An annoying soundtrack and endless one liners from Rowdy Roddy Piper don’t keep this flick from being great fun! – Will
A drifter finds a pair of sunglasses that reveal aliens disguised as humans and their propaganda.
Directed by – John Carpenter
Written by – Ray Nelson, John Carpenter
Starring – Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg Foster, George Flower, Peter Jason, Raymond St. Jacques, Jason Robards III, John Lawrence, Susan Barnes, Sy Richardson, Wendy Brainard, Lucille Meredith, Susan Blanchard, Norman Alden
After a long, hard day corralling children and listening to my daughter sing Justin Bieber songs, I needed a good flick that I could turn my brain off to. Luckily for me I got my hands on They Live not to long ago. Ah, the fond memories of childhood came flooding back. I can remember watching this movie more than a few times. It probably helped that I watched wrestling and They Live stars Rowdy Roddy Piper but those aliens still look freaking creepy to this day and that makes the movie even better.
Roddy Piper and Meg Foster. I knew she was familiar but didn't realize she was Evil-Lyn in He-Man. Now I have to watch that!
The flick spares us the nuisance of story since I never learned where Piper’s character came from or what the aliens overall plan for the Earth was. I guess that wasn’t important enough to prevent Roddy Piper from doing everything in his power to take them down. The aliens are broadcasting a signal which is putting the Earth under their power while hidden messages in absolutely everything subconsciously tell us to Obey, Consume, Marry and Procreate while our money actually says I Am Your God on it. Piper is determined to find the source of the signal and destroy it. He gets help from a group of underground resistance fighters, well that’s until they’re all slaughtered by the aliens. Obviously he saves the day but it’s the fun of watching him get there that I enjoyed so much.
The fact that everything you see through the sunglasses is in black and white gave the flick this 50's sci-fi feel to it.
To think that this was directed by John Carpenter surprises me because it’s full of problems. First of all there’s this endless soundtrack. I’m not sure I’ve ever noticed a movie to have music through the entire thing but it’s hard to miss this soundtrack. It’s like a loop of the same 2 riffs of a song over and over again. By the time I was halfway through the movie I could hum it at just the right time. If I didn’t pick up on it then it wouldn’t have bothered me but I mean, c’mon, it’s freaking hard to miss.
Next up is the fact that every word out of Roddy Piper’s mouth is a classic one-liner. This guy would give Arnold a run for his money. I think he had about 3 paragraphs of dialogue and then 62 different one-liners. They were all cheesy but I’m sure everyone remembers the classic “I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass…. and I’m all out of bubblegum.” C’mon, how can you beat lines like that! It’s pure 80′s goofiness at its best.
I still think the aliens look great in this movie.
I honestly didn’t think I would enjoy this as much as I did when I was younger. Returning to some of those movies you saw as a kid may give you a warm nostalgic feeling but they rarely live up to the joy you originally got from them. I know I had more fun with They Live back in the day but I still enjoyed it a lot now. I have to say that it’s still better than any of the flicks they make now with wrestlers. Roddy Piper couldn’t really act that well but he fired a gun well and liked bubblegum apparently so that was enough for me.
This one is cheese by anyone’s standards but should easily entertain those of us who grew up on 80′s movies. The movies were the only things I liked about the 80′s and thanks to a special that Goregirls Dungeon had run a little while back about 80′s movies, I’ve come to watch quite a few of them lately. Much like the classic black and white horror flicks I watched as a really little kid, the 80′s flicks I watched in my teen years have a certain quality to them that I love. I’m not sure how a first viewing of this movie would go over now but I think I can still get my kids to sit through it when they’re a little bit older. Great ones like this need to be passed on to the next generation of film lovers. At the very least they’ll make todays movies seem that much better! HAHA!
Under the marquee – Will
Buy Now at Amazon.com
I am sure it will come to no surprise to you that I love this film! It is one of my favourite Carpenter films. It has cheesy one-liners, guns that never seem to run out of ammo, tons of mindless action and one of the longest fist fights I’ve ever seen! It is also an attack on the Regan era government and consumerism in general. The world is a creepy place with those damn sunglasses on! OBEY! OBEY! I love that the money says “this is your god”. AWESOME!!
HAHAHA! Yeah, that fist fight was very long. I like how Roddy Piper gets to throw some wrestling moves in there too. I guess the aliens don’t really want to enslave us so much as they want us to spend all our money. Who knew that aliens really wanted to take over the Earth for profit!
Keith David also has another movie coming out called Chainletter May 21 in theaters near you. I seen the trailer on youtube and it was good to me also staring in it Nikki Reed so go check it out when it comes out.
