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District 9
Johnny C:
--- Quote from: tender on 12 Sep 2009, 21:02 ---The scientists were just as bad as the witch doctors.
--- End quote ---
Yeah I think this is probably the most accurate reading of it. The levels of sophistication are moot in the face of the identical ethics of the MNU and the Nigerian gangs. They're meant as moral parallels.
There are black people in the movie who are smart and aren't evil.
Jimor:
Just saw this finally, and I probably have more to say.
What struck me after thinking about it for a while is that the allegory isn't apartheid, it's the current situation with many of the refugee camps in Africa. You have the (generally) white do-gooders who hand out food and really hope they can make things better, but still probably end up thinking "why can't these people just get their acts together" mixed with the local warlords who see the masses of helpless people as either a source of their powerbase (stealing kids to be their soldiers), or as just somebody they can rule over with intimidation and fear.
While the first group in real life doesn't have the lure of the alien technology in this parallel, what they do have behind them are governments who see the disposition of these refugees as a matter of larger global issues that can be exploited. Whether it's China buying oil concessions to whoever has control over that piece of land that day, or western powers putting pressure on the local government to "clean out" the camps where terrorists recruit and train. Working towards an actual solution starts to fade into a secondary goal at best, and in some cases a real solution runs counter to the interests of both internal and external groups.
So it's really talking about the dehumanizing of the refugees in various parts of Africa (and the world), much more than racism. Even the "solution" parallels a lot of what happens in the real world, we don't fix the problem, we just occasionally upgrade the camps from squalid to cesspit, shuffle people around a bit, and expect the local government to handle all of it on top of caring for their own people.
EDIT: Oh, and I have a theory that explains everything about the prawns: The ship was an interstellar football fan charter.
Orbert:
Wow, that sounds pretty good to me. Even the bit about them originally being on an interstellar charter bus. It broke down in some crappy neighborhood somewhere, and look what happened.
Unfortunately for me I guess, I'm not very familiar with what's going on in Africa, or South Africa (which I realize is part of Africa but definitely has its own identity and its own issues) so I don't know how well your analogy works. But it's refreshing to hear an interpretation other than "it's supposed to be apartheid but a lot of the details are wrong/skewed". If it's not supposed to be apartheid in the first place, that argument goes out the window.
Theriandros:
Storyline question (POSSIBLE SPOILERS):
How did Wikus escape from the testing facility? I had the same reaction to this movie as Cloverfield and left for the bathroom during the gun-testing bit and returned to see Wikus outside.
Reed:
--- Quote from: Orbert on 21 Sep 2009, 09:59 ---"it's supposed to be apartheid but a lot of the details are wrong/skewed".
--- End quote ---
Neill Blomkamp has said outright that he meant it as an allegory for apartheid.
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