SHERDOG MOVIE CLUB: Week 46 Discussion - They Live

They Live is such a fun flick, I always enjoy going through it and seeing if I can pull new nuggets out of it. For instance, I definitely saw what europe1 saw about the opening of the film feeling like a western. A lone drifter rolls into town, with a vague background and the notion that he probably can take care of himself. I picked up on that this time for the first time, and I really felt it too. He may not be the savior, but he's the good guy.

Simple Cast:
John Nada - Piper
Frank - Childs
Holly - Eyes

This movie was ahead of its time. To me, that's why I feel it is one of the ultimate "cult classics", a film that was nearly forgotten about and rediscovered years later to overwhelming praise and adoration. I don't need to describe what a cult classic is to any of you, but I feel like They Live is the quintessential cult classic film.

I really have much to say about the first half hour. Piper did say "I believe in America" which brought me back to the Godfather, but otherwise it was just a setup to introduce a bit of hostile government/police forces to create tension. You know, so we feel "the government" is the villain, except...maybe not. We have the resistance in that fake church, and we have the authoritarian power helicoptering in and hitting them with sticks. But a half hour in, we don't really know where this is going in relation to Piper and Childs, other than somewhere else. We haven't even met Eyes yet. We just have some post-Robocop heavy commercialism, without as much intentional satire. I actually wonder how much of an influence certain parts of Robocop had on They Live, since it came out a year and a half later. I know there were other anti-consumerism movies out there, but Robocop is the first one to come to mind.

This time around, I tried to read into the sunglasses seeing everything only in black and white. Certain things he saw here were obvious and clever, but others were powerful like the money being "This is your god". I'm gonna digress a little - Where I used to live, there was a church that was around for a long time. It was a fairly popular church, in a good location on a main road. A few years ago, the church shuttered its doors and I don't know exactly the circumstances of it moved elsewhere, merged with another church like it, or something else. Anyway, the church closed, and a little less than a year later, what moved into the empty building? A bank. If that isn't the end-all dripping with symbolism and social commentary, I don't know what is. A place of worship turns into the newer place of worship. All hail the almighty dollar.

Why is it everyone changes the quote "I have come here to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and I'm all out of bubblegum"? I have heard that so many times, even from one attorney to another (for real, I actually laughed out loud when he said that). Is it because it flows better? It's one of the most misquoted famous movie lines I can think of, right up there with "Houston we have a problem" which is actually "Houston, we've had a problem" and "Do you feel lucky, punk?" which is actually "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well do ya, punk?" Oh, and "Luke, I am your father".

It took us 44 minutes to meet the "love interest" Eyes, in a movie that spans 94 minutes including the opening and credits. She doesn't believe him, as one would expect, and drills him in the head with the bottle so hard it knocks him through a plate glass window, down a 30+ foot drop, and sends him tumbling down a hill even further, and he survives without so much as a bruise or scratch. The hero we deserve.

Now we get to the fight scene. A fight scene where the strikes to the face and groin are fake, but everywhere else are real. Awesome. It goes on for so long, it turns comedic for me. And then after the fight, they go "oh, so it's real" and we're good again. It's so out of place, it basically completely shuts the movie down and stops it dead in its tracks. I mean why are they fighting? Because Piper wanted Childs to put on the sunglasses to see the truth. That's it. Piper says do it, Childs says no, and we get a fight almost to the death that goes on for five minutes. It's amazing. The whole conspiracy and everything totally loses traction because they're basically randomly beating the crap out of each other. Why are they mad at each other? No reason. This fight scene basically justifies why they cast a pro wrestler as the main character, to sell the physical scenes. I mean, Piper suplexed him, and then they got along. There aren't enough superlatives to sell this hilariously awesome fight. It's straight out of Wrestlemania.

Oh, right, there's a movie about aliens and stuff still going on. Now, as terrific as the fight between the two was, it had almost no place in the movie as it killed any momentum we had about Piper going to a bank with a shotgun killing people. Yeah, he's definitely wanted for murder. He killed two cops, and four people in the bank. Even though they're aliens, obviously not everyone has those sunglasses so he's kind of a cop killer, yo.

The final big reveal or whatever you want to call it, when the homeless man dons a tuxedo and tells them there are no countries anymore, and that they need to get with the program and join the winning team. The aliens have control. You could easily replace aliens with corporations and have almost the same effect. In fact, if this movie was made in the late 70s, it very well might be "The Corporation" instead of some alien scare.

A final thing I picked up on was in the credits: the creatures/aliens/whatever are called Ghouls. I don't know how many of you have ever played any of the Fallout games, but these are Fallout ghouls:

20110129192551

Notice any similarities?


So overall this was a blast as usual. I was a little more bothered by the abrupt halt of the movie to have a 5 minute fight scene than ever before, because I was paying attention to things like flow and pacing this time around. I'd still give this movie a solid 8/10.
 
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I'm gonna digress a little - Where I used to live, there was a church that was around for a long time. It was a fairly popular church, in a good location on a main road. A few years ago, the church shuttered its doors and I don't know exactly the circumstances of it moved elsewhere, merged with another church like it, or something else. Anyway, the church closed, and a little less than a year later, what moved into the empty building? A bank. If that isn't the end-all dripping with symbolism and social commentary, I don't know what is. A place of worship turns into the newer place of worship. All hail the almighty dollar.

Damn, that's crazy. The irony.

Jesus kicked out the money changers, but the money changers came back later and said, "Ha, joke's on you!"

Why is it everyone changes the quote "I have come here to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and I'm all out of bubblegum"? I have heard that so many times, even from one attorney to another (for real, I actually laughed out loud when he said that). Is it because it flows better?

You're probably right that it IS because it flows better.

BTW, is it just me, or is Piper's delivery of that line kind of strange? It's like . . . it's strangely calm and nonchalant . . . wooden even. I'm not sure if I should chalk it up to the state of his acting chops at that time or if he was directed to say it that way.

Now we get to the fight scene. A fight scene where the strikes to the face and groin are fake, but everywhere else are real. Awesome. It goes on for so long, it turns comedic for me. And then after the fight, they go "oh, so it's real" and we're good again. It's so out of place, it basically completely shuts the movie down and stops it dead in its tracks. I mean why are they fighting? Because Piper wanted Childs to put on the sunglasses to see the truth. That's it. Piper says do it, Childs says no, and we get a fight almost to the death that goes on for five minutes. It's amazing. The whole conspiracy and everything totally loses traction because they're basically randomly beating the crap out of each other.

I like what @europe1 said about this earlier, that Frank's obstinance and refusal to put on the glasses is representative of people's refusal to be awakened to the realities around them. Frank was hypnotized by the culture in which he lived and he was going to fight tooth and nail to avoid having to face the harsh reality of the truth.
 
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drills him in the head with the bottle so hard it knocks him through a plate glass window
She actually pushed him through the window after hitting him with the bottle
BTW, is it just me, or is Piper's delivery of that line kind of strange? It's like . . . it's strangely calm and nonchalant . . . wooden even. I'm not sure if I should chalk it up to the state of his acting chops at that time or if he was directed to say it that way.
I think it might be because he improvised it? It sounds strange because he made it up on the spot perhaps? Although I would think they would do more takes and not use the very first one, so maybe I'm wrong.
 
I think it might be because he improvised it? It sounds strange because he made it up on the spot perhaps? Although I would think they would do more takes and not use the very first one, so maybe I'm wrong.

It's not improvised. In (I think) the Making Of vid that in the OP Carpenter says that Piper gave him a list of lines that he had wanted to use in his wrestling career and Carpenter liked that one so he decided to use it.
 
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