ALL SCI-FI

[The Spike]

Life's a bitch and she's back on heat!

They Live is directed by John Carpenter who also adapts the screenplay form the short story Eight O'Clock in the Morning written by Ray Nelson. It stars Roddy Piper, Keith David and Meg Foster. Music is by Alan Howarth (and Carpenter) and cinematography by Gary B. Kibbe.

Unemployed drifter Nada (Piper) wanders into the city looking for work. But upon finding a unique pair of sunglasses, he sees a different world than everyone else. It's a world frequented by an alien race who are using the Earth for their own nefarious means.

See The Truth!

Carpenter does subversive sci-fi, and it's a whole bunch of fun. They Live is Carpenter's wry observation on the politico posers who endorse the rich getting richer and everybody else sliding down the pole! It's also a blatant paean to the glorious years of the 1950s, when paranoia based sci-fi schlockers and creaky creature features ruled the air waves.

It's also a wonderfully macho driven action movie, laced with comedy as well. You can rest assured there will be plenty of shooting, punching, dodging, and spoken lines to make you smile.

Piper is no Kurt Russell, but we shouldn't hold that against him, because he fills the role nicely. With muscular frame, 80s hair and a quip on the tongue, he is most assuredly a Carpenter leading man for the 80s. Alongside him is the reassuring presence of Keith David, himself a beefcake, and also one of the coolest muthas on the planet.

It's easy to believe that these two can save the planet, even after nearly beating each other to a pulp during a prolonged side-alley fight sequence, where Carpenter doesn't miss a chance to parody professional wrestling. Meg Foster gets the lead lady role, with those amazing eyes nestling in perfectly with the world Carpenter has created.

Carpenter does "political"? Yes, but it's not the be-all and end-all of his intentions. He wanted to make an action sci-fi schlocker with sly politico undertones as motives. And that's exactly what he did. Joyously so. 8/10
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The quality of mercy is not strnen.

[Randy]

"I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass!" ...


... "And I'm all out of bubble gum!"

[noetic_hatter]

Anytime I decide to turn this one on for "for just a minute", it's a bad time-management decision. Once that music starts, I am hooked until the end.

More relevant today than it was in 1987.

[Randy]

If I've told you once ... I've told you twice ...

I ain't puttin' on them sunglasses!

[Bogmeister]

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______________________They Live - trailer


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They! They? Who are... THEY?

They are everyone who has ever lorded over others. They are the ones who benefit most in a society. They are the elite, the rich, the powerful. And they are — according to director John Carpenter — aliens from outer space.

Indeed?

This rates as one of the most unusual alien invasion tales in Sci-Fi, a blaring attack on Reagan America, a decade in which some feel that corporate powers masked extreme greed with 'feel good' propaganda about capitalism.

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It's nothing new, really. This theme goes all the way back to H.G. Wells and his parable on the rich vs. the poor (the upper class vs. the worker class) in The Time Machine. It's all about how a select few get all the rewards on the backs of the many.

But I've rarely seen such a subversive reworking of our reality as I did here. This film was shouting at us to wake up, to take off our blinders, to see the world as it really is. Above all, maybe we're right to mistrust politicians and wealthy lawyers. See also The Arrival (1996), another alien invasion tale with similarities, but with less the blatant commentary on our preoccupation with money.

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Now, I've long had a problem with Hollywood elites telling the rest of us who or what we should watch out for. They tell us to watch out for the upper class, yet they themselves are a part of this upper class. So, their message is actually —

"Watch out for a certain kind of upper class, just not us, the messenger. We're the 'good' upper class and the rest are the 'bad' upper class."

It's simplistic of course, and ironically it's similar to the control attempted by these alien invaders in They Live.


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Rather than the standard invasion of destruction and/or enslavement, the invaders here go for a more subtle approach. They either trick most of us into a submissive role, or they coerce a few of us with bribery. Thus our world is invaded & enslaved, yet we don't even know it.

The weapon is subliminal messaging. All our communications apparatus — TV, billboards, magazines — have been subverted. We think we're watching a TV show or reading an article but, in reality, we're receiving subliminal messages instructing us on how to behave, work, sleep, obey, and not to question.

It's a crazy idea . . . yet not so crazy.

It sure is different and creative for a Sci-Fi film. I can only judge by personal experience on how well the film worked after I first saw it in a theater. For the next couple of hours after watching it, I was in a different world. I regarded everything a bit differently. Was that really a signpost I was looking at now or was it a message from some alien masters? Was that really what I was seeing on TV at the moment? Was there a special reason why I felt lethargic sometimes?

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The power of suggestion plays a large role in this film. It's mostly conveyed by the main character of Nada (play by Roddy Piper). He's a laborer who goes city to city looking for work, such as at construction sites.

He stumbles on to this big secret (THE Big Secret) after his curiosity nets him a box of strange sunglasses. These glasses were manufactured by a small organization of people who are aware of the secret invasion and refuse to give in to the aliens. It's a great moment in cinema when Nada first dons the glasses, which enable him to see past the subterfuge engineered by the aliens.

Then he gets an even greater shock when he sees his first alien. Welcome to the revolution!

At this point, Nada decides it's time to chew bubblegum and kick some you-know-what. But his greatest test is convincing a fellow Earthling (David) to try the sunglasses.

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Roddy Piper, then a well-known TV wrestler, was new to the acting business and it does show, especially in his movements. Carpenter, for example, had him move backwards in a few scenes and Piper's technique was too mannered, as if he knew a camera was on him and he was playacting. But, in many scenes, he is well suited to be the rough everyman who is forced to become an action hero / alien executioner.

He instantly hates the aliens when he becomes aware of them. When they try to make a deal with him (rather than just kill him, as other aliens in other films would do), his contempt for them becomes a driving force for the rest of the film.

Critics accused the final third of this film as degenerating into simple, almost mindless gun-play, and they may have a point there. But overall it's an unusual, even fascinating Sci-Fi thriller. So the next time your boss speaks to you or your friend gives you a strange look, think about it. Are they really who they seem to be?

BoG's Score: 9 out of 10


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus

[Bud Brewster]

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Wow, I've never even heard of this movie, but BoG raves about it and gives it a 9 out of 10!

I hope some of you other members will tell me more about this movie. Meanwhile, I'm going to try find a way to see it.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Morbius]

Great movie, great sound, what a fight scene.

[Bud Brewster]

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My gift to you and the members of All Sci-Fi, a free download from WeTransfer, acquired from Archive.org. Just click on the link below and it will be downloaded to your computer.

But do it today, because WeTransfer won't have it indefinitely.
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They Live (1988) Link is now active!

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)