I was invited to see Peter Jackson’s new offering District 9
.
I almost SMS’ed my friend Dave back and told him to pick a different movie, but that is not protocol when being invited to a movie me thinks.
So someone looked it up on the internet and saw it had gotten great reviews. Certainly not from what I saw on the TV ad!
It was brilliant (bit of body splatter on the camera lense!). It was not a USA saves the world from alien attack. In fact it was not about USA at all. It was filmed in South Africa with South Africans and was about South Africa, it was about Apartheid, and segregation, about racism and inclusion. Hatred and relationship. The star Sharlto Copley had not even acted before and had no intention of pursuing an acting career. He stumbled into the leading role as ‘Neill Blomkamp’ placed him on-camera during the short film.This was one of those movies that leaves you thinking about it for days after. The film was based on director Neill Blomkamp‘s childhood in South Africa during apartheid.
I recommend it for all who don’t mind some pulse weapons blowing bodies into slushies.
A bit of powerful trivia from the film – All the shacks in District 9 were actual shacks that exists in a section of Johannesburg which were to be evacuated and the residents moved to better government housing, paralleling the events in the film. Also paralleling, the residents had not actually been moved out before filming began. The only shack that was created solely for filming was Christopher Johnson’s shack. The mutilated animal carcasses in the background of many scenes were real and with only a few exceptions, were already in the real slums and shacks used for the filming.
You gotta see the life like website they have produced.
No Guarantees 