District 9: A Reflection of 21st Century Fears

Science fiction has a long history of addressing social issues in the guise of aliens, mutants, cyborgs, etc. and District 9 is no exception. Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatehell, co-writers of the movie, have chosen the city of Johannesburg for the setting of a "first-contact" event with the aliens, who are nicknamed Prawns. Through this setting, they have drawn an obvious metaphor with the Apartheid's "othering" of the black population in South Africa. The shanties in which the Prawn forced to live, the restrictions on Prawn's movements, and the fear and unease expressed by the human residents of Johannesburg all contribute to the parallels with Apartheid. However, upon closer examination of the film within the light of events during 2009 reveals a more subtle metaphor is occurring.

The Prawn, another name for shrimp or someone small, can be seen to parallel the "little guy" in America, while the MNU Corporation parallels Obama's term as President being accussed of exhibiting Nazi-like characterists by right wing groups. The August 2009 protests against the new health care plan openly compares Obama to Hitler, and thereby using America's underlying fear of Nazism to manipulate voter opinion. I will show how District 9 is a continuation of this pattern by linking similarities between Apartheid to Nazism, then to Obama's presidency.
We will first look at the apparent "othering" of Prawns through the way they are isolated from society. Prawns are forced to live in severe poverty in fenced-in shanty towns which are identical to the isolated districts in which Black Africans were forced to live during Apartheid. The Jews were also forced to live in poverty apart from society in the ghettos during the Nazi regime. During the opening scenes we are introduced Wikus, the main character, as he is being interviewed about his recent promotion within MNU supervising the Prawn "eviction" and relocation to another camp further from Johannesburg. We have the immediate impression that the Prawns are being moved for possible extermination, just as the Jews were moved from their ghettos and toward the Nazi "final solution", extermination. We also have the impression that our main character, Wikus, is being set up as the fall guy for this project. Here in America, the poor also live in extreme poverty in ghettos, though fortunately not locked in those areas. Our faltering economy with its increasing unemployment is helping to move middle class Americans, symbolized by Wikus, to fall into poverty.
Next let's look at the way the Prawns are used by the MNU Corporation. It is important to note that the Prawn did not initiate first contact. They did not land on Earth soil, nor make any hostile motions against humans in this movie. The human security guards from MNU physically cut through the haul of the Prawn space ship, which was simply stationed above the city for a prolonged period of time, and proclaimed that the Prawn "need our help" because they are "sick and starving." At this point it is important to know that in Blomkamp's original short film, "Alive in Joburg", upon which District 9 is based, the aliens actually were violent, aggressors on Earth. They were shown using the body armor with its impressive weapons to attack police and soldiers. This difference in the way Prawns are depicted in District 9 shows a change in the movie's purpose from the original film. It is no longer a first contact film of humans fighting off aggressive aliens. It is humans who are the aggressors. This difference between "Alive in Joburg" and District 9 involves the supposed humanitarian aid which humans think they must give the Prawn. The Apartheid government didn't try to take control of the South African Blacks health for "for their own good." So the metaphor between the Apartheid and MNU doesn't fit for the movie. The Nazis didn't even pretend to want to help the Jews, however they did use the Jewish prisoners for a variety of medical experiments. MNU's version of helping the poor, sick aliens is similar to the Nazis. MNU uses the Prawn in horrific medical experiments so they can learn about their genetics and use the Prawn weapon, which are genetically programmed for Prawn use only. The Prawn, after all are not any more human to the MNU than the Jews were to the Nazis, and they are potentially dangerous.

Now we can tie the American "little guys" who don't have health care back to the Obama administration's Universal Health Care. Obama says we must take care of all those "little guys" who don't have health care because it's our humanitarian duty. This particular comparison of the Nazis to MNU to the American government all wanting to "take care of" the poor, impoverished people touches the fears of many Americans and stirs a rebellion within the independent mind against "being taked care of".

The movie takes the Nazi-MNU comparison one step further to include metaphors to Universal Health Care proposed by President Obama. Wikus represents the everyday man, struggling to get ahead in life and to move up the corporate ladder. His promotion to supervisor of the "eviction" of the Prawn looks good at first glance. Yet during the performance of his duty, Wikus is scratched by a Prawn. His arm appears to become inflected, yet he is actually mutating into a Prawn on a genetic level. We think at first it is either the Prawn's scratch or the unknown alien liquid that he splashes in his face. But eventually we learn that MNU is responsible. MNU, like the Nazis, are performing horrendous experiments not only on live Prawn (i.e. the Jews) in order to gain control of Prawn technology, but also on humans. This tie to science and medicine is purposefully designed to promote fear against Obama's Universal Health Care plan and how it will destroy us on the humanitarian grounds of "helping us", just like the MNU destroys Wikis' and the way the Nazis tried to destroy the Jews with genocide. I think it is also interesting to note that as Wikus mutates, he is becoming that which he hates, the Prawn. In an ironic twist, not uncommon with Twilight Zone: The Movie, prejudice has a consequence: first hand experience from the underdog's point of view.

The final curious metaphor comes from the mouth of the Prawn leader. Wikus seeks out his help while trying to run from MNU. The Prawn tells him that he can help him, but it must have the vial of liquid Wikus took during the eviction. It is the same liquid which Wikus splashed in his own face, and it is the fuel for the space ship. They fight their way to MNU laboratory, which is where they discover the mutalated bodies of many Prawn, and regain the fuel sample. Wikus and the Prawn return to the shanty town and the space shuttle hidden under the Prawn's shanty. Wikus insists on being healed right away, but the Prawn tells him that he can't reverse the mutation process without the right equipment. He must return to his home world, but he will return in three years to "rescue" his people from their torment and then he will convert Wikus back to human at that time. I don't believe this three-year time frame is accidental. The movie was released in August 2009, three years from the date America will be in the throws of another election. The conservative parties can then "rescue" middle-class Americans from the "liberals" at the poles. Now it seems to me that when the Prawn returns he will be kicking some proverbial human ass, so is this metaphor an incitement to violence if the conservatives don't regain control or simply a way to make Americans wait for help, as Wikus does? And by the way, this should also set off alarms in your head because we're back to having someone else "take care of us again". It seems that no one realizes that we Americans, whether in poverty or middle class, are adults and could take of ourselves as long as the political and economic cards aren't staked against us.

Either way, I could be write or I could be wrong.