THEY LIVE Retrospectre from PO! #1
by Kim August
“The Golden Rule: He who has the gold makes the rules!”
So says working man Frank (Keith David) to our hero John Nada (Roddy Piper) in
John Carpenter’s hilarious political Sci-Fi satire THEY LIVE.
Nada, an itinerant construction worker stumbles upon an elaborate takeover of America’s working class by ghoulish aliens who prey upon our planet by exploiting the greed in men.
The Takeover is done through cleverly induced subliminal messages via the media: television, radio and all printed matter-even money. Brainwashing also occurs through conversation. Since the ghouls disguise themselves as humans they egg on and corrupt those who want more than what they have. ‘Go for it!’ says one alien to an unsure human worker about moving up in their company.
At first, Nada believes that hard work will bring results of stability and his little piece of the American dream. When he lands a job at a local construction site in Los Angeles, he befriends fellow hardhat Frank who believes in playing it safe. Frank’s got a family back in Detroit to support and there’s no way he’s going to do anything to cross the line and lose his job. Nada accompanies Frank to his current residence a makeshift town of homeless people called Justiceville. After snooping around the nearby church, Nada uncovers an underground group led by scientists who have found out the alien authorities. Seems that the brains have discovered a way to ‘see’ the truth behind the world around us. With special sunglasses the wearer is able to view the subliminal messages and the masquarading ghouls themselves. Unfortunately, at the same time the invaders get wise to the movement; killing their leader and dstroying Justiceville to prove their point. They rule. Nada, Frank and a scant few others escape death.
Upon returning to the ruins of the church lab, Nada finds a box of those sunglasses and ‘sight’ comes to him. Interesting note: while we walk around blind to the reality, a blind preacher knows the aliens are here by touch and other senses. (‘Sight’ is shown in black and white, while the disgused world is in glorious color) The discovery of those hideous extra terrestrials and their brainwashing plot, angers Nada into action. One of the film’s best and funniest scenes involves our hero going ghoul hunting in a local bank.
Armed to the teeth (after successfully wiping out two alien policemen), he calmly strolls into the depository and coo’s: “I have come here chew bubble gum and kick ass and I’m all out of bubble gum!” After the alien massacre, Nada flees and forces Holly (Meg Foster, she of the possessed colors eyes) at gunpoint to take him to her place. Like Brain from ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, Holly we shall soon find out, is only concerned with saving her own skin. She calls the police and betrays Nada.
With nowhere else to go, Nada hops back to the construction site and tries to convince an unbelieving Frank of his awful discovery. A very humorous and famous seven and a half minute brawl starts up, featuring Piper’s prowress as a pro wrestler. After barely being able to stand, Frank finally gets his first taste of ‘sight’. The two men spend the rest of the picture battling the aliens and infiltrating their compound. We learn that the aliens main source of control is from the local cable station where Holly works.
Holly betrays Nada again by killing Frank and attempting to stop Nada from destroying the equipment that sends out the hypotising signal. He kills her, and saves the world by destroying the satelite dish, thus revealing the true guise of the invaders to the world. But Nada dies in the process.
The funniest scenes come next as the ghouls are revealed to the world around them. A crack at George Romero and John Carpenter by one alien on a talk show is hilarious and the last scene in the film is probably the silliest. Two lovers are having a good time when the girl looks down and sees what her boyfriend really is. Upon seeing her horror he says “Hey Baby what’s wrong?”
The ghouls (makeup by Frank Carissosa who also created PRINCE OF DARKNESS’s hells of the flesh) can also be seen as the end result of the ultimate corruption, in following the aliens humanity becomes just as hideous. Carpenter delivers an amusing, clever movie that makes you laugh and think. We see the plight of the homeless. How the media lures and controls us. How far would you go to get ahead? Would you compromise your ideas, your self? It’s almost like being taken over by another hostile alien of John’s THE THING. The seriousness of the subject is delivered in a campy style via the film’s 50’s like Sci-Fi tone. It’s pitch is effectively done in a way that does not preach or insult its audience, rather making the viewer stop and ponder what they’ve just seen.
Break out those raybans kids...
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