Movies - They Live

Home > Listing Index > Movies > They Live

	Movies - They Live

John Carpenter's They Live is a 1988 film directed by John Carpenter, who also wrote the screenplay under the pseudonym "Frank Armitage". The movie was based on the short story "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" by Ray Nelson.

The story is both science fiction and black comedy, dealing satirically with the declining economy and the culture of greed and conspicuous consumption associated with the 1980s. It posits a world in which some of the "haves" (the monied elite or the yuppies) are in fact space aliens seeking to oppress the "have nots" (poverty-stricken Earthlings and the desperate middle class) through subliminal advertising in the mass media.

The film stars former professional wrestler Roddy Piper as a homeless laborer who falls in with a group of shantytown rebels who have invented special dark glasses that enable the wearer to see past the façade the aliens have constructed to prevent their detection. One of the film's more memorable scenes occurs when Piper's character dons the glasses for the first time, and notices that a billboard for what appears to be a computer company now simply blares the word "OBEY," while another billboard featuring a bikini-clad model urges the viewer to "MARRY AND REPRODUCE." He notices other things such as money, under the view of the glasses, completely blank, except for the words, "THIS IS YOUR GOD" imprinted on it. The messages are, of course, meant to be subliminal, causing people to become complacent about solving societal problems, spend money, stay in debt, remain unemployed, and increase the population.

With its narrative conceit of the world being an illusion behind which a darker reality exists, They Live bears some resemblance to The Matrix
and its sequels—though Carpenter's film does not overtly indulge in philosophy. Interestingly, a similar premise was featured in an episode of the 1950s television show Lights Out titled "The Martian Eyes", in which Burgess Meredith plays a man whose sunglasses allow him to see Martians who have disguised themselves as humans.

As with many of Carpenter's excursions into genre filmmaking, They Live was critically panned upon its release and fared poorly at the box office, only to develop a more favorable reputation in later years on home video. The DVD version was released in 2003.

Trivia

The memorable and oft-quoted line, "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubblegum," was ad-libbed by Piper. The line is nearly repeated in the David Mamet film Spartan when a drill sergeant berates his trainees, "All I have for you is a stiff dick and bubblegum, and I'm all out of bubblegum." The line is also repeated in the popular FPS game Duke Nukem 3D.
They Live contains a famous alleyway brawl between Piper and Keith David
that lasts over six minutes onscreen and features wrestling suplexes. Originally, the fight was supposed to last only 20 seconds, but the actors reportedly wanted to duke it out. John Carpenter was so impressed that he kept the full cut seen in the movie, perhaps partly as an homage to John Wayne's famous fight in The Quiet Man
. In 2001, the creators of South Park parodied/paid homage to the scene in the episode "Cripple Fight," which contains an alley brawl between two handicapped children that copies much of the dialogue and fight choreography of the scene in They Live, right down to Jimmy screaming "You dirty mother-fucker!"
The video for the 2005 Armand van Helden single "Into Your Eyes" borrows heavily from They Live.
Additionally, the video for "B.Y.O.B." by System of a Down also bears many similarities to They Live.
The music was composed by the director, John Carpenter
The 1994 Snog album Dear Valued Customer uses several samples from They Live.
Several famous quotes from the movie are also heard in an early version of the Cuban Boys track "Stardust" (subtitled "Part 1 - They Came From Outer Space") on their 1999 "Blueprint for Modernisation" EP. These are replaced by samples from a more obscure movie in later, more easily obtained versions of the piece, presumably because of licensing troubles.
The end of the movie features two film critics as aliens criticising filmmakers George Romero and John Carpenter, perhaps serving as a parody of Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel. Siskel panned Romero's Night of the Living Dead
.
Rapper Cage's album 'Movies for the Blind' pays homage to the film in its cover art.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for They Live ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article They Live; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Movies - They Live

Trivia

Searches on eBay

Related searches on eBay