You don't have to be violent to do an apartheid movie, but neither is graphic violence out of place.

Absolutely true. I read that the director also touched on how totalitarian the government was during apartheid - yes/no?

So it sounds better than Alien Nation (the movie), huh? I mean, in Alien Nation, the aliens land, Reagan welcomes them, and all of a sudden it's a buddy cop film, where the two partners are different! "One's a human, the other alien; they fight crime!"

I wonder how I would do seeing that movie. I cannot watch movies with people being awful to each other. I've never made it all the way through Schinler's List. Last King of Scotland had me crying so hard my husband had to change the channel for me, and The Lives of Others (or something like that) gave me nightmares.

I wonder if it will be easier if the oppressed are aliens.

Swinton = PURE AWESOME WIN.

DJ - I can't watch war movies or movies about genocide for that reason. So I'm going to see D9 with some trepidation.

I read that the director also touched on how totalitarian the government was during apartheid - yes/no?

Oh yes. Very much yes.

It deals very heavily not only with that sort of government totalitarianism, but also with the mindset of the types of people who are happy to help the government enforce that totalitarianism.

And I'm not going to lie to either DJ or le nubian. You may have a very hard time watching the movie. Perhaps even more because the movie does a VERY good job of getting you to empathize with the aliens (I won't call them prawns, as they make it clear it is the equivalent of calling blacks "keffers" which was, I believe, Afrikaner for "cockroach").

It is a very good movie, but it won't be any easier to watch than if it was a straight up movie about actual apartheid.

calling blacks "keffers" which was, I believe, Afrikaner for "cockroach"

The word is "kaffir" and it got to Afrikaans from Arabic and has nothing to do with cockroaches.

Thanks, Sean! That says to me that as much as I want to see the movie, probably better to wait for a rental. Openly weeping and snotty in public is not my thing.

The word is "kaffir" and it got to Afrikaans from Arabic and has nothing to do with cockroaches.

Oh, okay. It was a half remembered tidbit. Regardless, I know it was offensive, and the use of "prawns" in the movie was meant to be equivalent.

As an aside, you sound offended by my incorrect understanding of the word. Is that the case? If so, I am sorry. I was trying to explain that I did NOT want to use a term that was meant to be equivalent to another offensive term, and I do appreciate your trying to correct my ignorance.

Frankly, if you know the full meaning of the word, I would appreciate an accurate understanding, and not just being told that my understanding is wrong. That's only pointing out my ignorance. Not actually correcting it.

It means unbeliever in Arabic. I don't know if it ever had any other meaning in Afrikaans or came straight onboard as a word for black people.