Review: They Live (1988)




I’ve come here to gush about John Carpenter and chew bubblegum. And I’m all out of…you know the rest.

Let’s go back to 1988 yet again. One of my favorite cult film directors, John Carpenter, last got off on his action-fantasy-comedy classic Big Trouble in Little China. Despite being more of the most gleefully fun films of its type in that decade, studio bullshittery saw it relegated to diminished box office returns. This prompted Carpenter to downsize, focusing on low budget films that, all in all, succeeded pretty well despite—or perhaps because—of that, focusing more on mood and tone. Prince of Darkness, in 1987, was a visibly cheap but deliciously atmospheric cosmic horror film, with perhaps my favorite of Carpenter’s scores, and after that, came the somewhat better known They Live.

You may have seen the fashion labels with ‘OBEY’ in big block capitals—this is where it all came from. Much like Carpenter’s social satires like Escape from New York, They Live is fairly dystopic and cynical, but with an undercurrent of sticking it to the man by any badass means possible. Rowdy Roddy Piper takes a break from wrestling to play a drifter who wonders into a Los Angeles hit hard by the recession at the time, while still surrounded by the commercialism of Reaganist America. Vapid commercials play constantly even as he struggles to get a steady paycheck, while shady forces of authority hang over everything—sound familiar?

Stumbling on a resistance group of sorts, Rowdy finds a special set of sunglasses, kicking off one of the most iconic scenes of cult cinema. Turns out America is being enthralled by yuppie aliens trying to reduce mankind to consumerist drones by plastering mind-deadening messages all over the place, invisible to anyone not wearing the shades. Not taking this lying down, our hero teams with prior Carpenter actor Keith David—after a very lengthy fistfight—to fight back against this corporate takeover from beyond the stars.

The premise alone is enough to keep you going through the film—sure, it’s not exactly as lavish as Big Trouble or The Thing. The aliens are fairly obvious rubber masks, their dinky flying saucer drones pretty kitsch, and props are fairly basic—but there’s enough sincerity and shotgun-toting action that it all just adds to the charm. It’s a B-movie alright, but I do love me a B-movie that fully embraces what is and doesn’t give a shit. Bear in mind, that in the 80s action films tended to have something of a conservative mindset—beating down crime by any means necessary, re-winning Vietnam, and standing up to communism in the boxing ring. They Live is a refreshing change by having protagonists that take a very different attitude and decide to kick a consumerism-pushing establishment in the balls—sure, it’s really blunt about it, but that’s what gave the film its mark in the annals of low-budget scifi cinema.

Some parts of the film may drag a little or feel a little superfluous, like the aforementioned infamous fistfight, parodied in South Park no less. For some that part’ll definitely drag, but on the other hand, you can see it as a funny subversion of the usual sort of Hollywood fighting that sends people flying back with single punches. Not so here—two men really, really determined not to give in aren’t going down until one of them makes the other put on a pair of glasses. No, I’m not kidding, and that just adds to the dark humor that pervades this flick. 

They Live is a great little 80s flick that I strongly recommend—though let’s face it, the idea of corporate powers that be sending out universally pervasive messages of consumption is so unrealistic. There’s no way they could reach so many people. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve just got to go through Facebook and browse on Google…

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