District 9

(started 11/7/2009)

We watched District 9 a few weeks ago. I enjoyed it much more at the time than I did afterward, largely because of Virgie's unfavorable reaction. I kept trying to put my finger on what exactly I liked about it but found that the enjoyment did not rest on the films artistic merits. I tried and tried to find something deeper than "mankind is intolerant and abusive of minorities," but nothing materialized. It's just an action film; I enjoyed it as such.

That said, there is one thing truly detestable about the film. I don't think I will ever watch it again for this reason: while attempting to get across its message about South Africa's atrocious Apartheid-era relocations, it perpetuates the stereotypes that fuel South Africa's ongoing racial problems. Currently, South Africa has problems with large numbers of immigrants from elsewhere in Africa, namely, some of the worst goddamn places on Earth (the DRC, Rwanda, Nigeria, etc.) These immigrants have much darker skin than the native South Africans. In the film, they are represented by a group of Nigerian gangsters who live in the ghetto with the aliens. They are gun & sex crazy cannibals, and their leader's name is "Obesandjo". Olusegun Obasanjo is the most important politician in Nigeria's history. Though he is an African leader, and thus almost by definition a butcher of human beings, he has done great things for his people. To use a practically identical name for a mindless thus is reprehensible and outrageously racist. I can't imagine an American filmmaker getting away with it.

Imagine a film in which the lost city of Atlantis is discovered, and it's 10,000 desheveled, green-faced inhabitants are moved to Mobile, Alabama. It's not long before they are treated as second-class citizens and semi-forcibly moved into ghettos. "The horror!" say the viewers. "It's un-*American* to treat any human(?) being with such indignity! This is just like the Nazis!" Then a bunch of dirty, crack-smuggling Mexicans come along and try to take away the Atlantians' jobs! Not to worry: the US Army is there to mow the Mexicans down with machine guns. The Atlantians are reconciled to the US government, given rights, and an exhibit at the Museum of Tolerance. Intolerance is a terrible thing, when it's in the past.