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| Elysium opens Aug 9th |
For decades in South Africa, Apartheid was the law of the land that separated the races in that nation. To say that it produced many conflicts is an understatement, but the nation overcame it's controversy and even elected Nelson Mandela as it's leader (if you need me to tell you about this great man, get out from under your rock). Though Clint Eastwood made a great film (
Invictus) about South Africa uniting to win the Rugby World Cup, South Africa was the center of one of this century's most underrated films,
District 9. Director Neil Blomkamp drew inspiration from South Africa's history in telling his story and his follow-up film
Elysium opens Friday with the same theme...only different.
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| Matt Damon stars in the action film. |
Elysium is story about the manmade space station that the rich live on in an Utopian setting (free of hunger, disease and pollution) while the rest of the people live on Earth that is rife with all three of those. An ex-con Max DeCosta (Matt Damon) tries to move on with his life when a factory accident leaves him with 5 days to live. He straps on an exoskeleton and tries to sneak his way onto Elysium; past the the vicious forces of Secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster) led by Agent Kruger (Sharito Copley). Unlike
District 9, Blomkamp sets this film in Los Angeles, not Johannesburg.
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| Shartio Copley starred in Blomkamp's breakout District 9 |
Back to Blomkamp's first inspiration, as
District 9 showed the oppressive government that was forcing aliens (called Prawns) out of their slums to a concentration camp setting called District 10. However, everything changed when clumsy, contemptible MNU company man Wikus Van De Merwe (Copley) stumbles upon a canister that he believed was a weapon. It wasn't, but the liquid was ingested accidentally by Wikus and caused massive physical changes. He began to become a Prawn. As his company (and father-in-law) turned against him, Wikus fled to District 9 for shelter. As Wikus' life begins to unravel, he "befriends" a Prawn named Christopher Johnson and they band together to get back the liquid Wikus confiscated- fuel to pilot a pod that could get the aliens home. At times, the two protagonists we're helpful and spiteful toward each other. Wikus wants desperately to be human again and Johnson sees the experiments MNU was doing to the Prawns. With a theme of "How the Other Half Lives", Blomkamp weaves story, action and character together so well that the pacing of the film seemed shorter than the nearly two hour running time. The perspective of Wikus worked perfectly too. Like
American History X, this story was from the point of view of the racist. Wikus joked about an "alien abortion" and slaughter of alien young that it sounded like popcorn. It certainly turns your stomach, but once he is forced to retreat into District 9, Wikus begins to change. He becomes more concerned about his survival and aggressive as his racism softened, but not too much to be corny or unbelievable. The film had a perfect ending and should be on everyone's watch list.
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| District 9 delivered in every way. Can Elysium do the same? |
Obviously, we draw from our experiences in creativity. Blomkamp appears to have done a great job with that. If
Elysium can match the work of
District 9, Blomkamp will be on his way to stardom.
