I don’t go to the movie theater much anymore. It is too expensive. The crowds are always obnoxious. Half the times I go, there winds up being a problem with the projection, or the sound, or some other damn thing. And there are no bathroom breaks. I’ve got a good-sized TV at home and a nice soundbar. I can watch what I want, when I want, and pause it whenever I need to.
So, yeah, I don’t go to the movie theater much anymore. But I always go when a John Carpenter film is showing. Fathom Events is showing two Carpenter films this month. They Live, celebrating its 35th anniversary had three showings today and will have two more on Wednesday, September 6 and Christine celebrates its 40th anniversary with showings on September 10 and 13. I am there for it.
They Live is a film that shouldn’t really work. It has a fairly cheesy sci-fi premise. Its lead actor is Roddy Piper, a pro wrestler (and this was at a time when that never happened and pro wrestling was still pretty low-fi). The special effects are roughshod. And its central sequence is a non-splashy five-minute fistfight over a pair of sunglasses. Yet it completely and utterly works for me.
Roddy Piper’s character is unnamed in the film but is called Nada in the credits. That’s “nothing” in Spanish, perhaps a nod to the undistinguished nature of the character. He’s a blue-collar guy down on his luck. He’s come to Los Angeles with nothing to his name except the clothes on his back and some tools in a bag. He finds a job as a construction worker and befriends a man named Frank (Keith David), who shows him the ropes and takes him to a homeless shelter where they both find food and a place to sleep.
Things are looking up for Nada. A little. But the TV is on the fritz, it keeps grabbing a strange signal from somewhere with a man making some far-fetched claims. And there are some strange goings-on in the church across the street. When the police come and raise the shelter and raid the church, Nada runs and hides. The next day he finds a box hidden behind a wall in the church. Inside, he finds a bunch of sunglasses. A weird thing to hide he thinks, but it’s sunny so he puts them on and changes his life.
The sunglasses allow him to see the world as it really is. Billboards no longer advertise sunny vacations and the latest computer products but in bold letters proclaim slogans like “Obey” and “Consume.” The magazines have messages like “Submit to Authority,” “Reproduce,” and “Stay Asleep.” The television news reports no longer keep you up to date on the latest comings and goings but reproduce similar slogans to tune out and obey. All of this is subliminal. The naked eyes and ears still see the normal things, but underneath is this message of conformity. Nada can only see and hear it with the sunglasses on.
Most surprising of all is that some people look different as well. They look like reptilian aliens with their skin ripped off. Or as Nada so eloquently puts it, they look like their “head fell in the cheese dip back in 1957.” That’s the thing about Nada, he’s not a big thinker. He’s a doer. He doesn’t spend a lot of time contemplating what’s going on or why. He punches an alien cop in the face then walks into a bank with a shotgun and says, “I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass… and I’m all out of bubblegum.”
After kicking all sorts of alien ass, he finds Frank and tries to persuade him to put on the sunglasses. But Frank wants none of it. He doesn’t want to know any better. He just wants to put his head down, do his job, and maybe get to go back to Detroit and see his wife and kids.
That’s when the five-minute fistfight occurs. You could really call it a brawl. It isn’t stylish. There is no kung fu or wire work. It is just two men punching and kicking the living crap out of each other. Just when you think it is over, they start up again. And then again. Frank will not give up. He will not put on those sunglasses.
On the surface, it seems ridiculous to have a knock-down, drag-out brawl over some stupid sunglasses but Carpenter understands that we all have our own world views, our core beliefs, and there ain’t none of us who want to let go of those things. How many times have you seen people on social media put their fingers in their ears or their heads in the sand to avoid plain-as-day facts that go against their own views? Carpenter knows that to change those beliefs you literally have to have them beaten out of you.
Eventually, Nada puts the sunglasses on Frank’s face himself. Then his world changes. Then they find others who have seen the light and fight to save humanity.
They Live had a number one opening week at the box office and then quickly disappeared. It’s gained a cult following in the years since and consider me one of its members. There is a rugged, unpolished quality to it. Roddy Piper isn’t a great actor. The alien faces look cheap and fake. The political messaging is not in the least bit subtle. But all of that works in its favor. Carpenter loves old-fashioned b-movies and he makes them his own. They Live is a great time at the movies. While its messaging may not be subtle, it is effective and still quite applicable to this day. I mean what are we all doing every day but staring mindlessly into our phones?
I don’t go to the movies very much anymore. It just doesn’t seem worth it. My screening was projected too low on the screen making a big black bar appear at the top and the volume was too loud. My chair was half broken causing it to lean to the side uncomfortably. But I still enjoyed myself. Seeing a John Carpenter movie on the big screen is always worth it.
Tickets can be purchased at Fathom Events or at participating theater box offices. For a complete list of theater locations, visit the Fathom Events website (theater locations are subject to change).
