They live is a 1988 film from director John Carpenter of Halloween fame that has recently being playing reguarly on the Sci Fi channel. It’s the story of one mans quest to liberate Earth from dominant alien invaders after he discovers a pair of sunglasses that shows the world for what it really is. Which is a world where the upper echelons of society have been infiltrated and human beings are subdued through the use of constant subliminal messaging that is invisible to the naked eye. It’s a neat idea and one which is all the more terrifying because Carpenter sets this movie in a world which is immediately recognisable as our own instead of some alternative Orwellian nightmare.

The lead character Nada is played by former WWF wrestler Roddy piper. Presumably Kurt Russell was busy but Piper was a good choice because he embodies the qualities of the everyman and that is who the hero’s in carpenter’s films usually are. The everyman. Well at least the typical American action hero version. In fact it doesn’t take to vast a stretch of the imagination to envision a spruced up Bruce Springsteen donning sunglasses, a leather jacket and a shotgun to kick alien ass. Carpenter understands these people and he gives them the most suitable dialogue. In one scene Nada has finally persuaded his friend Frank played by Keith David that aliens are indeed in control of the entire planet. Then Frank squeamishly asks ‘well where do you think they come from’ and Nada’s cool reply is ‘well they aint from Cleveland that’s for sure’. This is an example of how one line of dialogue can sum up the entire essence of a character and it reminded me of the kind people Charles Bukowski used to write about. Also everymen but usually fighting against the monotony of the day to day routine rather than in planetary struggles. Sample Bukowski line ‘When we were kids our teacher told us to write about our most moving experience and I don’t mean moving to Denver’. Brilliant stuff.

Where the film falls down however is with its story. The film was adapted into a screenplay by Carpenter from a short story and it shows because there are some good ideas here but nothing is ever truly fleshed out. Granted a mass alien invasion isn’t the most likely of occurrences but the plot does still demand some coherence which we are never granted. Also the film often betrays its low budget with some very poor effects work and sometimes veers very closely pure schlock territory. Not that we are to take any of this seriously of course as most of the film is done with a tongue in cheek humour. Carpenter seems to have bigger aspirations such as turning his film into an attack on any number of state bodies as well as human apathy in general. Tall order for a film about a man who finds a special pair of sunglasses that shows ugly skeleton like aliens have invaded the planet.

It has been done before of course a low budget science fiction or horror movie with serious political overtones that could be construed as an attack on the establishment. The best example probably being George A Romero’s Dawn of the dead. That film served as both a competent thriller a well as being slyly subversive. In fact in one funny scene towards the end of They live Romero receives a name check.

John Carpenter is a very good film maker some of his best work includes such genre classics as Halloween, The thing and Escape from new York. He has also made numerous lesser efforts. This is one of them but They live is not a bad film. It is a decent action picture but never truly transcends that genre into something more. You cant blame Carpenter for trying though. He wants to give the audience a good time and maybe something more if they want it which is noble. But unfortunately like his contemporary Oliver Stone his film lacks most of the subtlety truly required to do so.