THEY LIVE - 1988
Warner Brothers
Rated: Australia: M / Iceland: 16 / Ireland, Norway, UK, West Germany: 18 / Singapore: M18 / Sweden: 15 / USA: R |
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"Put on the damn glasses, already!"
THEY LIVE was written and directed by John Carpenter (HALLOWEEN, THE THING [1982], ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, MOUTH OF MADNESS, GHOSTS OF MARS) and was based on a short story by Ray Nelson. It opens with the arrival
of a big man (Roddy Piper: TERMINAL RUSH, SCI-FIGHTERS)
wearing a backpack at the L.A. train depot. This character is listed in
the credits as "Nada" but at no point in the movie is he referred
to by name (get it? "Nada"? his character
didn't have a name? Oh John! You card! -feo).
Nada is homeless, riding the rails, looking for work. He manages to talk his way
into a construction job but has no place to stay until he gets a paycheck
or two. On the construction site he makes friends with another big guy
named Frank (Keith David: THE
THING [1982], THE PUPPET MASTERS, PITCH BLACK)
and Frank tells Nada about a nearby shantytown in a city park. Frank lives
there himself.
Clearly, times are tough. Most of the residents of the shantytown have a dim view
of the future but "Nada" tells Frank, as they gaze toward the
skyscrapers of downtown L.A., that he believes in America. He believes
things will get better. Not in this movie, pal.
Nada begins noticing some odd goings on around the park. A blind preacher (Raymond
St. Jaques: TIME BOMB, VOODOO DAWN) evangelizes about how our masters
don't want us to wake up. And the only working TV in the shantytown frequently
has its signal interrupted by a pirate broadcast that warns of an evil
conspiracy. Everyone notices that when the pirate signal takes over the
TV they rub their eyes and feel a headache coming on. George 'Buck' Flower
(THE NIGHT STALKER), credited just as "Drifter",
makes his usual John Carpenter movie appearance as a resident of the shantytown
always parked in front of the TV.
Nada also notices Gilbert (Peter Jason: ALIEN
NATION, GHOSTS OF MARS),
the shantytown's sort-of leader, involved in hushed discussions at the
church across the street. Nada sneaks inside and finds boxes of sunglasses
and a tape recorder playing church music, creating the illusion of a service
going on. He also sees the equipment for transmitting pirate TV signals.
That night the police raid the church and bulldoze the pitiful shacks in the park,
scattering the residents including Nada. The next morning there's nothing
but wreckage, although strangely the TV is still intact, blaring commercials.
Nada finds a box of the odd sunglasses left in the church so he takes
the box and hides it in an alley. And then comes the really cool part:
he puts the sunglasses on.
Many movies have done the aliens-are-among-us storyline but here it's magnificent.
When Nada puts on these specially manufactured sunglasses he suddenly
sees the world as it really is. Billboards that everyone else sees as
advertisements for vacations and skin crème he sees as simple statements:
"Obey", "Marry and Reproduce", "Stay Asleep"
and "Watch TV". These subliminal messages are everywhere, even
printed on the money ("This Is Your God").
Strange observation craft, unseen by everyone else, cruise through the
sky. And scariest of all, Nada can now see that some people are not people.
They are the alien masters the blind preacher warned about.
The only unfortunate choice here was the alien make-up. The alien faces are stiff
to the point of being obvious masks, especially when they talk. It's distracting
and makes you wonder what Carpenter was thinking. It looks cheap. Speaking
of cheap, there's a later scene where the aliens are using a communicator
/ tricorder device that is obviously the same prop Egon used in GHOSTBUSTERS.
It looks very out of place and if you recognize it, it jars your suspension
of disbelief.
Nada wanders the streets of downtown L.A., marveling at the true nature of the world.
He is a man of action, however, and finally can't resist telling an alien
woman just how ugly she is. The result is her report into a watch radio:
"I've got one who can see!" The alien controlled police force
comes running. Nada has a series of close calls punctuated by some cool
dialogue and a run in with the beautiful Meg Foster (LEVIATHAN) as Holly, the TV station executive. It's surprising
that Roddy Piper didn't become more of an action star after this because
he did a great job here.
There's one more scene I must mention. At one point Nada tries to get his friend
Frank to put on a pair of the mystical, magical sunglasses. This is after
Nada has blown away about a dozen aliens with a shotgun which, remember,
looks to everyone else like he's just killing people at random. Frank
thinks he's crazy. So they fight. And then they fight some more in one
of the longest, most pointless fight scenes in movie history.
In fact, what's really missing here is a behind-the-scenes interview or something
similar where maybe Carpenter would explain some of these odd choices.
Alas, the DVD has no extras.
Finally, although the science is fine as far as it goes, I do feel the need for a
!!!POLITICAL SCIENCE MOMENT!!!: (Now you are a political scientist? Oh brother! -feo)
I hate being lectured to, but of all the people I hate being lectured
to by, very high on the list are left wing millionaires. Carpenter's Reagan
era message here is that rich people got that way by being part of an
evil conspiracy. He shows the aliens as 19th century style capitalist
exploiters here to rob the Earth of its resources and leave a dried husk
of a world behind. Poor people are good and noble and not at fault for
being poor.
Then Carpenter gets in his limo and is driven to his Beverly Hills mansion.
You can bite me, John. I'll tell you the same thing I told Spielberg (he
wasn't there when I said it, but that's beside the point): "You're
a good story teller so tell me a story and keep your political naiveté
to yourself.
Dance for me, monkey boy! Dance!"
I give THEY LIVE three shriek girls.
This review
copyright 1999 E.C.McMullen Jr.
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