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District 9
Chesire Cat:
--- Quote from: Iguana Baritone on 31 Aug 2009, 23:39 ---In a way, and that's kind of what annoyed me. They didn't have to be aliens. The movie could have been about District 6, and still been the same movie. An alien movie should show some difference.
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I beg to differ, I think they *had* to be aliens. You guys seems to be under the impression the general public is well versed in the apartheid, and quiet frankly you are absolutely wrong. By using aliens as placeholders it lets Joe Plumber experience and enjoy the film and accidentally get some understanding of the situation. Then maybe as everyone is happily walking out of the theatre, he will hear that apartheid word he doesn't know again and decided to learn a little more about it.
Standalone with absolutely no historical backdrop to work off of, this is an excellent movie, and the racism was played very well in terms of the little thing. Once again I will go back to the Chris's child and Wikus sitting in the spaceship, where he point at his own arm then at Wikus and says "like me". That kind of enlightenment actually happens, but the reality of life in many African countries and middle eastern, is much of the strife comes from people believing they are different from each-other. Much of it isnt even about different truly different races but about different clans or sects of religion but it all generally plays out the same.
Think about Sunni vs. Shi'ite Muslims or the Tutsi vs. Hutu in Rwanda or naturally the Whites vs. Blacks in South Africa.
Iguana Baritone:
--- Quote from: Chesire Cat on 01 Sep 2009, 12:52 ---I beg to differ, I think they *had* to be aliens. You guys seems to be under the impression the general public is well versed in the apartheid, and quiet frankly you are absolutely wrong. By using aliens as placeholders it lets Joe Plumber experience and enjoy the film and accidentally get some understanding of the situation. Then maybe as everyone is happily walking out of the theatre, he will hear that apartheid word he doesn't know again and decided to learn a little more about it.
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I don't really get the point you're trying to make. Are we supposed to have sympathised with the aliens in a way that we wouldn't for humans? The only alien I felt any sympathy for at all was Christopher, and even he was a little on the annoying side.
Chesire Cat:
What I am saying is you can extend the viewing audience, and as such the message, by hiding a highly political movie in a sci-fi action film with explosions and fun.
variable_star:
--- Quote from: Inlander on 31 Aug 2009, 20:09 ---
--- Quote from: variable_star on 31 Aug 2009, 13:54 ---
--- Quote from: ackblom12 on 31 Aug 2009, 11:19 ---I can think of quite a few movies where humans are the invaders/oppressors actually. The films don't always purposefully portray it as such, but there are plenty on both sides of the fence.
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Awesome, do tell. I might be interested in seeing some of those.
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For starters, Starship Troopers.
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That's a bit borderline, isn't it? Granted, it's been awhile since I've seen the film, but I recall both the humans and the aliens were pointlessly hostile. The theme of the piece seemed to be that the humans were just as vile as the aliens. I did a bit of checking on my own and found the two films D9 is most compared to are "Alien Nation" and "Enemy Mine", so I've got both of those on my list. I suppose three films can be considered "quite a few" if you take the expression at its most literal interpretation, but maybe ackblom12 can suggest a few more.
--- Quote from: tender on 01 Sep 2009, 11:39 ---My complaints: I had a hard time believing the aliens had all that weaponry and never defended themselves.
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The film is never quite clear on this. One nameless prawn is seen firing a weapon into the air, but the only prawn who actually uses alien weaponry in combat is Christopher. It's not because their access is entirely restricted either, because it's made clear (when a couple of prawns trade the pseudo-mechwarrior machine for cat food) that some still own alien weapons. Of course, the film does mention that the overwhelming majority of the aliens appear to be worker drones. They're good at taking orders, but lack initiative entirely, probably because their leadership died off as a result of disease.
Still, I'm unable to reconcile that with the fact that many prawns are seen wielding human weaponry (one is seen in a helmet and AK-47, another is seen in a pink bra and a shovel, etc.) I can only surmise that they're engaging in random acts of violence, which certainly doesn't require initiative. Christopher appeared to be the only one with any leadership qualities, as even his assistant lacked notable intelligence, considering he was one-upped by a child in his first scene. Here's hoping there will be an extended cut on blu-ray that will shed a bit more light on things like this.
Lise:
I don't know, I interpreted that one alien wearing human clothing and brandishing a human weapon as an attempt to appear well... more human, even though he is clearly a "prawn." I could be wrong of course, it could've been done in mockery or for no particular reason at all.
And variable_star, as for your complaint that no one has produced a list of movies so far that exhibit humans as the oppressors rather than the oppressed, I did a quick search and found this great article:
The Best of Science Fiction's Oppressed Species. It includes some obvious examples where stranded aliens are forced into human slavery (ex. Alien Nation, which you already mentioned) and less obvious examples where the humans have artificially created creatures to serve as a workforce and they rebel (ex. Cylons in Battlestar Galactica or the Exosapiens in Exosquad). Even the mutants in X-men, though they resemble humans and not the traditional "alien," have to fight for their civil rights.
So there you have it, a handful of significant movies where humans aren't the most dignified race. As for upcoming movies that focus on this relationship between humans/aliens, how about James Cameron's Avatar?? (encroaching on another planet in blatant search for materials, which results in violence consequences).
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