Comments on: Why District 9 is like a videogame, and why it says more about apartheid than you think (Spoilers) http://joeljohnson.com/2009/why-district-9-is-like-a-videogame-and-why-it-says-more-about-apartheid-than-you-think-spoilers media giant. Mon, 14 Mar 2011 00:17:32 +0000 hourly 1 By: MRod http://joeljohnson.com/2009/why-district-9-is-like-a-videogame-and-why-it-says-more-about-apartheid-than-you-think-spoilers/comment-page-1#comment-50 MRod Fri, 21 Aug 2009 01:22:13 +0000 http://joeljohnson.com/?p=94#comment-50 Excellent write-up. Excellent write-up.

]]> By: AynSavoy http://joeljohnson.com/2009/why-district-9-is-like-a-videogame-and-why-it-says-more-about-apartheid-than-you-think-spoilers/comment-page-1#comment-47 AynSavoy Mon, 17 Aug 2009 20:44:56 +0000 http://joeljohnson.com/?p=94#comment-47 The Onion A.V. Club interviewed the director, Neill Blomkamp, and his perspective is fairly enlightening on some of these questions (assuming you want to hear it from the horse's mouth). Specifically about the Christpher Johnson phenomenon, he writes: "The idea is that—this gets really geeky and insane, but going back to their hive-structure thing—their queen has died, and the elite population of their society has died, which are really the decision-makers. You’re left with a bunch of drones that aren’t directed on their own goal-setting basis. I like the idea that after 20 or 30 years, that their ESP kind of hive-mind will begin to almost elect members of its population to start—their fundamental brain architecture could actually change, and they start forming leadership roles. So I think when they’re on their ship, and they’re all destitute, when you see them at the beginning of the film starving, it’s that there is no one thinking on that level. They simply take orders. So it’s taken 20 years for that hive to start realigning itself. And so as Christopher has gone through these years, his mind has started to be honed into forming a plan. So that’s where it came from. And this nano-fluid that he had to collect, which he would have had access to on the ship back then, it’s just simply that the drive didn’t exist. The hive is just trying to restart itself. " The full interview, which is quite interesting, can be found here: http://www.avclub.com/articles/district-9-director-neill-blomkamp,31606/ The Onion A.V. Club interviewed the director, Neill Blomkamp, and his perspective is fairly enlightening on some of these questions (assuming you want to hear it from the horse’s mouth).

Specifically about the Christpher Johnson phenomenon, he writes:

“The idea is that—this gets really geeky and insane, but going back to their hive-structure thing—their queen has died, and the elite population of their society has died, which are really the decision-makers. You’re left with a bunch of drones that aren’t directed on their own goal-setting basis. I like the idea that after 20 or 30 years, that their ESP kind of hive-mind will begin to almost elect members of its population to start—their fundamental brain architecture could actually change, and they start forming leadership roles.

So I think when they’re on their ship, and they’re all destitute, when you see them at the beginning of the film starving, it’s that there is no one thinking on that level. They simply take orders. So it’s taken 20 years for that hive to start realigning itself. And so as Christopher has gone through these years, his mind has started to be honed into forming a plan. So that’s where it came from. And this nano-fluid that he had to collect, which he would have had access to on the ship back then, it’s just simply that the drive didn’t exist. The hive is just trying to restart itself. ”

The full interview, which is quite interesting, can be found here:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/district-9-director-neill-blomkamp,31606/

]]> By: Justin Lonas http://joeljohnson.com/2009/why-district-9-is-like-a-videogame-and-why-it-says-more-about-apartheid-than-you-think-spoilers/comment-page-1#comment-46 Justin Lonas Mon, 17 Aug 2009 20:31:13 +0000 http://joeljohnson.com/?p=94#comment-46 The movie hit a core note for me in the way we treat things we don't understand and also the reactions we make when "Controlled Environments" don't work the way we think they should work. Take the idea of the prawns digging through the trash, stealing, resorting to violence. It's easier I guess to think of a person, species, creature to be aggressive by nature instead of understanding that what they are exhibiting may be due to the environment they are placed in and their need to survive. The movie hit a core note for me in the way we treat things we don’t understand and also the reactions we make when “Controlled Environments” don’t work the way we think they should work. Take the idea of the prawns digging through the trash, stealing, resorting to violence. It’s easier I guess to think of a person, species, creature to be aggressive by nature instead of understanding that what they are exhibiting may be due to the environment they are placed in and their need to survive.

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