District 9: Spoiler-Packed Thoughts
Sep. 15th, 2009 11:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
major_clangerI saw District 9 last week but for various reasons haven't got around to commenting on it yet. Since then ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tamaranth has posted her thoughts, which I pretty much agree with but which also include a link to a very negative review that I've seen some other references to. That reviewer's main complaints seem to be:
- There are no Blacks in significant roles.
- There are no women in significant roles.
- The film is grossly offensive to Nigerians.
- The main plot device is utterly unbelievable.
Are these fair criticisms?
There's one aspect of District 9 that I've not seen discussed anywhere else. It seems to be assumed that the film depicts a post-apartheid South Africa, yet we see little sign of this and plenty of evidence the other way. Every single authority figure is white. The security forces are not just white, but are bordering on caricatures of the Afrikaans lampooned by Spitting Image in I've Never Met a Nice South African. The only non-white we see, other than the Nigerian gangsters, is a token functionary and even he is clearly treated as a second-class citizen - when Wikus' team find they are one armour vest short, guess who goes without? The South African society we see looks and feels like the late-stage apartheid regime circa 1986.
We already know that District 9 is set in an alternate world, in that in reality a giant flying saucer didn't appear over Johannesburg or anywhere else in 1982. Given what we see on screen, I'm going to suggest that this world is counterfactual in another way: apartheid is still in place. For some reason, a consequence of the arrival of the Prawns and their ship was that the white regime in South Africa stayed in power, and is still ruling the country nearly twenty years after it historically fell. Perhaps the arrival of a new underclass threw a spanner in the works of the South African political process. Perhaps the thought, at the tail end of the Cold War, of an ANC government having alien technology led the USA to prop up the existing regime. Whatever happened, it did look to me as if the Whites were still firmly in control.
And if so, this explains several of the alleged faults of District 9. Of course there aren't very many non-Whites in positions of authority, because if apartheid is still in force then they won't be allowed to be. Furthermore, given the conservative nature of the old South African regime, this is probably why there are few women in any authority positions either. All that we see is again consistent with a 1980s-style South African society that has continued on to 2010. (How realistic this is is another question - one of the many criticisms of Watchmen is that it unrealistically extends the late 1960s into the mid-1980s without any really convincing explanation of why its underlying premise causes this.)
The other major complaint I've seen about District 9 is that it is racist, and specifically that it is derogatory to Nigerians. I think it's hard to dispute that it is offensive to Nigerians, a group of whom are presented in a very unflattering manner (violent, superstitious and prone to near and then actual cannibalism). But then the film is offensive to just about every other group shown, above all White South Africans. Let's make no bones about it: MNU and its paramilitary cohorts are depicted as nothing short of Nazis. They are xenophobic, brutally violent, indulge in sadistic and inhuman experimentation including vivisection and torture, and obey orders without question. Wikus, before his change of heart - which, as some reviewers note, only follows his literal change of other body parts - is a modern counterpart to the dutiful German railway bureaucrat cheerfully ensuring that the trains hauling Jews away run on time. Indeed, it seems clear that only the fact that without living Prawns there is no hope of accessing their weapons technology seems to stop the South Africans from implementing a Final Solution of their own. As it is, an enlightened Wikus admits at one stage that the new District 10 is no more than a concentration camp. (A concept that ironically originated in South Africa, although of course the Afrikaans were on the receiving end of it, courtesy of us.)
From what I've read, the depiction of Nigerians seems to be meant to reflect common South African (White and Black) prejudices about them. Whether that was a particularly wise move on behalf of the director is rather questionable; I can see that he might have been trying to make another point about racial attitudes, but once pointed out it's a classic FedEx Arrow; you can't but help notice it and its implicit assumptions.
As for some of the other points: yes, the idea that the Magic McGuffin Power Source also has the miracle power of mutating humans into Prawns should stretch anyone's suspension of disbelief. Actually, I have an explanation for that too - perhaps it mutates anyone into a Prawn, and the reason that Christopher Johnson tells his son that they can't go home again is that they are just as alien to their original form as Wikus is becoming. My pet quibble: the way the revoltingly brutal Kobus Venter conforms very neatly to the action film trope of the most loathsome baddie being the one who gets to survive the longest. Surely even Wikus (who is so dimwitted he lets himself be tracked down via his mobile phone twice) would have made darn sure to take him out first once he was in his Iron Prawn suit?
