Comments on: Catfights in District 9

By: Emily

Emily — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 03:25:44 +0000

Interesting post!

I would like to add one thing that I have yet to see brought up elsewhere: The Nigerians are speaking Swahili.

Nigerians don’s speak Swahili.

Yes, I found the flesh-consuming characterizations offensive, but that doesn’t compare to how I feel about the fact that a movie with a $30M budget got such a simple–and huge–thing wrong.

By: keelsetter

keelsetter — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:01:19 +0000

Interesting points. When thinking of the success of something like BONNY AND CLYDE zeitgeist issues cannot be ignored. That being said, I think America has always embraced the violent archetypes. Think of 1998 when the biggest societal uproar to capture the 24-hour media cycle for months-on-end was a sexual dalliance between the President and his intern. Ah, the good ol’ days! Even then, we were embracing Mel Gibson, Bruce Willis, Steven Seagal, etc. On the broader subject of the medium being the message, in regards to PUBLIC ENEMIES, I found the choice to shoot that digitally to be very jarring – which is to say it did the opposite of evoking the past, or the time of Dillinger. It felt too new. And, as such, I couldn’t lose myself in the story and, instead, was distracted by my inability to suspend my disbelief. But that same digital immediacy I equate with our present times certainly worked in favor of DISTRICT 9.

By: suzidoll

suzidoll — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:28:09 +0000

My keyboard is sticking but I will try to comment without so many typos as in my comment above. Good grief.

There were so few interesting interpretations or comments about PUBLIC ENEMIES that I don’t quite remember any that stood out. There was some decent comments on the use of digital cinematography on some blogsite by Medfly(?), or something like that. I kept waiting for Dave Kehr to weigh in because he’s one of my favorite critics, but I never caught if he reviewed the film, or not. A couple of reviewers noted that Dillinger was a Robin Hood-type bank robber and how appealing that is to today’s audiences, who would like to blow up a bank or two along with their greedy CEOs. But, Mann’s exploration of Dillinger as a romanticized outlaw — in line with cowboy heroes and movie gangsters of old — that is a violent archetype we Americans tend to embrace when things go sour in our society or culture was not caught by anyone I read. In Chicago, everyone got bogged down in how well the film depicted “the real Dillinger.”

By: Keelsetter

Keelsetter — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 05:48:47 +0000

Now inquiring minds want to know…

Which critic or review would you hail as having nailed down the subtext of PUBLIC ENEMIES best?

By: Suzi Doll

Suzi Doll — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 03:55:50 +0000

Interesting discourse on the discourse surrounding popular film. I was planning on seeing this film and now I will definitely see it. Many reviewers these days don’t have the chops to interpret the subtexts of film (re: most missed the boat with PUBLIC ENEMIES, so I am not surprised at the mixed messages on this one. Thanks for a interesting post.