This is basically my review. Word for word. I KNEW YOU'D LOVE IT. :D
I assumed the creatures bred asexually, and "he" was just shorthand so as not to stripe them of their, er, humanity?
This. I just assumed Christopher was a genderless being. An Engineer, definitely, but not a gendered one.
mmoa has a good (and informed, she's British-Nigerian and visits family out there frequently) take on the depiction of the gangsters which you might want to read, it was posted publically and quite recently on her LJ.
Thank you for the link! Her review was really interesting, and I agree with what she said about not seeing it as an allegory for the apartheid. But then maybe we're all just so used to heavy-handed allegories that when a slicker one comes alone, one that does not get bogged down in trying to follow the events of the story it took its inspiration from, we simply don't recognise it as being an allegory.
I think it's more like CS Lewis said about Narnia (*puts on retarded E Lit hat*) - it's not apartheid, it's what would have occurred if South Africa was faced with alien arrivals. Which doesn't mean that there aren't similarities because there's evidently that mentality in the society that needs looking at, if you follow me? Not an allegory, but an observation that the behaviour is there. Um.
I English badly today.
(but yes, I saw that in the cinema and felt like my insides were going to come out a couple of times. I have a real Thing about medicalised torture, so the tests on his pain limits and, as you said, the moment where he was trying to refuse to kill the alien, or the fact that his POOR POOR WIFE was unaware of what was happening when he was taken away ... really freaked me out. I don't think I've been that disturbed by a film since 28 Days Later.)
Also. The word "prawn" is making me feel guilty. STILL.
Yes, I think I follow you. The mentality that causes the xenophobia in this film is the same mentality that caused the real apartheid in the real South Africa?
Oh god, the torture was so horrible. I have this aversion to seeing helplessness in the face of malice, and this film really hit that squick. It was so disturbing and a lot of the time I was watching over the tops of my glasses to blunt the experience. Didn't help that much.
I am yayful more people think it was really good! I also had a problem with the Nigerians... I would have liked more on the ways they were exploited, and how they got to that position, although I understand it is fairly accurate of the real situation in SA.
I thought it was fascinating that we never found out Christopher's real name (or even what the aliens referred to their species as!). I think most people assumed Christopher was male, but I don't mind, because 'his' love for his son and desire to save his people was really well done.
Those omissions made it more interesting, yes! We never really know anything about the aliens at all, and that in a way makes it better: sometimes, knowing too much can ruin the experience. I loved Christopher. They managed to make him noble without falling on the "noble savage" archetype, which could have been so easily done. But I felt that he was a real character.
Butting in, but it only just occurred to me that Wickus and Christopher have exactly the same motivation; they both Just Want To Go Home and Go Back To Normal.
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I assumed the creatures bred asexually, and "he" was just shorthand so as not to stripe them of their, er, humanity?
This. I just assumed Christopher was a genderless being. An Engineer, definitely, but not a gendered one.
mmoa has a good (and informed, she's British-Nigerian and visits family out there frequently) take on the depiction of the gangsters which you might want to read, it was posted publically and quite recently on her LJ.
Reply
Thank you for the link! Her review was really interesting, and I agree with what she said about not seeing it as an allegory for the apartheid. But then maybe we're all just so used to heavy-handed allegories that when a slicker one comes alone, one that does not get bogged down in trying to follow the events of the story it took its inspiration from, we simply don't recognise it as being an allegory.
Reply
I English badly today.
(but yes, I saw that in the cinema and felt like my insides were going to come out a couple of times. I have a real Thing about medicalised torture, so the tests on his pain limits and, as you said, the moment where he was trying to refuse to kill the alien, or the fact that his POOR POOR WIFE was unaware of what was happening when he was taken away ... really freaked me out. I don't think I've been that disturbed by a film since 28 Days Later.)
Also. The word "prawn" is making me feel guilty. STILL.
Reply
Oh god, the torture was so horrible. I have this aversion to seeing helplessness in the face of malice, and this film really hit that squick. It was so disturbing and a lot of the time I was watching over the tops of my glasses to blunt the experience. Didn't help that much.
Reply
I thought it was fascinating that we never found out Christopher's real name (or even what the aliens referred to their species as!). I think most people assumed Christopher was male, but I don't mind, because 'his' love for his son and desire to save his people was really well done.
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