'Distric 9' is a remarkable film

The title of the blog has nothing at all to do with a review of the film 'District 9'. There are a lot of reviews, including my own but the film has been out nearly a week and you likely already know if you will see the film or not.

What is much more remarkable, and if you like the medium of film even a little bit this should make you happy, is that this low budget, almost independent film made a lot of money.

Why do you care? The Hollywood system, especially summer blockbuster season, is built around stars and known properties. A quick list of this summer's films will demonstrate that all the movies studios spent big money on were what they judged to be the safest bets possible. They hope to have movies with built in audiences and the same famous faces, both if possible. For example most of the summer list are sequels, based on something already popular and have famous people in them.

Studio safe summer movie choices:
Fast And Furious
The Hannah Montana Movie
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Star Trek
Angels And Demons
Terminator 4
Night At The Museum 2
Up (a creative film, known brand in Pixar)
Land Of The Lost
Transformers 2
Ice Age 3
Harry Potter 6
G.I. Joe

That isn't to say these are bad movies, just movies without an original concept, premise or execution (except Up). Some of them are terrible and although folks are content to show up for explosions and spectacle, if we refused to go to dumb movies the studios would make smarter ones.

By contrast, "District 9" comes along with a first-time director and a budget much smaller than all of those films except Hannah Montana and not a single actor you or I would know. The star is South African native Sharlto Copley. This story isn't based on a toy, a comic book, previous movies, children's books, television series or a hit novel. Its actually original and new and innovative and daring and all that cost $30 million and it looks "more real" that the Transformers or G.I. Joe flicks that cost six times as much to make.


It was first believed that "District 9" might make as much as $27 million when it opened. Then, some dared say it might make back its budget and climb over $30. After it earned $14.2 million on Friday that number nudged up to $35 million. When all was said and done, it had earned $37 million by Monday.

Twitter.com lists its "trending topics" which tell the world what people are talking about. Even if you hate Twitter or the idea of it, the trending topic tells you what is hot among the 3 million people who use it. (I am MrLDC if you ever care to follow me!) "District 9," the little film financed independently outside of the studio system, has been a hot topic all weekend. In my observation positive comments beat negative ones by about a 15-1 margin, we will call it 9-1 to be safe.

I believe this film is going to stay very popular. It has grabbed attention for being unique and smart and original which leaves it alone in this summer's fare. Ironically, there will surely be a sequel!

So yea, it's violent and bloody and gooey and the people in it are under extremely high stress and they say bad words. So, don't go to it and offend yourself and blame me, but I am more offended by mindless, cartoon violence without real consequences and retread movies that insult my intelligence and provide recycled action, characters and plots.

See, "District 9," actually has something to say and allows the viewer to think about his place in society and how humans treat each other and how we discriminate and justify and get corrupted by money and how we like people like us more than people different from us.

It isn't brilliant social commentary with deep messages, but its fun, smart summer fare that does present the viewer with some questions that he can think about or forget about.

The good news here is that Hollywood's greatest skill is following trends. Perhaps "District 9" will set a trend of low-budget-but-polished films that allows creative writing, direction, design and talent over fame. Perhaps the studios will discover that what people want is great storytelling, not great recycling.

In other news, my wife is one great little homemaker and we almost have a finished kitchen.