They Live

Dir: John Carpenter

1988

*****

They Live is memorable for many different reasons and is a cult film like no other. I have raved about it to so many of my non-cinephile friends, generally those who are interested in social issues and the odd conspiracy theory. I get them interested until I tell them the part about our protagonist only being able to see aliens when he puts on a pair of special sunglasses, after that, they laugh and dismiss the idea of watching the film with me or ever. They are missing out on one of the most brilliant films ever made. On the face of it They Live looks like a 1980s big hair version of a 1950s sci-fi b-movie – and in many respects it is. However, there is a brilliant social message beyond the fighting and alien invaders. The idea for They Live actually came from a short story called "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" by Ray Nelson, originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1963, involving an alien invasion in the tradition of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which Nelson, along with artist Bill Wray, adapted into a story called "Nada", published in the Alien Encounters comics anthology. The story sees a man put in a trance by a stage hypnotist, awakening to find that the entire human race has been hypnotized, and that alien creatures are controlling humanity. He has only until eight o'clock in the morning to solve the problem. Director John Carpenter acquired the film rights to both the comic book and short story and wrote the screenplay, using Nelson's story as a basis for the film's structure but ditching the hypnotics. In Carpenters film, we follow John Nada (played by my favorite Wrestler of all time Roddy Piper), a drifter who goes from town to town looking for work. Arriving in LA and seeking out work in construction. Once at his job he befriends Frank Armitage (the brilliant Keith David) who invites him to a local church soup kitchen that helps out guys like him who have fallen on hard times and don’t have much money. The church’s preacher both warn of the men about various conspiracies of control and Nada discovers the church is a front for something, finding lots of scientific equipment hidden inside. Knowing something is going on, Nada keeps a eye on the church and that night the shanty town he has settled in is raided and the church is bulldozed in the commotion. Nade visits the ruins of the church and discovers a box full of sunglasses without thinking much of them until he puts on a pair. The sunglasses reveal a hidden reality where media and advertising hide omnipresent subliminal stimuli to obey, consume, reproduce, and conform, while many of the elite are actually humanoid aliens with a blue skinless complexion. It’s one of my favorite scenes in the history of cinema. Nada can’t quite cope with this new and frightening knowledge and in true brash Roddy Piper fashion he confronts one of the aliens who alerts the others via a communicator that they have have someone that can see them. Nada, being a tough guy – and being Roddy Piper – beats up two alien policemen, steals their guns and goes on an alien killing spree uttering the now immortal line "I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubble gum". It becomes clear to Nada that while most people are unaware they are walking among aliens, some people do. He tries to save a woman while evading the alien police but she promptly pushes him out of a window, not believing a word he is saying. Now a fugitive of the law and the aliens, Nada goes back to the wreck of the church to fetch more sunglasses to hand round. He finds Frank and tells him of his revelation but Frank doesn’t believe him. When Nada tries to force Frank to put on the sunglasses the pair begin one of the longest, most grueling fights ever in the history of cinema. Nada eventually manages to put sunglasses on Frank once he’s beaten him to a pulp. Frank soon agrees to help Nada get to the truth and both men soon find a group of anti-alien activists, who give them contact lenses to replace the sunglasses. They learn that the aliens control Earth as they have other planets in the past; they deplete each planet's resources and destroy its environment before moving on to others. They broadcast a signal that effects people’s sensory perception of what they see, so if they take out the source of the aliens' broadcast signal then everyone will see the hidden reality. Nada and Frank then set out to find said signal with the intent to destroy it, using loads of gadgets (also seen in Ghostbusters 2) from the anti-alien activists to achieve their goal. If any of that sounds awesome it is because it is. Some 1950s b-movies had ulterior motives and hidden meanings, with propaganda being used heavily if the country of origin was at war. They Live is no different, as Carpenter unleashed his growing distaste with the ever-increasing commercialization of 1980s popular culture and politics, particularly the economic policies promoted by U.S. President Ronald Reagan. Carpenter commented that "I began watching TV again. I quickly realized that everything we see is designed to sell us something... It's all about wanting us to buy something. The only thing they want to do is take our money." The aliens were deliberately made to look like ghouls, according to Carpenter, who said, "The creatures are corrupting us, so they, themselves, are corruptions of human beings." The aliens represent capitalism, best represented in 1988 as the ‘yuppie’. Slavoj Žižek explores the meaning behind They Live perfectly in 2012’s The Pervert's Guide to Ideology were he uses the main trope of the film, the wearing of the special sun-glasses revealing the truth of that which is perceived, to explain his definition of ideology. “The sunglasses function like a critique of ideology. They allow you to see the real message beneath all the propaganda, glitz, posters and so on. … When you put the sunglasses on you see the dictatorship in democracy, the invisible order which sustains your apparent freedom”. He cast Piper after meeting him at 1987’s WrestleMania III because "Unlike most Hollywood actors, Roddy has life written all over him.” Carpenter wrote the role of Frank specifically for Keith David because he needed someone "who wouldn't be a traditional sidekick, but could hold his own." And he knew he would be perfect for this after working with him on The Thing. You may think that their long fighting scene was purely because the audience expected a bit of brawling from Piper, but that isn’t the case. It’s probably the most important and poignant part of the film. Frank fights off Nada until he he’s nearly dead. He is fighting the truth – he doesn’t want to know – he represents a big slice of society who would rather cling onto the comfort of ignorance than to face the harsh truth that we are all slaves to the system. It’s loony and it’s certainly lefty but it’s a remarkably clever film that uses horror, comedy and sci-fi to explore a society that is far more frightening and far more ridiculous than They Live could ever be. It’s a modern masterpiece.