Cinematic literature - the complexity of language

Although many people believe that language in films cannot be as expressive as that in literature, this is an incorrect assumption based on a misunderstanding of just how flexible the cinematic medium really is. While it is sometimes true that written words can convey details that film cannot, in some respects, the spoken word, in conjunction with the character's body language, can be far more expressive.
   The film " District 9 " by Neill Blomkamp, provides numerous examples of this. Dealing with the relocation of a group of alien refugees to a government internment camp, the film utilizes language to illustrate the tensions between not only the aliens and their human hosts, but also between the differing human characters.The dialects of the human characters serve to define the film's South African location, a country with a long history of seperating others who were "different". Paul Smit, the government bureaucrat who orders the relocation , is a man of obvious education and refinement. His tone of voice, choice of words and body language, however, show a ruthless disregard for others that would be difficult to convey through any other medium. The lives and well being of humans and aliens alike mean nothing to this man. The military contractors tasked with carrying out the evictions, use language that is more direct and substantially coarser, as might be expected. The use of slang terms to reflect the humans attitude toward their unwanted guests harks back to films such as " Alien Nation." In that film, the aliens are called "slags", in this one they are referred to as "prawns", a reference to their crayfish like appearance - both are terms of derision. The speech patterns of the family members of the protagonist, Wikus van de Merwe, reflect their greater emotional involvement with the unfolding events as well as their confusion about what is really happening. And lastly, changes in the language of the main character himself, illustrate the metamorphosis, both physical and mental that he undergoes after exposure to an alien fluid. His language and mannerisms become increasingly coarse throughout the film, conveying the subtext of his transformation from a pompous official who views the aliens with contempt, to a fugitive human/alien hybrid stripped of reputation, social status and family, with Christopher Johnson,one of the aliens he despised, as his only ally. At the end of the film, his words and body language reflect not only his degradation but his new found empathy with the plight of the aliens.
    All in all, the uses of both verbal and body language were the perfect vehicle to emphasize a tale about transformation, and as befits a movie about the unending process of change, we are left to guess at the ultimate fate of the main characters. One of the best films dealing with intolerance to ever come out of the sci - fi genre