OT: District 9

[Santiago]

Saw it yesterday and it's really pretty good as I didn't have a clue what to expect.

Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings) wanted to do a Halo movie with Neill Blomkamp directing. Fox, Universal and Microsoft couldn't agree. So Jackson- to make it up to Blomkamp turned Blomkamp's short "Alive in Joburg" into a feature length film.

It starts out as a documentary style film. Twenty years earlier a ship appears over Johannesburg and humans have to break in. The aliens are settled in a camp below the ship. Present day- The aliens are going to be forcibly resettled out of the city and the central character is charged to do it. The evil humans want access to their technology especially their weapons.

As far as Apartheid goes, the eviction and relocation of the aliens is based on District Six, a former inner-city residential area in Cape Town, South Africa. The district was declared a 'whites only' area by the apartheid government in 1966 and the population of 60,000 forcibly removed to Cape Flats, 25 kilometres away during the following years.

[Artaud]

Originally Posted by Santiago

Saw it yesterday and it's really pretty good as I didn't have a clue what to expect...

As far as Apartheid goes, the eviction and relocation of the aliens is based on District Six, a former inner-city residential area in Cape Town, South Africa. The district was declared a 'whites only' area by the apartheid government in 1966 and the population of 60,000 forcibly removed to Cape Flats, 25 kilometres away during the following years.

I was going to point these things out, but you've pretty much nailed it. The use of 'law' to sanction brutality was a hallmark of the apartheid regime.

I thought it was a great movie. I'm pleased that many of the extras were residents of Soweto, which still is a poor area.

Aside from that, the aliens have some of the #@#&ing coolest weapons I've ever seen in a sci-fi movie!