably inevitable that sci-fi action would find its way into the story, yet it seriously stands in our way of finding more tragic depths to reflect on.

You first notice something wrong in the film’s opening. As the narrative adapts a mockumentary style to provide exposition on the prawns’ background, you notice the pacing is whizzing by fascinating details, all with ominous music quickening the flow. As interviewed subjects supply us with vital information, we realize we want to spend more screen time on these details and really dig into the complex environment we’re presented with. We find ourselves asking a lot of questions and having few of them answered. It seems way too eager to indulge in sci-fi standards as opposed to breaking bold new grounds. Watching this movie is a little like being in a college class with a professor who explains things way too fast and whizzes by significant facts you really need to know for a future test.

On its standard level, District 9 is an ambitious play on fantasy-adventure conventions filled with big ideas and disturbing details. It’s impossible to shake and you can’t hold back its heartbreaking implications no matter how much formulaic plotting goes down. The buzz on this movie has been overwhelmingly positive, with both comic-con fan and critics hailing it as a mind-blowing must-see. I think the pop-junk servings of sci-fi slices such as Twilight and Terminator Salvation has given smart moviegoers a hunger for more complex and philosophical science fiction. District 9, with its obvious economy of thought-provoking ideas, seemed like a likely candidate to satisfy this hunger. While it’s certainly a brainy and exceptional entertainment, I still think there’s more layers to unravel and creativity to unearth. If you find this film to really be mind-blowing, then I wish you could see the film I’m picturing in my mind.