I
remember during grade school two brothers I knew, James and Andy, that
absolutely loved wrestling. I would hear
stories about Monday Night Nitro parties and all the excitement about these
wrestling Gods flying off the turn buckles into each and all the moves with
zany names that they would perform. I
like to think that I have a pretty open mind but wrestling was something that I
just couldn’t get into. Maybe it is my
lack of enthusiasm for the sport that translates into my ho hum response to John Carpenter’s They Live.
They Live
is a commentary about how the rich and wealth keep the poor and middle class
America from succeeding. From the
beginning, our main character John Nada (get it, he’s nothing) wanders the dirty
streets looking for a means to survive.
His lack of skills and education means few job prospects and has to beg
for a simple construction job. The doors
slamming it his face about lack of education echoes in today’s society about
how a high school degree doesn’t cut it anymore. From Nada’s view, he also sees America from a
view point that doesn’t want to acknowledge the homeless. The homeless are portrayed as peaceful while
anyone in authority, such as the police, are shown as cold and ruthless.
Later on in the film, when he gets the sunglasses he can
see how the humans are being controlled by the aliens with subliminal messages
about consumerism. A magazine or a
dollar bill has the hidden terms “no independent thought” and “this is your God”. This revelation is commenting on how society
has become dependent on products and big business. The aliens control over the middle class and attempt
to obliterate the poor from uprising can be compared to today’s healthcare
system. The policies people can afford
barely cover anything and the poor that can’t are now taxed to death. Instead of everyone being on a level playing
field, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
The film rides the line between action thriller and
science fiction. For example, any point
of view through the sunglasses is filmed in black and white. This harkens back to the sci-fi invasion
films of the 1940s and 1950s. Film such
as Invasion of the Body Snatchers played
into people’s fears about not being able to trust anyone because the enemy
could be anyone. They Live plays into that same fear with sunglasses showing who is
the alien but without them they look like a normal human being. With They
Live also being filmed in the 1980s, the aliens aside from evil were also
bent on controlling all aspects of American life. Twenty years later, we started having commercials
advertising drugs people started to think they needed. I’m pretty sure you don’t need sunglasses to
see how consumerism was starting to take a big turn at that point.
There are a lot of wide shots in the film to make it feel
like a big grand experience, mostly like a western. Having our main protagonist look at the
bright lights of the city skyline creates an atmosphere about not belonging but
wondering what is on the other side. It’s
like not being invited to a party but looking across the street at the house it
is being held at and wondering about what great time is being had without you,
just as how the homeless in the film gather around television sets to pass
time. That’s the irony that these less
than fortunate people were put in their current living situation are still idolizing
the aliens unknowingly.
Overall, the film is the equivalent of Zebra Stripe Gum
in the sense that it starts out very tasty but quickly loses its flavor. Roddy Piper is a serviceable action hero but
the one key ingredient he lacks is charisma to make him a great action hero. His muscles upon muscles don’t have the
strength to carry the movie through the slow periods of the film. If one compares They Live to another average man in an intense situation film like
say, Die Hard, Bruce Willis’s John
McClane made you feel for the central character by emotional monologues about just
trying to get to his wife and kids. The
audience was thrilled during the action set pieces worrying that McClane may
not make it to his ultimate goal. Piper’s
Nada drifts into the story from the very beginning but it is unclear what he
his goals are. Even though we see his
character hitting the wall with society in the beginning of the film, there isn’t
a payoff for the audience when he starts fighting against the aliens. He just kind of does it because the script
needs him to.
You can also compare the 1953 film Shane which was about a drifter coming to a town to try to better
himself by escaping his past. The main
protagonist is simply named Shane, no last name just Shane. He is befriended by a family of ranchers who
are trying to be run out of town for their land by hired gun hands. Shane’s dark past as a gunfighter makes him reluctantly
use his gun fighting skills to save the family and ride off mortally wounded
into the sunset. What made it heart
breaking to hear his young friend yell “Shane!!! Come back!!” was that the
audience cared about Shane, and like the young boy, were heartbroken he tried
to make right in a world against him but couldn’t escape his demons.
They Live doesn’t
achieve this level of emotion but if I close my eyes and listen really hard I
can faintly hear James and Andy yelling for Roddy to come back. Unfortunately, like grade school, I can’t
get past my lack of enthusiasm.
