Intertextuality and District 9
Intertextuality - how does District 9 utilise the iconographic and paradigmatic features of video games? And why?
Intertextuality: where one media product makes reference to another media product. This can be explicit, for example in Scary Movie, there are explicit references to Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer and so on. However intertextuality can also be soft and vague
- Gibbing - huge explosions of abject blood and guts. In video games, this is often a cathartic and fantastical reward for playing the game well, a visual encoding of ‘overkill’. In District 9, it serves exactly the same purpose, serving as a fantastical wish fulfilment contrasting with the bleak, vile sadness of the rest of the film.
- The iconography of aliens in games like Gears of War and District 9 are similar: strange, alien creatures that are hostile
- The apocalyptic and destroyed setting is highly reminiscent of District 9
- Hypermasculine representations, particularly of Koobus, are typical of video games. This bis reinforced through the extreme violence that the entire film focuses on.
- These videogame elements allow the film to appeal to and target a pre-sold audience of young men.
Intertextuality - how and why does District 9 make direct reference to Robocop (Verhoeven, 1987)?
- Intertextuality allows the director to influence audience expectations. Additionally, the references to 80s sci-fi such as Robocop allows audiences to understand how D9 is using sci-fi conventions to encode political allegories.
- The use of robot iconography in D9 represents an uprising against oppression. It represents a power fantasy, where weak pathetic Wikus is able to ride a big powerful robot around.
- There are similarities in the size of the machines, and their use of rotary machine guns, iconography that has also become popular in video games
- This use of intertextuality is also a chance to celebrate and pay homage to the iconography of classic sci film
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