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There's a part of me that, while watching They Live for the first time, thinks 'this is just B-sci fi trash that only attempts shallowly for social and political satire, not to be taken seriously'. But there's another part that outweighs that, which finds this and other John Carpenter films to not meant be taken TOO seriously anyway, all in the (accepted) disbelief that must be taken to really enjoy and admire his work. But as far as being a sort of B-movie goes- and They Live, despite having a bigger budget and more special effects than most, has that spirit in its bones like an old comic book from the 50s- this is probably one of the best I've seen from the past twenty years. Like Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China, it doesn't kid itself what it is for its audience- a hilarious take on subject matter that is not taken for granted. It's an intelligent, hilarious, and extremely entertaining movie, where the subject matter is not very nuanced and (as in Dawn of the Dead) in your face and right up there without question. It's like a 1950s sci-fi piece about invaders from other planets seeking us out for domination, only shifted in the 1980s (and still relevant for today more than ever) and given both realistic grounding and just a pure hard-boiled action film. It has the danger of being cheesy, dismissible material, but somehow it all works much better than expected.
For a film like this as well you need a star, who in this case was a WWF superstar, who has much more on-screen machismo and a strong enough presence with some good acting skills. Roddy Piper fits so well into this role it shows the potential that unfortunately hasn't been tapped by most filmmakers. Carpenter sets up the story perfectly well with its ambiguity- it's all from Nada's point of view. (His name is never given, but hey for this story who needs it anyway?) He's a drifter who gets construction work, but by the slums he lives in he sees a church doing strange things, and after an out-of-the-blue incredibly violent police raid, Nada soon finds a pair of sunglasses left behind. He puts it on and his world goes completely awry; many people are aliens, subliminal messages saying terms like 'Obey', and if you're spotted SWAT teams fly in. He draws in the help of his reluctant-to-the-point-of-fighting friend Frank (Keith David, always good but very impressive in his typical tough-guy way) to seek out the source of all of these 'signals' given off by the visitors.
Again, this could all be pretty hokey in the wrong hands. But Carpenter trusts the material to the point where he takes it seriously on one side and not on the other. There's a kind of attitude about the film, as with others in his work, that reflect of course cynicism and outrage at the system, but all in the guise of something much more sinister at work. As the best sci-fi gets at criticism of society as it is, the underlying current in They Live does get some very good jabs in. Perhaps what I mean by this divide in serious and not (and yet both sides working well) is when Piper puts on the glasses the first time and almost bugs out at what is all around him. This is a very funny section of the film- possibly the funniest- but it's filmed unpretentiously and the direction is always very concisely with bits of imagination (those black and white inserts, obvious, but always fun). And at the core of this being a satire on the controls of society and breaking off from it (or just not being on it to start with) is not skimping on what some would expect- loaded with guns, violence, action that isn't compounded by excess weight.
Featuring a fight sequence that ranks as one of the most intense and amusing in recent memory, perfectly chum-like dialog, one of Carpenter's very best musical scores, and an ending that packs it all in, They Live is a great escapist movie with a message that actually hits. It's also an prime example of a talented filmmaker having something to say through a genre; a tale of suppressed and controlled society with originality, cool, and subversive tact. It'd probably make a neat party movie, too.
score 10/10
Quinoa1984 8 August 2006
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1443069/ |
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30-11-2019 00:55:21
