I've been to Johannesburg, South Africa, and I've explored the tin shack slums that dot its perimeter. I spent a month in the country in 2000 as part of a team of missionaries from North America. We did street evangelism mostly, but when we went into the shanty towns, we simply walked around and talked with people. We didn't evangelize. We simply listened and loved and were loved in return.
At first, people in the slums were not receptive to us at all. Aparteid didn't end all that long ago, and to the poor blacks populating the slums, we were just another group of untrustworthy, rich white kids from the posh areas of Johannesburg. Once they learned we were Americans, they were infinitely more welcoming, but I got a glimpse of the enmity that is still being resolved in that country.
As we listened, we heard story after story of what it was like to live under a system of legalized racism. Our hearts broke as we were told of loved ones lost and atrocities committed on both sides of the conflict. We saw heartache and guilt and destitution. The experience remains with me to this day.
So, it was with slight trepidation that I sat down to watch District 9.
District 9 is a sci-fi action film about a spaceship full of aliens that crash landed in the city of Johannesburg, South Africa, twenty years ago. The aliens and the humans have spent the last twenty years trying to integrate, but that has proved difficult, and the aliens have been relegated to a tin shack slum on the edge of the city, the film title granting "District 9." As the film opens, the human population has decided that the aliens are too dangerous to live near, so they are evicting them from their homes and forcibly moving them to a new slum miles away from the city.
The man in charge of the move is Wikus van de Merwe (marvelously portrayed by Sharlto Copley), a glorified bumbling paper-pusher for a global munitions manufacturer. In the course of the move, he is exposed to alien technology and suddenly finds himself being transformed into an alien. The plot centers around his desperate attempt to reverse his transformation.
District 9 is an extremely violent action film. Originally, Neill Blomkamp was to direct a movie based on the popular Halo video games. That film fell through, and so producer Peter Jackson, out of affinity for Blomkamp, offered the rookie director the funding to make whatever film he wanted. With the available production materials from the failed Halo film at his disposal, and with memories of his childhood in Aparteid ravaged South Africa rolling around in his mind, Blomkamp crafted this science fiction thriller.
District 9 is much more than a reworked video game adaptation. Beneath the explosions and gore lies a meditation on the effects of racism on a society. The aliens arrive on earth in need of humanitarian aid. Faced with 1.8 million refugees, the South African government does what it can to help but is unable to solve all their problems. Out of fear, the aliens are then ostracized and segregated, and their living conditions deteriorate. The aliens then act criminally in desperation and retaliation, and the cycle of fear and violence continues.
District 9 asks hard questions about how we treat the "other" among us. What responsibility do we have to those in need? How far are we to go in helping the destitute and desperate? How are we different from the alien among us? How are we alike? The film offers radical answers to these questions. Our Gospel does the same.
As stated before, District 9 is an extremely violent film inundated with profanity. It is not for the feint of stomach or easily offended. It is rated R for bloody violence and pervasive language, and it certainly deserves both distinctions.
It also deserves the distinction, in my opinion, of being a very fine film. Sharlto Copley is fantastic as the transforming van de Merwe. The special effects are practically unsurpassed. The plot is well thought out and developed. The cinematography which consists principally of hand held cameras and fake security cams (the film is a mockumentary) serves well to increase the urgency of the already nonstop action. Peter Jackson was not unwise to trust Neill Blomkamp with his money.
If you can take the violence and profanity, I recommend District 9.
-- Elijah Davidson
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