As the movie begins, a wave of violent prawn unrest — not unlike the one that rocked South Africa’s real townships only last month — has prompted the good people of Jo’burg to crave even greater distance from their subhuman neighbors, and a forced relocation of all alien residents to a Guantánamo-style tent city known as District 10 has become law. Enter Multi-National United, a smarmy private military contractor that places the relocation in the hands of one Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), a not very bright corporate lackey who also happens to be married to the boss’s daughter.
I wanted to post this portion of the review, because it is an important aspect of this movie. Instead of using military forces or police forces in South Africa, the movie makers here decided to use a Private Military Company called Multi-National United as the evil ‘relocation’ forces, or what we will call ‘hollywood’s default evil storm troopers of death and wanton destruction’. Why the movie did not have enough guts to use the country’s actual military or police forces for this part, is certainly telling.
Other than that, I would like to see this movie, just because it seems like really interesting science fiction. Not your typical sci-fi. –Matt
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District 9: Divide and Conquer
Alien invasion as apartheid metaphor? It works in this film.
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By Scott Foundas
Published on August 11, 2009
Directed by Neill Blomkamp. Starring Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, and David James. Rated R.
