They Live Review- By Michael J. Carlisle

Title: They Live
Year: 1988
Director: John Carpenter
Country: US
Language: English

Since the 80's, there have been many wrestlers from the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) who have attempted to transition into acting on the silver screen. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has been the most successful, giving floundering franchises a much needed boost of energy and making millions of dollars doing so. "Rowdy" Roddy Piper (1954-2015) has had the most memorable acting gig; a starring role in John Carpenter's cult classic They Live. The picture spawned one of the infamous loudmouth's most famous catchphrases "I'm here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubblegum.

Nada (Roddy Piper), a down-on-his-luck construction worker, discovers a pair of special sunglasses. Wearing them, he is able to see the world as it really is: people being bombarded by media and government with messages like "Stay Asleep", "No Imagination", "Submit to Authority". Even scarier is that he is able to see that some usually normal-looking people are in fact ugly aliens in charge of the massive campaign to keep humans subdued

One of consumer cuture's vile qualities is that it prohibits criticism. Railing against the propagandic power of advertising and corporation has become quite cliche rather than revelation, which makes speaking plainly about the manner all the more difficult. People "know" that McDonald's is bad and guns are "evil" due to the elementary diatribes of  Morgan Spurlock and Michael Moore, yet do nothing about it. In order for any subversive anti-consumerist message to breach the status quo, it must entertain and distract audiences from the message being told. They Live doesn't attempt to be subversive nor directly challenging, but it is quite satirical and thus does a fantastic job at getting its message across. 

They Live is effective .in showing us the state of the world without sounding preachy. Through Piper it also does a fantastic job  at demonstrating working-class anger in response to social iniquity without sounding self-righteous. It's a bit difficult to ignore the picture's hypocritical tendancy to relish in pop culture while simultaneously rioting against it however. Discussing anti-consumerist messages while celebrating with shootouts and explosions is, as many critics have suggested, "having your cake and eating it too". 

The infamous six-minute wrestling match to end the film is a bit much, and does take us out of the "fantasy" element of the film. Perhaps it's a statement about how we need the truth - literally- beaten into us before we can see it. I quite enjoyed this flick, to date it's the only film starring a wrestler that I actually enjoy. Praise it! 4/5