And here we are, then. It is the year 2017, and They Live is back in the spotlight. Not just because it’s relevant– terribly, horribly relevant– to our day and age, but because its relevance has pushed it back into honest to god news stories. To reiterate: this 29-year-old movie about a professional wrestler punching rubber-faced aliens who control the world now feels so chillingly prescient that you can read about it in an actual newspaper. This is a hell of a time to be alive.
Back in January, director John Carpenter took to Twitter to condemn a misreading of his work even greater than Rob Zombie’s. The alt-right – a scourge both as menacing and as silly as the ghost pirates of The Fog – somehow got it into their heads that They Live is a metaphor for Jewish control of the world. This is, of course, horseshit, and in a better world (say, the one we lived in six months ago), it wouldn’t warrant a response. Nevertheless, Carpenter joined the growing legion of creators (and former presidents) forced to accept the fact that some people really are that stupid, and issued a characteristically terse statement that the reading is “slander and a lie.”
To be clear: They Live is many wonderful things, but “subtle” doesn’t make the list. As satire, this is not Network, or even Kentucky Fried Movie. This is a movie where mass media is represented by giant signs reading “CONSUME” and “REPRODUCE.” The forces of evil are portrayed by snobby aliens with perfectly coiffed hair, who are taken down by a pair of impossibly charismatic hobos. This is not a film of ambiguity. This is the vanity and shallowness of the Reagan era, painted in the broadest possible terms and with all subtext laid bare – which, come to think of it, is a pretty apt description of where we’re at today. And while he’s never explicitly mentioned, it’s not a stretch to imagine that Carpenter had our current president in mind when he pseudonymously wrote it.
Yet as odious and plainly wrong as the alt-reading is, the fact that They Live keeps drifting into the national conversation speaks to the elemental nature of Carpenter’s film. While never as influential as Halloween or Escape from New York, and not as critically revered as The Thing, They Live has carved out a pretty sturdy space for itself in our cultural consciousness. Even people who have never heard of the film have heard it referenced, possibly without even realizing it: its alien-viewing Ray-bans are an irresistible hook which has been copied countless times (I first encountered it in the NES classic Bart vs. the Space Mutants); Rowdy Roddy Piper’s bubblegum proclamation has been quoted to the point that it’s become a cliche in its own right; and, most famously, its ubiquitous “OBEY” signs were adopted by the equally ubiquitous Shepard Fairey. You don’t need to see They Live to understand it – which makes the controversy all the more dumbfounding.
But it’s that simplicity that makes They Live so great. It is so gloriously obvious and so brilliantly dumb that it’s actually shocking that no one made it before, and its fundamental relevance makes it so that no one ever needs to make it again. They will, of course; talk of a remake has been swirling for years, and though it’s currently stuck in development hell, it’s almost certainly just a matter of time. After all: THIS IS YOUR GOD.
They Live
1988
dir. John Carpenter
94 min.
Screens Wednesday, 3/8 @ Friendly Toast
Doors @ 7:30; film begins @ 8
Part of the ongoing series: B-Movies and Burgers
Free admission – special signature burgers and cocktails!
Presented by Monsters Are Good
