District 9 - Too real for a Western audience?

[2_perseph]

When I saw the movie a week ago, I had already been made aware of a seething anger towards it, as viciously racist, though I was not sure of the reason for the sentiment.

I didn't look into it before going to see the movie because I wanted to know as little as possible about a movie I was admittedly fascinated by. I had been at the midnight showing

Comments

[2_perseph]

I don't really know where else to submit the article. I was thinking I'd try the Huffington Post, since they seem to have all sorts of bloggers. And elaur suggested IMDb when I first told her about it. I'll probably do the latter and email the former with an inquiry.

[ladymalen]

*just sits in silence for a minute and remembers why I adore the hell out of you*

I don't have much to add, since I haven't seen the movie but I have seen others rants about it. Thank you for showing another side of this. You, my dear, are made of awesome. *hugs you lots*

[2_perseph]

*hugs you tight* Thank you, I needed that.

[ladymalen]

*hugs back*

I could go on a rant about the Western media and 'developing' countries and their plights, but I won't. I'll just say they have their heads up their arses and whitewash far too much to make what little the do report fit for squimish American consumption. In the end that serves no one, not the people who need help nor those who could actually do something--or be moved to do something-if they got the whole story.

[ixchel55]

District 9 is a movie I've wanted to see since I saw the first promos for it simply because it's Peter Jackson and I really like scifi, but I hadn't read anything further on it.

Throughout a huge chunk of the 80s and 90s just about the only representation of Jamaicans and Colombians on TV and in movies we saw were of vicious, drug peddling thugs but I'm pretty sure I never envisioned and entire country inhabited by nothing but criminals.

But thank you for this additional slice of historical and cultural insight before I see the movie. Even if I hadn't read this I'd like to think I would have taken it in context.

[2_perseph]

It's the things the Nigerian gang is up to that I think shocked audiences enough to make such a stink. Never mind if such things are fact. It just seemed too outrageous for people who had never heard that such things are taking place, I guess.

I hope you do get to see it. It's one hell of an enjoyable ride. And Peter and Fran deserve a prize for this championing.

[darkflame173]

Sadly, I think the onset of overly political correctness has made westerners *too* sensitive, to the point that people forget that some "stereotypes" are there for a reason. Just because someone is black doesn't make them automatically persecuted against, or good at heart, or anything like that, any more than any other human is. People who cry "racism" seem to be throwing out a knee jerk reaction, especially if they are white, trying to prove that they "understand" when in reality they don't get it at all. I guess they are trying to say "see! I stick up for you! love me!" or something to that end.

That being said, I would like to see this movie. I'm glad it goes against the hollywood grain. I hope it makes so much money it stinks of it, lol. You go, independent filmmaker! I'm glad Peter Jackson attached his name and power to it, otherwise it may never have seen the light of day in the US.

[2_perseph]

Peter and Fran deserve so much credit, it's not even funny. They gave their movie their full backing, producing talents, and more importantly, they got their power players in Hollywood to help finance the movie. I don't think it would have seen the light of day anywhere without them. God bless them.

And I agree with you 100% about the over-sensitization, and it producing a knee-jerk reaction. If we can't have, or we ignore context, the result will be hysteria every time. Not very productive toward anything.

[darkflame173]

I love Peter and Fran, fer sho. I am considering seeing the Lovely Bones, though I have never read the book, nor thought about it, because he made this film, therefore it must be interesting. XD

[elaur]

I've been skimming the reviews at IMDb and while they are pretty much mixed, the overall score is 8 out of 10. Most of the thumbs-down reviews are complaining that it's all been done before, a rip-off of every scifi flick known to man, schlock, bad script-writing, etc. So out of curiosity, I did a word search of the reviews, and the only references to racism I found were on the positive side -- meaning that the reviewers thought that the racism was portrayed well. As for Nigerians, that was also rarely mentioned, and mostly regarding incomprehension as to why they were even used -- why not just SA gangs? Personally, that would have been my question, being ignorant of the situation. Overall, the reviewers at IMDb were surprisingly intelligent (even if they gave a bad review, they weren't stupid about it) and spell-check was used, but I only went through the first 20 pages.

[2_perseph]

That is very good news to me. I did see the high rating it got, and was so very relieved about that.

I don't know if it's clear in my essay but he used Nigerian gangs specifically because they're the ones notoriously going around exploiting and scamming wherever they can. Had he used SA gangs, it would have rung hollow and untrue, and probably audiences in Johannesburg would have asked him which Johannesburg he's living in.

And in some respects, it's the logical, scifi end of some of the scams Nigerian criminals are pulling today. I lmfao'd when they mentioned the "catfood scam." It was evilly perfect.

[elaur]

Yes, you were clear about why he used Nigerians. Beside the fact that some Nigerians were scamming the whole world over the internet not too long ago (I even watched a Nightline episode about it), I didn't know that there are Nigerian gangs in SA right now terrorizing the populace, so my reaction would have been "He's using the Nigerians as a joke!", thinking about the internet scams. In fact, I did read a reviewer who thought the same thing -- thought of it as almost comic relief, not just because of the internet scams but because they were so "over the top" crazy.

[2_perseph]

Sadly, the last part, no. lol