The intensity and cinematography of director Neil Blomkamp’s “District 9″, which is up for a Best Picture Oscar, are to be marveled over. But the sci-fi thriller’s pace and visuals are also matched by the film’s political message. As conceptually original as the first “Matrix” film, “District 9″ also serves as a critique, par excellence, of the horrors of today’s global capitalism. And as such, it easily rivals notable films like “Blood Diamond” and “The Constant Gardener”.
“District 9″ opens with a documentary-style exposition: An enormous alien spacecraft has entered the earth’s atmosphere and coasted to a halt, above contemporary Johannesburg, South Africa. After three months of seeing no activity from the ship, the world governments send an expedition to investigate the craft. The expedition enters the ship and finds it filled with malnourished, insect-like aliens. It is theorized that the aliens were once part of a larger fleet of ships. But they somehow detached from that fleet, became lost, and ran out of fuel and food. Helpless, the aliens then “washed ashore”, into Earth’s orbit.
This discovery quickly turns the expedition into a “humanitarian crisis”, to save the dying aliens. But as is well-known, the modus operandi of any (so-called) foreign aid mission today is “disaster capitalism”. And this is no different when it comes to extra-terrestrial aid. The world governments enlist Multi-National United (MNU), to assist in the “humanitarian” operation. As the name implies, MNU is a kind of conglomerate of logistical and defense corporations and contractors. And as such, they have a profit-motive.
MNU sets-up an alien “refugee camp” in Johannesburg, that soon becomes a militarized slum, known as District 9. The aliens are moved into District 9 and are subjected to MNU’s martial law. Blackwater-like mercenaries are hired to violently police the District, while MNU conducts raids on the alien’s temporary living quarters, in attempts to steal alien technology for weapons development. MNU, it turns out, is a major component of the military-industrial complex. And it hopes to further its bio-weaponry research by monopolizing on the alien’s vulnerability.
Meanwhile, local Africans become angered by the alien presence. Already impoverished by the character of global capitalism, the locals see MNU’s focus on the aliens as an even further distraction form their own poverty. Thus, a new form of racism evolves, and the aliens are targeted with a racial slur: “Prawn”. Social tensions between the local humans and the Prawns continue to mount. And MNU uses this racial hatred as an excuse mobilize a “resettlement” of the Prawns, away from the restless locals. The resettlement program, of course, serves as a further cover for MNU to steal the Prawn technology for weapons development.
MNU’s dual exploitation of the Africans and the Prawns, though, soon explodes. While conducting a raid on a Prawn’s living quarters, Wikus Van De Merwe, the head of MNU’s resettlement program, is exposed to the chemicals in some of the Prawn technology. And from that point, the situation in District 9 begins to radically change, in more ways than one….
This fantastical premise of “District 9″ could have fallen apart in execution, as is always the case with sci-fi epics. The bar for suspension of disbelief is set particularly high with such movies. And it is rarely met. But Blomkamp’s treatment of the script results in one of the strongest political films in recent history. Much of this is due to the realism created by the setting, itself. The movie was shot in a real Johannesburg slum, one which was recently the target of an actual resettlement program.
Adding to this “pure” setting is the fact that film is presented as a documentary. The story, itself, unfolds via interview clips with MNU employees, spliced with footage from embedded cameramen filming the resettlement, as well as with footage from security cameras in District 9 and other locales. The special effects, as well, are used not to dazzle (as is in the case with many thrillers), but rather to support the realism of the film’s events. None of the the violence in the film is hyperbolic or self-justifying. Instead, it is presented as the raw meaninglessness of war, violence at the “zero level”, which is rarely captured by real photojournalists on the nightly news.
On an equally rewarding level, the plot’s density does not sacrifice the agonizing character development of Wikus, himself, which equally drives the movie forward, to its phenomenal conclusion.
But on a grander, more philosophical sense, what “District 9″ addresses is the horrific inhumanity of globalization’s own ideology. Globalization, in itself, is meaningless. What gives it character is its corporatist element, the driving force behind its growth.
Propelled by the inhuman interests of multi-national corporations, the IMF, the World Bank, and the G8 governments, globalization’s ethics are the dehumanized ethics of the global “market”. Such a system considers the profit of the few over the humanity of the countless many. This dynamic is what psychoanalyst Viktor Frankl calls our “Existential Vacuum”, a world totally void of human-oriented values, replaced only by the pursuit of capital.
Thus, in “District 9″, the meaningless deaths of the “Prawns” (supported only by the equally meaningless racism) for the sake corporate profit, is a mirror of our world. The “Prawn” is thus a symbol, a symbol for any individual or group of individuals, who are subjected to the legal violence of global capitalism. The “Prawn”, who is oppressed or murdered for profit in the film, is the same as the impoverished Guatemalan, or Nigerian, or Indian, or American, who dies meaninglessly so shareholder wealth can flourish in the real-world.
As such, “District 9″ serves as the diagnosis of the inhumanity that hallmarks our era. It certainly deserves the Oscar. But more importantly, it deserves to be widely seen and discussed.
Editor’s Note: Stephen Dufrechou is a college professor in Memphis, TN. He is the Editor of Opinion and Analysis for News Junkie Post. Please follow this author on Twitter. His archive may be accessed here.
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Stephen,
Excellent review. You did justice to an extraordinary movie, which is no small task.
District 9 is pretty much what “Avatar” could/should have been if the James Cameron’s film did not obey the formulaic aspects of the big Hollywood studio films.
District 9 deserves to win the Oscar for best picture, but it probably won’t. It will be hard to compete with “Avatar” which has now passed “Titanic”, with $1.7 Billion worldwide and still counting, as the most profitable movie ever made.
Thanks, Gilbert.
And I agree (tragically). That over-glorified fluff piece, “Avatar”, will rival “District 9″…. But only because Hollywood doesn’t have the guts to vote otherwise.
What can I say?
In Hollywood money talks louder than quality.
But regardless, I think that in due time “District 9″ will join such classics as Stanley Kubrick’ s “Clock Work Orange” in the pantheon of true master piece of cinema, it is just THAT good!
Most certainly!
I loved D9, the raw and relevant parallels it draws AND I’m a kiwi with the natural affinity for Wingnut productions etc.
But AVATAR was a masterpiece of cinematic technology; and, it draws similarly prophetic parallels which, if anything, are more relevant, if a little before their time > like the choices our race will be faced with in the very near future – organic, or cybernetic?
I rate them both as 9.5/10 – Neither made me cry uncontrollably – thats a 10
Loved the deep analysis of D9. I’ve been a major fan ever since I saw it this past summer. I can’t help but hold onto a small hope that it might actually get the credit it deserves.
Thanks…. Agreed, on hoping “D9″ gets the credit.