So my verdict: the absence of Blacks and women is explicable by assuming that the politics are different in this world too (or rather, that they stayed the same) and the main science howler can just about be rationalised away. The treatment of Nigerians is rather dubious, although I'll concede this may be a misstep by the director rather than a deliberately crass move. Overall though I think that none of these detract from District 9 being the most impressive and thought-provoking sf movie of the year so far.
tamaranth has posted her thoughts, which I pretty much agree with but which also include a link to a very negative review that I've seen some other references to. That reviewer's main complaints seem to be:- There are no Blacks in significant roles.
- There are no women in significant roles.
- The film is grossly offensive to Nigerians.
- The main plot device is utterly unbelievable.
Are these fair criticisms?
There's one aspect of District 9 that I've not seen discussed anywhere else. It seems to be assumed that the film depicts a post-apartheid South Africa, yet we see little sign of this and plenty of evidence the other way. Every single authority figure is white. The security forces are not just white, but are bordering on caricatures of the Afrikaans lampooned by Spitting Image in I've Never Met a Nice South African. The only non-white we see, other than the Nigerian gangsters, is a token functionary and even he is clearly treated as a second-class citizen - when Wikus' team find they are one armour vest short, guess who goes without? The South African society we see looks and feels like the late-stage apartheid regime circa 1986.
We already know that District 9 is set in an alternate world, in that in reality a giant flying saucer didn't appear over Johannesburg or anywhere else in 1982. Given what we see on screen, I'm going to suggest that this world is counterfactual in another way: apartheid is still in place. For some reason, a consequence of the arrival of the Prawns and their ship was that the white regime in South Africa stayed in power, and is still ruling the country nearly twenty years after it historically fell. Perhaps the arrival of a new underclass threw a spanner in the works of the South African political process. Perhaps the thought, at the tail end of the Cold War, of an ANC government having alien technology led the USA to prop up the existing regime. Whatever happened, it did look to me as if the Whites were still firmly in control.
And if so, this explains several of the alleged faults of District 9. Of course there aren't very many non-Whites in positions of authority, because if apartheid is still in force then they won't be allowed to be. Furthermore, given the conservative nature of the old South African regime, this is probably why there are few women in any authority positions either. All that we see is again consistent with a 1980s-style South African society that has continued on to 2010. (How realistic this is is another question - one of the many criticisms of Watchmen is that it unrealistically extends the late 1960s into the mid-1980s without any really convincing explanation of why its underlying premise causes this.)
The other major complaint I've seen about District 9 is that it is racist, and specifically that it is derogatory to Nigerians. I think it's hard to dispute that it is offensive to Nigerians, a group of whom are presented in a very unflattering manner (violent, superstitious and prone to near and then actual cannibalism). But then the film is offensive to just about every other group shown, above all White South Africans. Let's make no bones about it: MNU and its paramilitary cohorts are depicted as nothing short of Nazis. They are xenophobic, brutally violent, indulge in sadistic and inhuman experimentation including vivisection and torture, and obey orders without question. Wikus, before his change of heart - which, as some reviewers note, only follows his literal change of other body parts - is a modern counterpart to the dutiful German railway bureaucrat cheerfully ensuring that the trains hauling Jews away run on time. Indeed, it seems clear that only the fact that without living Prawns there is no hope of accessing their weapons technology seems to stop the South Africans from implementing a Final Solution of their own. As it is, an enlightened Wikus admits at one stage that the new District 10 is no more than a concentration camp. (A concept that ironically originated in South Africa, although of course the Afrikaans were on the receiving end of it, courtesy of us.)
