We watched the 1988 schlock film again the other night, They Live.
Most definitely a satire, based on the commercialism and greed of the 80's which was showcased just the previous year in 1987's Wall Street, it stands up very well even today in the age of #OccupyWallStreet.
Consume, sleep. OBEY.
These messages are being delivered to us in real life through even more communication mediums in the 2010's; Social media, on one side is an equalizer and a great tool for grassroots movements. On the other side, it is used to make us consume and become far more complacent to the encroaching police state which has been growing faster since 9/11.
Cable, which was still in it's infancy in the 80's is a major part of the film. Control of the masses is engineered through the signal emitting from the Cable station tower. Them good old days of over the air transmitting......
The film's unlikely hero is played by Rowdy Roddy Piper, the character has no name through the whole film. Which I didn't even notice until the second or third viewing.
Credited as "Nada". He is a nameless man just trying to get through during hard times.
Moving from place to place to follow the work, no real roots or family are ever discussed. He quietly observes the world around him without really ever becoming involved.
Head down, keep working.
Frank: So how you gonna make it?
Nada: I deliver a hard day's work for my money. I just want the chance. It'll come. I believe in America. I follow the rules. Everybody's got their own hard times these days.
But it does not mean he is totally complacent and willing to wait....Not when he is shown that the deck is stacked.
He finds the sunglasses that show him that the world has actually been infiltrated by alien creatures, and that the messages of Consume, sleep. OBEY etc are everywhere, just under a veneer that the glasses seem to filter out.
The alien creatures have been turning earth into a third world by leeching resources and obliterating living standards for humans. Layoffs, homelessness.... With the help of humans who are working with them for monetary gain, promised or real. Working against their own long term best interests. That should sound familiar.
Drifter: What's wrong with having it good for a change? Now they're gonna let us have it good if we just help 'em. They're gonna leave us alone, let us make some money. You can have a little taste of that good life too. Now, I know you want it. Hell, everybody does.
Frank: You'd do it to your own kind.
Drifter: What's the threat? We all sell out every day, might as well be on the winning team.
Sure. It's a Sci-fi/dark comedy. Low budget and in many parts very poorly acted. I am not normally one for a shoot em up kind of movie.
But this one stays with me, simply because it is also another example of Art telling a story that has a lot of thought provoking parallels to what we are going through now with the rise of the 1% to the detriment of the rest of us. The alien part just makes it a helluva lot of fun to watch....
Clever writing really saves this film, fabulous dialogue.....this line is actually one of the best eva! I would put it in my top 5 movie lines.
I read there is a remake in the works. They are saying that it will not have the sunglasses and will perhaps more closely follow the short story which was credited in the Carpenter version.....
But sometimes, a really great hokey plot device and a gratuitous, schlocky, yet hilarious 6 minute fight scene......
Added stuff I like is subversive/counterculture story, a low key- yet effective score, and for more amusement, the aliens all look like Republicans/Conservatives, sometimes even after the glasses are on? ....This is all a girl really needs to keep a film on the must-see-list.
Spoiler in case you have not seen it:
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Our hero does not make it through at the end, but he manages to break the transmitter and the aliens are exposed to the world with some quite hilarious results. We are left hoping that they were able to break free and kick some alien asses to the curb.
If only things were so easy in real life. Eh?