Looking Back: Carpenter's "They Live" Offers More Than Meets The Eye
By Jack Rooney
John Carpenter's, They Live, a Universal release starring former wrestler turned actor Roddy "Rowdy" Piper appeared in theatres across the country in 1988. It is sometimes useful to look back on films like this one to give us a glimpse into the present world and to give the independent filmmaker a closer look at the effective use of sub-plot development in film, because film can be sometimes prophetic in an allegorical sort of way, and the technique(s) used by the filmmaker in developing sub-plot are interesting in itself.
If viewed superficially, the film appears to be nothing more than an interesting but improbable science fiction story in which a race of aliens and antagonists of the story (the bad guys) have taken over the world with a machine which transmits a signal out over the television airwaves, influences the human subconscious, and places everyone in an "artificially induced state of sleep", preventing the unwitting humans from seeing the aliens as they truly are (and they are real ugly) and the world the way it really is (it is real pathetic).
The humans walk through the world in a state of blissful ignorance, blind to the alien plot taking place throughout the world, until the transmissions are discovered by a group of scientists who band together under the common cause of destroying the mind controlling machine and exposing the aliens.
Enter the Protagonist (the good guy) -- convincingly played by none other than -- you guessed it -- everyone's favorite hero, Rowdy without kilts (he left them in the ring, thank you.)
Rowdy plays a common, but unemployed working man (and delivers a surprisingly good performance here), who wanders into town in search of work and is befriended by another common, though slightly radical working man played by Keith David.
Rowdy accidentally stumbles upon a lab where the scientists, using a church as a front for their operation, are manufacturing and distributing special super-scientific, hi-tech sunglasses which cancel out the hypnotic effect of the mind machine and allow the wearer to "see" not only the aliens, but also what "they" have done to the world.
And so the action begins, as Rowdy enlists the aid of an at first reluctant Keith, and they set out to battle the forces of evil, to "chew bubble gum and kick ass" and he claims to be "...all out of bubble gum."
Sound too improbable? Sound somewhat contrived. Sound like a Hollywood scriptwriter merely perpetuating the well-known success formula for a si-fi action adventure film?
Well, let's not be too hasty. What is unique about the film, what distinguishes it from other films in this genre, is not the plot, but the brilliant development of the sub-plot floating consistently along with the story from beginning to end. Like a giant iceberg, where the majority of its mass lies below the surface (Northrop Frye, "Anatomy of Criticism", 1957), and what we see is only a small part of what is actually there, the sub plot of this film floats below the surface of the action, providing a story within a story. Like a shadow, it follows the story along unobtrusively, and to see and understand it does not require a set of super-scientific, hi-tech sunglasses.
As great works of literature are often marked by the author's skillful use of literary tools such as metaphor, simile, irony, sarcasm, and humor in creating analogies to allude to and parody contemporary social issues, so are great films marked by the director's mastery of these tools in the creation of a motion picture -- and Carpenter has succeeded admirably in using these literary devices in the motion picture "They Live" to create a work with a surprising degree of richness and depth for a film of this kind.
"They Live" alludes to modern American society. The aliens represent the marriage between capitalism and government, between our political leaders and big business. It is about wishy-washy politicians who sell out their constituents for the all mighty dollar and become yes-men to the world corporate conglomerates. It is about the growing separation of the classes and the imbalance of power and about how we are all more or less unwilling accomplices to it, because our failure to act toward changing the situation directly contributes to its continued existence.
But it is also about the indominability of the human spirit as exhibited through the actions of the hero, who personifies and represents the common man who persists even though he is continually repressed by the system. He cares about others and about the country to the point that he is willing to sacrifice himself to save what is good and wholesome in the world.
It is about our own basic humanity locked in conflict with the powers that be, and it forces us to question our own values and to re-examine what we consider important in life.
It deals with the question of the "I" generation, of selfishness and greed. It appears to attack both capitalism and Marxism -- capitalism for its tendency to advocate the upholding of the status quo at the expense of the underclass and its promotion of materialism; Marxism for its tendency to lead to the destruction if the individual and its repression of free thinking.
Finally, the film forces us to ask who "They" really are...they are us...some of us...and Rowdy is also us...some of us. The question is...who are you?
Jack Rooney
Http://home.att.net/~JackRooney/
C 2000 Jack Rooney. Steal these words.
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