They Live
Article by Doug Eaton
They Live
Do you ever get the feeling that there’s something just “off” with the world? Like, you’re not really in control of the things that are happening around you? That there are forces at play that no matter how hard you try to understand them, they remain a mystery to you?
Don’t feel bad, we all feel like that sometimes. Luckily a great way to distract yourself from that feeling is to watch movies. Yes… Submit to the screen. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
On the surface, They Live is a great sci-fi action movie about a tough as nails good guy, a resistance movement, and a bunch of bad guy aliens who are taking over the world. And as a 12 year old kid the first time I saw it at a sleep over at a friends place, that was enough for me.
Some 10 years later, I saw it again through a very different lens, and saw it for what John Carpenter intended it to be seen as. An expose of the rotten culture of rampant capitalism, corruption, greed and the decline of the “American Dream” caused by the steadily expanding gap between the working class and the wealthy elites.
Wow, that got heavy didn’t it?
To really appreciate the film as a snapshot of the time, you need transport yourself back to the late 80’s (one of my favourite things to do). Ronald Reagan was the president, and thanks to Reaganomics the rich were getting richer and the middle class was benefitting due to the trickle down effects of huge tax cuts for the wealthy and the corporate sector. At least that’s how it looked on paper. The reality for the man in the street was quite different however, as President Reagan also went after trade unions, furthering the divide between the haves and the have nots.
Yeah OK Doug, thanks for the voodoo economics lesson (Ferris Bueller, John Hughes, amirite?) but what does all this have to do with a pro wrestler with a pair of magic sunglasses?
Well, basically, They Live is John Carpenter’s protest song about the Republicans.
The Aliens are the wealthy elites, controlling the world behind a screen and manipulating the working class into doing their bidding and making them more and more rich and powerful without ever knowing they are doing it, and Nada (our unnamed protagonist) is the working class, making a stand and taking the power back!
OK, lets take it back to the 12 year old kid experience….
How cool is it when wrestlers are in movies? And how much cooler is it when they have 6 minute fight scenes and spout one liners? Its awesome to put it simply.
“Rowdy Roddy Piper” plays our hero Nada, an every man who travels to LA looking for work.
Along the way he encounters some strange goings on and finds himself in possession of a pair of sunglasses that allow him to see the world through they eyes of the Aliens who have infiltrated the higher levels society and placed themselves in positions of power.
Carpenter was a huge wrestling fan and met Piper at Wrestlemania 3, instantly deciding to cast him as the lead in They Live, his adaptation of the 1963 short story “8 O’Clock In The Morning” in which a man awakens from being hypnotised to realise that the entire world has been hypnotised by aliens. Piper’s transition from wrestler to actor helped pave the way for others to do the same, with varying levels of success, think Hulk Hogan in “Suburban Commando” and Dwayne The Rock Johnson in just about everything.
Carpenter although mostly known for his horror works was heavily influenced by the classic sci-fi films he grew up watching in the 1950’s. It was the portrayal of aliens in these movies that shaped his view of them as bad guys and invaders, not benevolent and kind types like those seen in E.T and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.
They Live marked a return to low budget (relatively speaking) film making for Carpenter, with a budget of 4 Million, as opposed to the estimated 20 Million budget of his previous film Big Trouble In Little China. That movie was a commercial flop and left Carpenter disillusioned with Hollywood.
But Low Budget is where Carpenter shines, you might remember a little independent film called Halloween?
And lets talk about that fight scene! Obviously with a pro wrestler in the lead role, there was always going to be an epic fight. And with Piper’s years of fight choreography under his big flashy gold belt (yes, I said choreography, wrestling is not real, deal with it) this battle is not to be missed…
And you can’t miss it, it goes for 6 minutes. It’s a brutal thuggish slug fest of punches and kicks and knees and elbows. No martial arts, no fly by wire, just two dudes duking it out. The scene took 6 weeks of choreography and training and was shot with wide angles and long takes, making it seem like an endurance event.
Piper being no stranger to showmanship, it was actually he who came up with the iconic line “I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass… and I’m all out of bubblegum”
They Live while an 80’s sci-fi action movie at its core, still stands up today as a warning against unbridled capitalism, greed, and how easily the masses can be manipulated by those in control of the systems around them. It remains relevant, even more so with the current levels of addiction to social media, and yes I understand the irony of saying that while writing a review that will likely be read on mobile devices…
And speaking of cool tech devices, keep an eye out for the PKE Meter from Ghostbusters that makes an appearance.
OBEY CONSUME CONFORM SLEEP