District 9 is one long sales pitch for South Africa’s arms industry

The cutting edge weaponry shown off in Neill Blomkamp’s film has its origins in the apartheid years

LAST UPDATED 3:52 PM, SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

Anyone who went to see Neill Blomkamp's sci-fi film District 9 during its opening weekend in Britain will know that it's a blast from start to finish. Filmed in a real-life district of Soweto, it is shot using a compelling blend of documentary-style camera work and voiceovers, spliced with impressive CGI.

What has rendered the film such a success is not only the wild and unceasing action, but its more subtle political dimension. The allegory of apartheid is clear: the stranded aliens, who arrive in badly damaged spacecraft, have to endure a life subject to unbearable restrictions; their status is second class and there is a pervading sense of utter hopelessness at their situation.

And yet, for all Blomkamp's cutting-edge cinematic technique and social commentary, the film is ultimately disturbing for another reason - it appears at times to be an extended advertisement for the South African arms industry, which has its roots in the apartheid era on which the film is commenting.

District 9 offers an awesome showcase for South African expertise in the design and engineering of small arms and high mobility mine-resistant vehicles. The country's arms executives must be rubbing their hands in delight.

Mine-resistant vehicles are of particular interest to viewers thanks to AfghanistanThere is footage of South African assault rifles such as the Israeli Galil-inspired R5 (photographed above) as well as iconic images of automatic shotguns, reminiscent of the apartheid era. We get to see the Vector CR-21 'bull pup' design assault rifle, while one scene shows the Armscor BXP, a nifty little pocket submachine gun.

The film also features the first sighting in mainstream cinema of a 20mm cannon, a type of weapon more usually seen mounted underneath attack helicopters, configured in a South African design as a sniper rifle.

Naturally helicopters feature, too. Keen aficionados of Africa's biggest arms exporting nation will spot numerous scenes featuring the Oryx helicopter (built by Atlas utilising the original French SA-330 Puma).

Of particular interest to British filmgoers – given the recent publicity about soldiers dying in Afghanistan because they are not well enough protected against roadside bombs - are world-class mine-resistant vehicles which feature heavily in the movie.

These include the highly-rated Ratel Infantry Fighting Vehicle and the Casspir, the white monster that features in many scenes

Add to:

Comments

Hide comments

Was it 'product placement'? Did the weapons companies that produced this equipment lend it free of charge to the filmmakers or even pay for their equipment to be used in the film?

Posted by Manny Goldstein at 10:08am on September 7, 2009

Oh come on! What a load of tosh. It's as much product placement as featuring M16s and M1Abrahms tanks in a film set in the US armed forces. I can't believe I'm spending my time responding to this absurd article. I'm no fan of the arms trade, but fer crissakes, this is ludicrous 'rights under the bed' nonsense. Caspirs etc are seen all the time in SA. If you make a film in SA, esp in Soweto, you won't be able to avoid it. Which company or government's arms would the author have preferred to have seen in the film? (Oh, and isn't one of the main plot features in the film about getting alien arms - which are so superior to anything available to the humans' weapons?!)

Posted by alasdairgf at 10:20am on September 7, 2009

The film is rather slow to start and has its dull patches. I don't see the need for South Africans to show anyone else's assault rifles if they make their own. The action is good in the last third, which makes the film - but the alien weapons get all the glory, except for the missile launcher strike on the command module. The politics makes an entirely unavoidable and inevitable but not big-deal part of the whole. You might as well say the film is anti-Nigerian if you want to get political - there is zero to like about them in the film. The alien transformation of the unprepossessing human who gets infected and turns into one of them and gets trashed in the news by his company when they find out he has gone on the run is funny and painful to watch. The horrible messy transform to alien status is dragged out just right, especially the cat food part. And this is a sort of franchise - the alien returns with the promised 'three year cure' is the next episode, or I am a half-breed from the planet Vulcan.

Posted by michael jose at 11:02am on September 7, 2009

This is what I like about The First Post - a fascinating mixture of insightful, though-provoking articles and completely paranoid, off-the-wall claptrap. This one comes into the latter category. Nice one FP!

Posted by Jess D at 11:16am on September 7, 2009

A petty, ridiculous, pointlessly politically correct article, as already pointed out by alasdairfg. Set the movie in Israel and it would have featured a lot of Israeli hardware. The Israelis had to develop their arms industry for the same reason as SA - nobody would sell arms to them. Set the movie in Germany and there would have been a lot of Heckler & Koch small arms on show. Set it in America; M16s and Strykers. Set it in the UK and... ...Well, we probably would have flown in a bunch of arms and vehicles from America, SA and Germany.

Posted by Mark Hale at 12:35pm on September 7, 2009

The Casspirs that you are so excited about are at least 20 years old. The helicopters (not mentioned) are much more recent.

Posted by Hugh Knight at 6:45pm on September 7, 2009

In a world with massive numbers of highly qualified persons desperately seeking work, why is Andrew Rule still employed given the inane gibberish written here? If anything, District 9 is a cautionary or morality tale against weaponry. Tell me this . . . Exactly who won anything as a result of weaponry? All I saw was massive destruction and loss of life!

Posted by fischerwdc at 12:36am on September 8, 2009

haha... that's so ridiculuous! 'MNU' Multi National United, they may as well have called it 'Duff Weapons'. If there is a some marketing for the SA arms business then by writing this article all you perpetuating the very subtle message.

Posted by Wild Bunch Media at 11:41pm on September 8, 2009