When I was a child They Live was
somewhere between amazing and the greatest movie of all time. This is John Carpenter at the top of his game and completely holds up all
these years later. Yeah, it's totally flawless.
The movie serves as a good social
commentary on class inequality (which I get into below) as well as
contemporary media theory. In the vein of Neil Postman and Marshall
McLuhan the film signals the declining ability of mass media to share
serious ideas. These images confound the issues by demeaning and
undermining political discourse. Real issues are turned into
superficial images that are less about ideas than they are about
distracting. This may be the best representation of those ideas on
the big screen.
It is especially good considering
today's political climate. It should be required viewing for Trump
voters.
Pros: Super fun. Works as a social
commentary. Carpenter at his most subversive. Pretty funny.
Cons: Some of the fight scenes drag on
a bit. Ending is somewhat cliché.
Disclaimer: My notes pretty much always
contain some spoilers but I rarely give away the ending.
Notes: The movie is basically a
political satire. Street preacher is talking about how we are
enslaved and the masters are right there around them. We just have to
wake up and see. Piper looks at him like, “huh, this guy is making
some sense.” Piper is, of course, homeless. Meets Keith David after
working a manual labor gig. He takes him to a homeless camp. Imparts
some homeless person wisdom. Piper says he believes in America still.
He is not what I would call a cynic.
Lot of class warfare stuff going on
here early. Totally a metaphor for communism. Guy pirates his way
into television broadcasts and spews all this revolution jargon. A
lot of “one day we will rise up and smash the oppressors.”
Typical commie stuff. Eventually, Piper makes his way to this church
where that dude posts up. Also in there is the black dude from Repo
Man, Sy Richardson. They making these glasses that let you see the
lizard people and wouldn't you know it, the lizard people, with the
help of LA's finest, a la bourgeoisie, attack the church. They more
or less just relocate the church and homeless camp (which takes way
too long) where Piper lives. This is represents the proletariat. This
is the movie, the communist revolution, but with aliens.
With the church leaders presumably
beaten to death, the homeless camp starts to reform. Piper goes back
to the church. Kicks down a wall and finds a box of those fancy
sunglasses the church elders were making. With these sunglasses,
Piper now sees the way things really are. Billboards now read “Obey”
and “Marry and Reproduce” and “Do Not Question Authority” and
a bunch of other stuff. Some people are aliens or whatever and money
reads “This is Your God.” He also hears stuff which doesn't make
any sense but roll with it. It's a really good scene. 
Eventually all this gets to be too much
for him and he freaks out. Starts telling it as he sees it which is a
mistake. Tells a chick she is “really fucking ugly.” The aliens
get on their watch/phone/communicator things. Piper insults a few
more people and gets kicked out of the store. Finest show up and then
it's fucking on like Michelle Kwan. Piper is there to “chew
bubblegum and kick ass” and he's “all out of bubblegum” and he
starts mowing down aliens.
Several absurd one liners. There is the
bubblegum line, this is where that came from. “Momma don't like
tattle tales.”
Kidnaps this lady. Gives her the talk.
As soon as she gets a chance she hits him with a bottle and throws
him out the window. It is insane. He falls from the second story,
face first, and rolls 40 feet down a rocky hill before planting in
the middle of the street. One hell of tumble. She calls the police
but see that she has Piper's crazy glasses.
Now everyone thinks Piper is an raving
psychopath and his mug is all over the news. No where for him to go
at this point. Gets himself some more glasses from a garbage truck.
Keith David shows up and gives him a week pay before punching him in
the face. They have an epic fight that includes multiple fucking
suplexes. It goes on forever and they are both fucked in the end. All
to get KD in the magic glasses. No one wants to try on your fucking
glasses. But he eventually gets them on and now he has “woke up out
of the dream.”
Eventually meet up with the resistance.
The lady he kidnapped is there and some sort of expert now. She is
shocked he is alive after that tumble. The police bust in out of
nowhere in the middle of her apology and mow down everything. It's
fucking crazy. Good old Sy is no more. Now it is fucking on.
Figure out how to use the watches to
teleport and they end up in the alien headquarters. A bunch of
idiots, both aliens and “the human elite,” are celebrating
because they think they beat down the terrorist resistance. A
homeless dude from earlier is among them, now in a tuxedo. He goes
from a drunken crazyman to the most sophisticated person who ever
lived. Shows them around. Turns out the aliens control the media. It
then becomes Piper and David's mission to end the means of
communication.
Great fucking flick. Great fucking
ending with a little bit of humor thrown in. It's totally worth your
time.
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