Runtime: 94 minutes
Directed by: John Carpenter
Starring: Rowdy Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg Foster, George “Buck” Flower, Peter Jason
From: Universal
You know, you look like your head fell in the cheese dip back in 1957.
Last night was the time to FINALLY revisit one of John Carpenter's more famous films, and one that many have said seems more relevant than ever... not to bring politics into this review but Carpenter did say the idea for this (based loosely on a short story) was his disgust of “Reaganomics” and how it created an increase of the income gap mixed in with his loathing of increased commercialization. It's up to the reader if United States politics in recent years can be applied to They Live-for certain commercialization has become even worse in the past 30 plus years. Subliminal messages of “obey”, “consume” and “no thought” definitely have rang true to me at times in the recent past. In addition, this has moments where there is both police brutality and the homeless are treated rather poorly; heck, global warming is even mentioned long before that became a huge concern w/ the general public.
John Nada (the surname is from the short story; not very subtle to say that the protagonist is a nobody but at least that point is driven home) is a down on his luck person who walks to Los Angeles and ends up on a construction site as that's all the work he can find. While living in a shantytown, he stumbles upon what seems like a loony conspiracy thought up by some peculiar people; unlike QAnon, this one is true... at least I hope no one reading this believes in QAnon. Anyhow, via special sunglasses, subliminal messages are now visible and many people are actually aliens in disguise. Nada ropes in his buddy Frank to try and destroy the satellite signal that is allowing both to occur.
They Live takes its time to let the story slowly unfurl and allows the lead to try and piece it all together. There is basic information presented throughout as to the endgame from the aliens but thankfully there's no contrived info dumps which spell it all out as the viewer only needs the basics. It is easy to root for both John and Frank; Keith David is great as always and in a career where he ended up doing quite a few low-budget pictures, the late Rowdy Roddy Piper was probably at his best here, at least outside of professional wrestling. Their infamous epic brawl is unforgettable, due to length, brutality... and them fighting over Frank being asked to wear those special glasses. Also, I was personally glad George “Buck” Flower had a prominent supporting role.
Even if you divorce this from the real life inspirations that made John Carpenter angry & want to tell this story, it is like one of those paranoid conspiracy thrillers of old where innocent people discover the truth concerning horrible activities & they discover that some are happy to “sell out” for money. It is a fun yarn (with memorable one-liners throughout; it's not just the famed bubblegum zinger) where the message is not suffocating or sucks the fun out of seeing the heroes attempt to reveal the nefarious deeds. As typical for the director, the film found more success in the years after it was first released; OBEY and some other ideas are popular among certain segments. In other words, this does not feel dated at all.
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