The full movie of They Live is available here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYJIIPs-5rQ
They Live, John Carpenter’s 1988 dark comedy science fiction movie, produced on a budget of $3 million. They Live is based on Ray Nelson’s short story ‘Eight O’Clock in the Morning’. The original content does not have the political commentary of Carpenter’s adaptation, Carpenter’s movie critiques the consumption and commercialisation of the 1980’s America. Carpenter felt They Live was the suitable movie to comment on themes of greed, competitiveness, unemployment and inequality after watching TV and “realised that everything we see is designed to sell…the only thing they want to do it take our money”. Not a profound discovery, but an interesting subject for a dark comedy. During Carpenter’s attempts to sell the idea of the film to a Universal executive he was asked “Where’s the threat in that? We all sell out every day”, a question which was eventually included in Frank Armitage’s screenplay.
The plot of the movie revolves around Nada (Rowdy Roddy Piper - WWF and Hell Comes to Frogtown) and his eventual buddy Frank (Keith David - The Thing), who join a revolutionary force, led by Gilbert (Peter Jason - Carpenter film veteran), who are able to see the true identity of the ruling financial elites and collaborators (trade unionists, police and management). The tool of sight for the revolutionary forces are a brand of sunglasses. The sunglasses show the ghoulish alien identity of the financial elites. It is the plan of Nada and Frank to destroy the signal, which transmits subliminal messages for humans to consume and blinds them from the true nature of the financial elites.
They Live contains many highlights which stick in your memory long after the movie, which has helped this movie achieve cult status. A five minute brawl between Nada and Frank, which required 3 weeks of rehearsal, and one of my favourite scenes in film - Nada entering a bank to exclaim ‘I have come here to kick ass and chew bubblegum…and I’m out of bubblegum’.
They Live is a fun film, with dark contents. All aspect of the movie are brilliant, apart from the music (John Carpenter and Alan Howarth) which is the true bad guy of the 1980’s! They Live is the movie which Jean-Luc Godard could never make, a film which takes aim at capitalism and doesn’t alienate the viewer.
5/5
