Abjection, disgust and emotional response in District 9 and South African cinema

Mr Bones (2001) - how does the trailer for this wildly popular South African film encode representations of ethnicity? And what does this trailer teach us about South Africa?

• A slapstick comedy, with repulsive toilet humour  throughout.
• Much of the comedy comes from a white man playing a crude stereotype of a black man. This insensitive representation indicates that much South African humour can be politically incorrect and racially charged. Much South African comedy follows this routine. 
• In Mr Bones the comedy arises from differences in culture. Despite the fact this is a post-apartheid film, the idea of black people and white people being equal is presented as a hilarious idea. 
• Finally, Mr Bones is surprisingly crude and gross from a British perspective. But District 9 is ALSO crude, gross, vile, and over the top in terms of how it presents its genre conventions. 

How and why does District 9 adopt such a brash and crude mode of address?

• The laboratory fight takes on a slapstick nature, with blood and gore flying everywhere 
• Constant swearing throughout the film, with almost every sentence having the word ‘fuck’ constructs a humorous and unserious mode of address
• The silliness of the MES of the aliens arm 
• Wikus running around, pulling, falling over and getting in to scrapes is funny! It is a ridiculous and darkly comic performance 
• Lines like “I did not have any pornographic activity with a fokking creature!” construct a crude and unpolished sense of humour 
• This crude and unpleasant mode of address in in stark opposition to Battle of Algiers

District 9 - how does this film use micro elements to encode abjection, and why?

• Julia Kristeva argued that abjection, or to cast off, is a tool often used in horror films to evoke disgust. Horror films often use gore and disgusting themes to engage and interest its audience. Yet here, abject themes and imagery are used to explore allegorical themes of racism and prejudice. 
• The entire setting of the township is constructed through the MES of rusty metal, which connotes a sense of unease and abjection. The MES of rubbish connotes a lack of care for the environment, but also a lack of infrastructure. 
• Wikus cuts off his alien hand, placing his foul abject appendage on a dirty hunk of concrete. Wikus looks away, and we see his face in close up, shaking and shuddering, his face covered in sweat. This not only anchors Wikus as terrified, it also reinforces Wikus as abject. As spectators, we feel conflicted, finding Wikus disgusting and pathetic, yet also sympathetic and relatable.
• The alien hand is disgusting and abnormal, and forms a binary opposition with his normal, human hand. Wikus’s reaction to it is to cut it off. This binary opposition between humanity and an alien identity can only be solved through violent force, which once more alienates and disgusts the target audience. The MES of black blood spurting in a CU shot is abject, strange, disgusting, and anchored through the reaction of Wikus's screaming face further reinforces the themes of hatred and disgust.
• The squelching wet sound effects help elicit disgust in the spectator, and reinforce the perspective that Wikus's hand, and now Wikus himself is disgusting and abject
• “I did not have any pornographic activity with a fokking creature!” - The power MNU corporation has used their power to smear Wikus as a foul sexual pervert. Wikus has been constructed as a degenerate, an abject outsider and untouchable by society. 
• By using disgusting themes, imagery, settings and even humour, this sequence constructs an ideology that brings the oppressor closer to the oppressed

Emotional manipulation and spectatorial alignment in District 9 

• While District 9 is crude, unpolished, silly and funny, it adopts a dual and polysemic mode of address by constantly flitting between ridiculous ‘fun’ sequences and highly emotionally manipulative scenes which forcibly align the spectator with the preferred ideological reading. The character Christopher Johnson is a perfect example of this manipulative alignment.
• Christopher Johnson’s face is smeared with red blood forming a sympathetic and empathetic link with Johnson. However, the smear of blood on his face forms a binary opposition with the alarming MES of Koobus’s ally being ‘gibbed’, and the abject spray of blood and guts going everywhere. This reinforces the ideological perspective that violence is justified in certain situations. We see exactly the same themes mirrored in BOA, particularly in the Casbah bombing scene…
• Christopher Johnson is represented through an explicit montage of him being beaten up. This constructs him as a victim and the underdog of this situation. This realistic representation of violence has clear parallels with the torture scene from BOA. 
• The soundtrack is moving and manipulative, using orchestral instruments to construct and anchor a sense of sadness in the spectator. This overly exaggerated mode ensures the spectator is aligned with Christopher Johnson.
• Christopher Johnson is wearing a red jacket. This serves two functions., It allows the audience to differentiate between him and the other aliens. Yet it also serves to humanise him, and allows the spectator to identify with something abject and alien.
• Christopher Johnson’s performance is mainly constructed through the MES of his eyes. Expressive and emotional, they align the spectator to his own ideals and ideologies. The BCUs of his expressive face can be seen mirrored in BOA in many uses of BCUs
• In addition to being humanised, Christopher Johnson is also compared to an animal, with the MES of his scaly skin. 
• Some violence in the film is sad and impactful, and some violence is extreme, comedic and resembles a video game instead (intertextuality). There's no one word for this, but when someone gets blown up into body parts in a game, a slang term for this is 'gibbed' (short for 'giblet... not nice I know!). We discussed why Blomkamp used the visual language of video games in this film, and concluded it was for comedy, to construct binary oppositions, and to create a conflict between 'good and bad violence'. Simply  put, when the 'bad guys' (antagonists) get blown away with the extreme and ridiculous MES of 'gibbing' ', it is fun, exciting and cathartic for the spectator. Lots of action films do this, especially my classic example, James bond films.
• On the other hand, the smear of blood on Christopher's face is subtle and creates empathy because it is relatable for the spectator. The combination of his cut face and the performance code of his sad eyes aligns the spectator with his suffering. 
• Basically, this film is doing some very complex stuff with violence, and how the spectator reacts to violence. To compare this to Battle of Algiers, we cheer when Ali punches that guy at the beginning who tripped him over, yet we flinch during the torture sequence. The film maker legitimizes one form of violence  and criticizes another.

Repressive state apparatuses in District 9

• MNU (multi national united) is an ominous extra governmental organisation that uses it’s wealth to use alien weapons to sell to international governments. In short, they are weapons brokers. They are “the second biggest weapon manufacturer in the world”
• Their power is encoded through the use of CCTV footage that suggests that they are in total control of Wikus, his life and everything which is happening. 
• The performance of Wikus’s father in law is cold and remorseless, and reflects the evil of the organisation. It forms a binary to Wikus pouring with sweat in clear discomfort
• The MES of the electric probe tortures Wikus in to pulling the trigger of a gun against his will