I think I was just reading about that movie actually. Sounded interesting so I may just check it out.
Pingback: The Power of Sunglasses | I Used To Be Stupid
Will,
I don’t think this movie is something you can “turn your brain off to”. In fact, this movie is the direct antithesis of a non-think movie. If you view it as simple 1980s cheese, you’ve really missed the point of the whole movie. John Carpenter gave his film a very serious anti-Reagan message and it’s one of the more astute social satires you will ever experience. Yes, it’s heavy handed and somewhat silly but that’s intentional and part of the fun. As for the constant soundtrack, I believe this has been a staple of numerous John Carpenter movies.
Saying Piper “can’t act” is a mistake: Piper is a magnificent actor (at least for this character) and honed his over-the-top heroic personality and improvisational skills from years of being a professional wrestler. In other words he’s perfectly suited for a 1980s sci-fi action flick.
You also said:
“I’m not sure how a first viewing of this movie would go over now but I think I can still get my kids to sit through it when they’re a little bit older. Great ones like this need to be passed on to the next generation of film lovers. At the very least they’ll make todays (sic) movies seem that much better!”
You’ve got it backwards: REAL sci-fi actions movies like this one only serve to highlight how little imagination the genre has nowadays, and how crap someone like Mark Wal-Mart is by comparison. Movies like “They Live” are superior to countless films released since. THAT’S why they need to be shown to new generations of film lovers: they need a counter for crap like “Twilight” so they don’t get raised on horrid cinema.
“They Live” is more relevant than ever before. The Madison Avenue non-think continues unimpeded. Before people say the 1980s were corny and cheesy and stupid, maybe they ought to look at the world in the 2010s. What have we been left? A world full of Oprah Windbag, Ellen DeGenerate, empty-headed Bling Bling Greed, Zero Imagination and terminally depressed, pasty-faced, black-clad Eddie and Bella clones.
It’s time to kick ass and chew bubblegum once more.
I get the whole ‘message’ of the film but I normally don’t bother with what is being said by a movie. I just wanted to watch some freaky looking aliens get suplexed by Piper! Yeah, it’s smart and a good shot at the time period but that doesn’t mean it’s not cheesy.
And I still stick by the fact that Piper can’t act. The fact that he’s over the top is the exact reason he’s in an action flick and not headlining great dramas of those days. He’s perfect for his role because of his inability to act, it’s the same reason you don’t see Arnold contemplating love and loss, these guys are built for action flicks.
As for the world we live in now, the pasty faced Ed and Bella clones are little different than the makeup wearing goths that I used to be a part of. Tween girls have always been the same, it’s just the reason for the squealing that changes.
Granted, They Live is much better than plenty of flicks they produce now and it’s not hard for a movie to be relevant when it attacks consumerism which will probably always be a large part of society. Me, I’d rather shut the old brain off and watch shit blow up and leave the messages of the movies to other people. Besides, having conversations with the two little people in this house leave my brain squishy and unable to think about anything that doesn’t involve Spongebob or Hannah Montana.
Film reel guy – You’d rather shut your brain off and ‘OBEY’ and ‘marry and procreate’ than paying any attention to what’s really going on in the world? Gees wake up and smell the bubble gum dude, or else we’re all fooked
Why watch a movie without wanting to know the message behind it? In fact, we are given subliminal messages all the time, which all ends up somewhere muddled up in our subconscious and we do pay attention to the messages whether we think we do or not – without us even knowing it most of the time.
I know that kids and life in general makes us tired, but please please please, don’t let it make you blind. Perhaps we all need to invest in a pair of Roddy’s sunglasses. Now, do they sell them in Top Shop?
I have the perfect example of why I don’t look for messages in movies, well, beyond the fact that I usually don’t care and just want to enjoy the flick without getting into a deep thinking moment.
I just finished watching Invasion of the Body Snatchers and it seems like the message is quite clear and is literally bashing you in the head. The filmmakers and author of the original story insist that there was never any message intended but the debate as to what the film means rages on. There isn’t any meaning, it’s just a movie.
Sometimes movies aren’t about anything, sometimes they are, all of the time I don’t care! Just entertain me and let me forget about that bill that is due or the fact that I forgot to put the laundry in the dryer and I’ll be happy.
The uncensored version that I saw IN THE THEATER was great! All the scenes looking through THE GLASSES were IN COLOR! They also removed one scene with gun battle that has a gory head explosion. Why they censor this is beyond me. To see it uncut, you will have to order the british REGION 2 dvd. It also has bonus features as well as commentary with Piper and Carpenter!
I don’t remember any version like that! I always found it interesting how different countries will make different cuts for films.