District 9 and Alive in Joburg: A Double Review
A 6-Minute Short Spawns a Sci-Fi Blockbuster
Aug 28, 2009
The big difference between District 9 and Alive in Joburg is 107 minutes. District 9 is the feature blockbuster spawned by the six-minute Alive. Both films by director Neill Blomkamp address the problem of illegal aliens—the non-human kind—in Johannesburg and are shot, at least in part, in a documentary style.
A single unforgettable image connects the two films: enormous spaceships hovering over the congested, smog-covered Soweto landscape. (These films are not suitable for promoting Johannesburg tourism.) In Alive in Joburg, there are several spaceships, all “completely dilapidated,” whereas District 9 has only one.
In both movies, the aliens arrive, helpless and half-starved. At first, the humans give them aid. What ensues is an allegory of apartheid. In brief, the story mirrors events in District Six, when the apartheid government forcibly removed 60,000 people living there and made it a whites-only area. But not to worry. The metaphor is not heavy-handed. Make no mistake, District 9 is first and foremost an action movie.
Copley, an Unknown, Steals the Show
District 9 unfolds as the government decides to relocate the aliens, derogatorily referred to as “prawns” because of their arthropod-like appearance. The man chosen to head the operation is an earnest but dimwitted office drone, Wickus van de Merwe, brilliantly played by Sharlto Copley.
Copley, with no previous acting experience other than a few lines in Alive in Joburg, is absolutely the best thing about District 9. At first, there is no clue that Wickus, this pale, moustachioed lackey, could remotely be the hero. As he is interviewed about his new appointment, he absolutely bristles with the excitement of a paper-pusher with ambitions that far exceed his capabilities and intelligence.
Wickus clearly has no idea that he’s just had the worst job in the world, possibly in the Solar System, dumped on him. As he goes from shack to shack with heavily armed reinforcements, he swaggers with misguided pride that he is somehow helping these groveling, dirty, ignorant interstellar immigrants.
When chaos erupts, Wickus’ transformation from office drone to fugitive and finally hero is riveting to watch.
The Best Buddies Since Riggs and Murtaugh
The rest of the movie is familiar. There is an evil mega-corporation, MNU, or Multinational United. They’re the main baddies, being the ones who are trying to exploit the prawns for their advanced weaponry. (The weapons only work in the hands of the aliens—something about interacting with their DNA—and no one has been able to get around it.)
More interesting are the Nigerian criminals who do business with the prawns. Apparently, the aliens love cat food like...well, like an addict likes coke, so the Nigerians sell or trade the cans at exorbitant prices.
Wickus’ only friend inside District 9 is a prawn named Christopher Johnson. It’s the best team-up since Riggs and Murtaugh in Lethal Weapon, or more aptly, E.T. and that kid in E.T. the ExtraTerrestrial.
Alive in Joburg Doesn’t Shy Away from Special Effects
District 9’s antecedent is too short to have a protagonist. It’s shot like a news feature or documentary, including interviews and “news footage” taken with hand-held cameras. It takes place in 1990 when South Africa was still under an apartheid government.
Alive in Joburg, which can be seen on YouTube, captures alien riots and clashes with soldiers using some pretty neat effects, considering the obviously shoe-string budget. An alien wearing a mechanical suit fends off an attack by two police officers. It raises an armored vehicle into the air and throws it at them.
The aliens themselves have tentacles where mouths would be and wear “really fantastic” bio-suits. Their eyes are pixilated throughout the film, a curiosity that is never explained.
Blomkamp’s successful adaptation from short subject to feature science fiction recalls, La Jetée (1962), the French film that Terry Gilliam turned into 12 Monkeys (1995).
Peter Jackson Spins Gold from Straw
District 9 was produced by Peter Jackson (dir., The Lord of the Rings), who became friends with Blomkamp while making Halo. After the studios canceled production of Halo, Jackson saw Blomkamp’s short—one of six that he’s made—as a chance to work together again and bring the talents of this first-time feature film director to the big time.
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