John Carpenter's They Live -- Post-Colonialism in Crisis?

[antlers]

In another thread, I've discussed how Verhoeven's Starship Troopers chillingly illustrates the continuing visceral appeal of fascism extending into our video-game age. Now I'd like to talk about another apparently schlocky sci fi movie that has also proven amazingly prophetic: John Carpenter's They Live.

I find Carpenter's depiction of a desperate, violent struggle against contemptuous, deceitful aliens living among us is a remarkably accessible illustration of the motivations behind the otherwise incomprehensible savagery of Islamic fundamentalist terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda. Sure, there was a painfully long, boring wrestling scene with Rowdy Roddy Piper; but the amazing thing about the movie is that Carpenter apparently had a crystal-clear understanding of the rage underlying anti-Western terrorism years before even the first WTC bombing. We cheer for the protagonists, even as we realize that they are becoming brutal terrorists. In the end, we see that the heroes relationship with the dastardly space aliens is nearly identical with the relationship between Islamic militants and ourselves.

The aliens destroy our culture through their dominance of the media, keep our people impoverished through alliances with our corrupt leaders, and are contemptuous of our mores and traditions.

[Gordon Cameron]

"They Live" is one of those movies film professors love to write about. I had a textbook back in film school that basically hailed it as a masterpiece. I've also heard Carpenter called an unsung auteur. There's plenty of good stuff in the movie about control of the media and all that. You can read it as an Orwellian cautionary tale, or a satire of present day society, or whatever. It's robust enough to sustain such readings.

My problem with the film is that (not unlike Starship Troopers) the subtext is better than the text. It's fun to analyze but I don't enjoy the story for its own sake, nor the acting, cinematography, etc. Carpenter's a good filmmaker but this is not one of my favorites in his oeuvre. The surreally long fight scene between Rowdy Roddy Piper and his buddy -- an astounding ballet of ridiculous male bonding and masochism -- is something to watch, though.

[wumpus]

The surreally long fight scene between Rowdy Roddy Piper and his buddy -- an astounding ballet of ridiculous male bonding and masochism -- is something to watch, though.

Behold the miracle of the back-alley suplex. There's nothing quite like that fight in any other film I've ever seen.

[Dave Long]

Greatest. Fight. Evar!

--Dave

[Jason McCullough]

The aliens also hired the man responsible for Hell Comes To Frogtown. That's pretty bad.

[Rywill]

The best thing about that fight, IIRC, is that it was all about Rowdy Roddy Piper trying to get his friend to put on the magic sunglasses:

PIPER: "Put on the glasses!"
FRIEND: "No!"

[eight minutes of WWF action]

PIPER: (Pant, pant) "Put...on...the GLASSES!"
FRIEND: "NEVER!"

[six more minutes of WWF action]

etc.

Hilarious.

[Ben Sones]

I really liked this movie, though I agree with pretty much all the comments (good and bad) voiced above. And I thought the fight scene was hilarious.

[Tyjenks]

Oh yeah. Now I remember. I was confused and was thinking of that movie that recently tanked which I did not see. They, I believe it was.

That was the first time I heard:

"I just came to chew gum and kick ass. And I'm all outta gum."

Well antlers, evidently we have not applied our deep thinking analysis to They Live as you and Gordon have. :)

[Anonymous]

I find Carpenter's depiction of a desperate, violent struggle against contemptuous, deceitful aliens living among us is a remarkably accessible illustration of the motivations behind the otherwise incomprehensible savagery of Islamic fundamentalist terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda. [...] Carpenter apparently had a crystal-clear understanding of the rage underlying anti-Western terrorism years before even the first WTC bombing. [...] The aliens destroy our culture through their dominance of the media, keep our people impoverished through alliances with our corrupt leaders, and are contemptuous of our mores and traditions.

What a crock of shit. They Live is one of my favorite movies, and you're pissing all over it.

1) "The aliens destroy our culture through their dominance of the media." Okay... The Al Qaeda control American media... RIGHT.

2) Al Qaeda and other third-world terrorist organizations are vehicles which represent pissed off poor, industrially challenged people (never mind that Bin Laden is a rich asshole; it worked for Karl Marx) who have a beef with the economic, militarily, and technologically dominant West. The villains in They Live WERE the economically, militarily, and technologically dominant power, using the Earth as a third world pool of cheap labor.

The whole theme of They Live is to depict the down side of the Reagan era, in which the US was economically prosperous but the poor and homeless were growing in numbers. The hero is a skilled laborer who can't get a job. The villains are people who control all jobs and reward themselves with the best jobs and riches. None of the poor people in They Live were aliens in disguise. Seems like you missed the entire point of the movie. Al Queda represents poor people who hate the rich, and use that resentment to justify horrific acts of murder. They have much more in common with the hero of They Live, who is out to topple the rich and powerful, than they do with the aliens, who dominate the world and fill it with subliminal messages which use "our mores and traditions" of patriotism, marriage, and admiration of material possessions to manipulate us.

[Anonymous]

And just in case that wasn't clear enough, though I like the hero of They Live I hate Al Qaeda and all other murdererous bastards who manipulate gullible young dudes into giving their lives for idiotic causes.

[Rywill]

John James: Not Getting It on a Galactic Scale

His point was that WE are the aliens and AL QAEDA is Rowdy Roddy Piper. (And if you were pissed off before, I shudder to think what you're going to say now.)

[Anonymous]

If you have any question about John Carpenter's ideological leanings, try to remember the climaxes of "Escape from New York" and "Escape from LA," where Plissken fucks the industrialized world both times. He turns the power off on the world because he thinks its fucked and would be better without electricity. Hardly the views of someone who would make a movie as you describe, warning us against the dangers of subversion of our government. It's pretty obvious he's all for subversion.

[Anonymous]

Uh...

Hey, remember that Gilda Radner character on SNL's Weekend Update who would rant about things on and on only to find out in she'd completely misheard something?

...Never mind.

[Anonymous]

Uh...

Hey, remember that Gilda Radner character on SNL's Weekend Update who would rant about things on and on only to find out in she'd completely misheard something?

...Never mind.

That's pretty much the definitive explanation of usenet and all bulletin boards in general.

And a pretty funny example of it here.

[Jupiter Jones]

"Escape from LA," .

Except for the last 5 seconds of the movie, "Escape From LA" completely sucked.

[Anonymous]

I agree that most of it did, but there were occasional moments.

I liked the freaky idea of casting Pam Grier as a transexual male. That was hilarious.