Publicity
poster for They Live (© John
Carpenter/Alive Films/Larry Franco Productions/Universal Pictures/Carolco
Pictures Pictures – reproduced here on
a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)
A few months ago I had never heard of the
American wrestler/movie star Rowdy Roddy Piper, but then I viewed the hilarious
cult sci-fi movie Hell Comes To Frogtown
starring him as Sam Hell (click here
to read my review of it on Shuker In MovieLand). On 26 June 2020, I
watched another sci-fi movie, and he turned out to be the star of that one too.
This latter movie was They Live, directed by John Carpenter
and originally released in 1988, which interestingly follows a similar
storyline to a movie that I had watched just a couple of days before, The Arrival (click here to read my SIML review of it). Both
movies deal with aliens living surreptitiously on Earth
and taking control of it without most humans being any the wiser.
In They
Live, a small band of humans have discovered that the aliens are
subliminally subjugating humanity using a transmission beamed from a TV
station, but these humans have invented special sunglasses that when worn
reveal the aliens' true form - humanoid bodies but frightening skull-like heads
- and expose otherwise-subliminal messages on placards, in books, on TV, etc
that order humans to obey, submit, stop thinking, and so forth.
Rowdy's character, a drifter named Nada,
joins the resistance but learns very quickly that the aliens have no
compunction in obliterating anyone who discovers their secret presence. So he
and fellow resistance fighter/friend Frank go on the run together, with a
mission to stop the aliens at all cost.
Both They
Live and The Arrival examine this
theme very efficiently, and both make absorbing viewing, so much so that I
would be hard-pressed to choose a favourite among them. Both are certainly well
worth viewing, my one qualification being that They Live contains a fight scene between Nada and Frank that is not so much extended as seemingly near-eternal. Indeed, their slugfest goes on for SO long that after watching it for quite some while without any end to it in sight, I seriously began to feel that I could probably have a shave, prepare and eat a meal, and possibly even go out for the day, only to return home that evening and find that they were STLL fisticuffing one another - enough already! Make up and move on, PLEASE!!!
Incidentally, They Live began life as a short story entitled 'Eight O'Clock in
the Morning', written by American sci-fi author/cartoonist Radell Faraday 'Ray'
Nelson and first published in the November 1963 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. This in turn inspired
Nelson to co-write with American painter/cartoonist Bill Wray a second story, 'Nada',
which was published in the April 1986 issue of an American sci-fi anthology
comic book entitled Alien Encounters.
Following this, John Carpenter purchased the rights to both stories, from which
They Live was duly conceived – and
the rest, as they say, is movie history.
And here is an
official trailer for They Live on
YouTube, containing this movie's most famous and much-memed scene, in which
Nada dons the special sunglasses for the very first time and is shocked to discover
a whole new and hitherto entirely-unsuspected real world opening up all around
him! Classic!
And to view a complete listing of all of my
Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly
accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE!
Rowdy
Roddy Piper as Nada in They Live,
ready to take on the aliens – and win! (© John Carpenter/Alive Films/Larry
Franco Productions/Universal Pictures/Carolco Pictures Pictures
– reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for
educational/review purposes only)