From what I've read, the depiction of Nigerians seems to be meant to reflect common South African (White and Black) prejudices about them. Whether that was a particularly wise move on behalf of the director is rather questionable; I can see that he might have been trying to make another point about racial attitudes, but once pointed out it's a classic FedEx Arrow; you can't but help notice it and its implicit assumptions.
As for some of the other points: yes, the idea that the Magic McGuffin Power Source also has the miracle power of mutating humans into Prawns should stretch anyone's suspension of disbelief. Actually, I have an explanation for that too - perhaps it mutates anyone into a Prawn, and the reason that Christopher Johnson tells his son that they can't go home again is that they are just as alien to their original form as Wikus is becoming. My pet quibble: the way the revoltingly brutal Kobus Venter conforms very neatly to the action film trope of the most loathsome baddie being the one who gets to survive the longest. Surely even Wikus (who is so dimwitted he lets himself be tracked down via his mobile phone twice) would have made darn sure to take him out first once he was in his Iron Prawn suit?
So my verdict: the absence of Blacks and women is explicable by assuming that the politics are different in this world too (or rather, that they stayed the same) and the main science howler can just about be rationalised away. The treatment of Nigerians is rather dubious, although I'll concede this may be a misstep by the director rather than a deliberately crass move. Overall though I think that none of these detract from District 9 being the most impressive and thought-provoking sf movie of the year so far.
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-15 10:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-16 12:25 am (UTC)Their points about the lack of appropriate ground support for the security forces actually seems reasonable. The math on attempting to airlift the alien refugees is spot on.
I hadn't given much thought to the issues you raise above because I'm not very enlightened I guess. Now that you've mentioned them I feel like I was asleep the whole time.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-16 01:50 am (UTC)The violence is relentless: much of the movie consists of endless scenes of either out-of-control sadistic mercenaries, Nigerian underworld figures, or the bureaucrat and his alien companion as they shoot at or blow up things and each other. I could have done with a lot more plot and a lot less "fooks" and spattering blood and butchery."
no subject
Date: 2009-09-16 05:43 am (UTC)For example, does District 6 mean anything to you?
Did you know that van der Merwe is a common enough Afrikaans surname, but also colloquial shorthand for the village idiot?
I suspect there is a lot more in there I didn't get, and I'd like to watch it again with some south Africans.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-16 06:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-16 07:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-16 08:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-16 10:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-16 10:27 am (UTC)Also he left SA c 1986 and went to Vancouver. Putting dots together from interviews, i think he simply portrayed the SA he was familiar with without thinking of whether it was "post apartheid" or not.
Also frankly at least when i went to SA in 98 (I admit, 10 years ago but well after apartheid, it still was in many ways a very conservative white run society despite brave efforts to get black people into civil service, academe etc. Most of SA is NOT Cape Town; in Stellenbosch the entire population still goes to church pretty much .. I thougt his main point was that apartheid ending did not change the fundamnetal power structures - but I may be attributing sophistication.
I think as i said on my own LJ much of the "PC" crit of D9 is criticising it for not being a movie it didn't try to be. It's a fabulous sf alien contact movie with a satirical twang. Critique's of Swift's Modest Prposal don't dwell on the actual lack of recipes for cooking IRish babies..
no subject
Date: 2009-09-16 10:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-16 10:41 am (UTC)The camp is now a holiday resort, and no-one seems to know what the sinuous rows of little earthen mounds were for or who built them. At least, no-one who speaks to tourists and schoolchildren.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-16 11:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-16 12:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-16 05:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-20 12:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-20 02:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-20 02:16 pm (UTC)I couldn't help but ponder that in Mafia movies everyone goes around killing and torturing one another but we don't assume that that's a slur on all Italians, or even all Italian ex-pats - just on Italian gangsters. The Nigerians in this film were a particular group, and they were all criminals because they were a criminal gang. The commentary on them was pretty laden with prejudice, but then, it wasn't an objective commentary.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-20 05:03 pm (UTC)This was my feeling also - I don't know a lot about modern-day SA but I was interested to see that there was still a predominance of white folk in power (even at middle management level) and to see a level of casual racism going on (aside from the very direct racism against the Nigerians). I assumed that it was intentional and not just oversight.