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I think the alien understood, because his responses made sense in the context of the questions he was asked.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Why does every SF movie these days have to make humans the bad guys? District 9. Battle for Terra. Hell, even animated movies, like Ice Age and Finding Nemo. The message is that humans suck. The self-loathing is really starting to make me sick.
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Lisa: Was there anything in the preview that seemed out of the ordinary for a human response? I especially liked the comment one of the people made, "They must just go, I don't know where 'dey go, a'they must just go."
Part of the reason human criticism comes easily, is that I feel there is a strong feeling of guilt for all the years we said something was right because we said it was. By keeping the human race penitent, it might stop us from getting back there.
My guess is if the humans are bad guys in District 9 it also necessitates that humans be the heroes along with some of the aliens. It wouldn't surprise me if some of the aliens decide to break rules and take over some land while the other aliens try to help good humans stop the rest of the race from going bonkers.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Looks dumb. I saw the trailer and felt like I saw the movie. Nothing like an unsubtle message to take any interest out of what looks like well made eye candy. Like Lisa, I have to tell hollywood "Humans are Scum" I get it. Now, can't I watch a movie without getting hit over the head with a lazy hammer?
Blackblade: I would buy your argument IF Hollywood hadn't become so predictable. In fact, I would love to eat my words.
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I don't think humans would treat literally non-humans all that well when we're still working on treating each other equitably. I wouldn't mind a bit more "self-loathing" in the media really.
Posts: 7593 | Registered: Sep 2006
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For those who might not be aware, the writer/director is South African, and "District 9" is very purposefully meant to be an allegory for apartheid. Making humans the oppressors is crucial to the point of this movie, which is NOT that all humans are scum, but rather that the fear of the "other" - an undeniably human trait - can lead to institutionalized discrimination. If that message bothers you, well, you might want to take another look at human history.
I think it's important to notice that the viral advertising for the movie isn't about pitting aliens against humans, so much as alerting potentially-sympathetic humans (that would be us) to the aliens' plight. "George," the alien blogger behind "MNU Spreads Lies," is clearly intended as a Nelson Mandela analogue. I think there will be substantially more shades of gray to this story than Occasional or Lisa are making it out to have.
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quote:Originally posted by BlackBlade: Lisa: Was there anything in the preview that seemed out of the ordinary for a human response? I especially liked the comment one of the people made, "They must just go, I don't know where 'dey go, a'they must just go."
That didn't bother me nearly as much as the aliens just wanting to go home, and the humans not letting them.
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quote:Originally posted by Tarrsk: For those who might not be aware, the writer/director is South African, and "District 9" is very purposefully meant to be an allegory for apartheid. . . . I think there will be substantially more shades of gray to this story than Occasional or Lisa are making it out to have.
How can it possibly? Apartheid is, pardon the expression, a black and white issue. Do you see shades of grey with Apartheid? If not, how can you imagine there'll be any in this movie?
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I sort of agree with those talking about how 'humans are bad mmmkay' but it's kind of a cool twist on alien 'invaders.' It's not like we need another Independence Day or War of the Worlds.
Posts: 326 | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Tarrsk: For those who might not be aware, the writer/director is South African, and "District 9" is very purposefully meant to be an allegory for apartheid. . . . I think there will be substantially more shades of gray to this story than Occasional or Lisa are making it out to have.
How can it possibly? Apartheid is, pardon the expression, a black and white issue. Do you see shades of grey with Apartheid? If not, how can you imagine there'll be any in this movie?
I don't see shades of gray in institutionalized racism, if that's what you're suggesting. However, I absolutely do see shades of gray in the human beings that made such a terrible thing possible.
What I and Blompkamp are suggesting is that perfectly normal people, people moral in most other respects, can and do play a role in (and share in the responsibility for) discriminatory policies. The policy of apartheid itself was abhorrent, but so was slavery, and so was the Holocaust. That does not necessarily mean that all southern whites or Germans of those respective places and eras were evil. Many were no doubt well-intentioned, otherwise moral people who contributed to evil, whether by turning a blind eye, getting swept up by propaganda, allowing their fear to get the better of them, or simply not questioning the prevailing political bigotries.
Post-apartheid South Africa itself recognizes this fact - the Truth and Reconciliation commission was designed to allow both perpetrators and victims of apartheid to offer testimony and, in the latter case, receive amnesty. It is a recognition that reconciliation can only occur if people accept their own fault in the atrocities, no matter how seemingly minor, and that those atrocities were made possible as much by their "minor" sins as much as by the men in power.
Posts: 1321 | Registered: Sep 1999
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quote:Originally posted by BryanP: I sort of agree with those talking about how 'humans are bad mmmkay' but it's kind of a cool twist on alien 'invaders.' It's not like we need another Independence Day or War of the Worlds.
Very true. I think there's been a fair amount of 'aliens are bad' stories. Alien invasion is one of the oldest sci-fi cliches. This looks like an interesting variation to me.
Posts: 1569 | Registered: Dec 2004
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It is easy to demonize people. It is far harder to look at some of the things they did and try to find out WHY they did them.
I find what Hitler did to be disgusting and horrible in a way that very few things ever had been, but simply painting him a monster reduces what he did. I doubt if I studied him I would find anything that would even partially explain (and nothing could possibly justify any of it) what he did. Yet there is something to be said for trying to understand those days, and the time in which he lived in.
Not to justify any of it, but to learn from it so we can prevent anything similar from ever happening to anyone again.
I like the idea for this movie, and might go see it. You never know...just because one alien tells a human they"just want to leave" doesn't make it the truth.
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