Login
Aliens
District 9
The movie District 9 was an unexpected hit both for its creators and the cast. The film did not have big names starring in it, but it still attracted a large audience. It also received praise from the critics thanks to the interesting theme of segregation and exploitation. The movie shows the human race exploiting and segregating the weak and vulnerable aliens in order to gain the needed knowledge. It also demonstrates how people often ignore and do not help those who are different, but instead, misuse them and lose all of the human feelings in the process.
The movie describes the alien ship coming to Johannesburg. The aliens are starving, they are very weak, and cannot go back home. Although they are peaceful and have no intention of harming the people, residents of Earth are immediately disgusted with them. The reason is that the aliens look very repulsive so they receive a nickname prawns. They are moved into the District 9 outside the city because people fear and dislike them. The movie shows that although the aliens are week and cannot cause any harm to the humans, they are not getting any help or mercy. On the contrary, people would rather have them killed as they are unhappy with the money being spent on them and their presence in the first place. Meanwhile, the MNU tries to use the aliens in order to obtain their weapons. It keeps the aliens alive only to figure out how to use their arms, and that is the main reason why the aliens still live. It is a good example of the powerful organization using weak creatures and exploiting them to get the information it cares about.
Besides, the movie has other examples of exploitation. The fact that the man assigned to monitor the aliens can use their weapon due to an incident makes MNU exploit him, too. It wants to use him in order to understand the way the arms work, and it does not care whether he is human or not as long as it gets what it wants. This shows that not only people want to be segregated from the aliens in the movie, but would also use their own species for the selfish results.
The man monitoring the aliens is also a good example of a person being exploited by others. He is definitely not bright, and while he needs help due to his alien infection, he does not receive any from the people (Ebert). It shows that he was merely exploited until he could perform his task, but then he was no longer needed.
The movie made one think about similar examples of exploitation in the modern society. Although the period of apartheid is over, there are plenty of other instances when the strong exploits the weak. Good examples would be the countries that are non-democratic, like North Korea. There the authorities make people do whatever they want, and while the general population has to suffer from the scarcity of resources, the strong ones enjoy the benefits of using the power of the weak.
Terrorist groups, like ISIS, are another example. They divide human population using similar segregation techniques shown in the movie. Then, they exploit the vulnerable population so people do whatever terrorists demand in order to save their lives (Giovannia et al.). This way, the terrorists control the people and also get the funding.
Read more about Research Paper Writing Help for Any Student. Feel free to order your paper from Essays-Services and forget about your worries.
Exploitation does not necessarily come from the political authority, but may be the result of the poverty and the power. The division between the workers and managers in Bangladesh is a good example of that. Workers who make clothes on the factories in Bangladesh work in truly horrible conditions that do not meet any of the working requirements of the Western world (Bilton). They spend 19 hours per day working; they are treated very badly, and still get tiny wages that does not allow them to lead normal lives (Bilton). Managers, on the other hand, show no mercy for the workers and demand non-stop work from them. The worst part about it is that the factories are often branches of some Western companies that make huge profits on the exploitation of the weak and vulnerable workers in Bangladesh. Thus, although the managers in the West know the conditions of the employees very well, they still keep on misusing them in order to make a lot of money. At the same time, they are very hypocritical because they apply particular conditions to the workers in the West, but do not do so outside the Western world in order to exploit people for the profits.
The given Bangladeshi example also shows how the local managers separate themselves from the weak and oppressed workers. Although they are the citizens of the same country and grew up with similar traditions and morals in mind, the managers do not want to lose their authority. That is why, instead of trying to help and improve the working conditions, they continue oppressing the workers.
The given examples show how much injustice there is in the world, and how exploitation remains a serious issue. They also demonstrate that exploitation is usually followed by segregation when the strong separate themselves from the weak based on various principles whether its race, background, or the social position. When doing this, they show that they actually enjoy this order when getting various things because of exploiting other people. The film made one realize that there was an important message about the peoples behaviour behind the metaphor, and just as people were making mistakes in the movie, they keep on making the same ones in the real life.
