Alien-Nation: or My Anger Over District 9

[Cliff Haley]

During the summer I went to see District 9. It was billed as a visionary telling of institutional, state-sanctioned racism, deliberately set in South Africa and drawing on the legacy of Apartheid. The catch is that it tells a story of aliens from outer space. I eagerly anticipated it, and boy was I disappointed. I was surprised to discover that the friend I had seen it with had enjoyed the film, and thought it lived up to its promise as thought provoking film. I was dismayed to find that the majority of critics agreed with my friend. I was, and probably remain, in the minority of those who disliked the film, and in the even smaller minority who disliked it for its uses of history (many of the complaints of the public were that it was “too talky” and that the special effects weren’t sharp enough). One critic Armond White of the NY Post took the film to task for “mak[ing] trash of that country’s Apartheid history by constructing a ludicrous allegory for segregation that involves human beings (South Africa’s white government, scientific and media authorities plus still-disadvantaged blacks) openly ostracizing extraterrestrials in shanty-town encampments that resemble South Africa’s Bantustans.” White goes on to criticize the movie for “celebrating” the legacy of the Soweto riots using it as dramatic fodder rather than an actual event where around 500 actual people died. I felt very much the same as White. I thought that any effort to engage with the history of racism and racial violence were swept away by Transformers style CGI action. In the swirl of futuristic guns and explosions, any considerations about the suffering of those who lived under Apartheid, the US South or French Algeria(the subject of my own research) were jettisoned in favor of an action-ending triumph of good guy over bad guys.
I had forgotten about my indignation until I read the article in Film and History by Stoddard and Marcus. After reading their description of “the burden of historical representation”, I realized what bothered me so much about District 9. The story is told unabashedly through the eyes of a white protagonist who learns that racism is wrong, though only because he is becoming an alien. Furthermore, the aliens are cast as inferior, not simply as perceived inferiors. They are stupid because they don’t understand the value of catfood, yes catfood, their favorite treat. Their portrayal in the movie is further entrenched in a cultural history of racism as the aliens assume the role of itinerant peddler, a role historically assigned to Eastern European Jews. My problem is not that a studio chose to make hay using historic tragedy without much in the way of educating the public (an unfortunately common occurrence), it’s that the “high concept piece” about institutional racism repeats, and cements the right of the majority to interpret the point of view of the minority. The film makers took a real historic suffering, (Apartheid) and literally and metaphorically alienated the perspective of the sufferers. What really upset me was how with a slick advertising campaign and cool explosions, the writers were able to do this without raising a fuss and now can congratulate themselves on their thought provoking movie.