Post by klep on Dec 3, 2018 7:52:08 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 12/10: They Live
CONSUMERISM WEEK!
They Live is a remarkably chilling and effective film. Its monsters hide among us, zombie-like alien creatures from another dimension who secretly rule us from the shadows. They walk among us, living like us, working with us, secretly laughing at us. They are, in fact, the proverbial 'they' - pervasive yet anonymous, only they're bent on our subjugation and exploitation. They have created a nightmare dystopia of spent natural resources and economic depression, but nobody living in it is even aware it's going on.
When Nada (Roddy Piper) puts on the sunglasses for the first time, he sees clearly what they have hidden from humanity - subliminal messages compelling human behavior. OBEY. MARRY AND REPRODUCE. NO INDEPENDENT THOUGHT. He sees them too, milling about like humans, seemingly smug in their certainty they own us. It shakes him to his core, and all he can think about is how to get rid of them - like looking down at your shirt and finding a flea.
But what makes They Live truly chilling is how close it is to reality. We don't have a secret cabal of aliens running around with a specific goal of enslaving the population and consuming all of the planet's resources. But we don't need that; we're doing it all on our own. We buy things (CONSUME) we don't need to make ourselves feel important. We mortgage the planet's future to make things more convenient today (STAY ASLEEP). We're trapped in jobs we hate because we can't afford to do anything else (SUBMIT). Our leaders on the television preach that everything will be fine as long as we do what they say, but the arbiters of the press won't tell us which of them is right (DO NOT QUESTION AUTHORITY). We're pulled in multiple directions and so end up going nowhere. Entertainment sells us fantasies of wealth that we'll never achieve, and we eat them up because it distracts from how miserable we are (NO IMAGINATION).
That's an overly pessimistic and cynical view of the world, but it's closer to the truth than we'd like. And it's something we see reflected in the world of They Live. As metaphors go it's perhaps not the most subtle, but a metaphor doesn't have to be subtle to be effective. The brilliant, minimalist production design of what Nada sees through the glasses is brutal in its simplicity. There's no room for escaping what's going on around him, and we're forced to confront the similarities between the film and our own reality. John Carpenter tapped into a fear we had about our own society and made a film that foregrounded it, shoved our faces in it, and dared us to get better. He's Nada to our Frank (Keith David), beating the crap out of us in an alley until we wake up.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 12/10: Dirty Dancing
IT'S LADIES' WEEK!
Join us next week for the best time of our lives as we cover the 1987 classic Dirty Dancing! While not directed by a woman, screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein was the driving force behind its production. Dirty Dancing is available for rent on Amazon Video, though it is not free for Prime members.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 12/4: Widows
Where Thief showed us Chicago in the 80s, Steve McQueen's new Widows takes us on a tour of the city today. Join us next week for our own essay and discussion of Widows, still in theaters.
CONSUMERISM WEEK!
They Live is a remarkably chilling and effective film. Its monsters hide among us, zombie-like alien creatures from another dimension who secretly rule us from the shadows. They walk among us, living like us, working with us, secretly laughing at us. They are, in fact, the proverbial 'they' - pervasive yet anonymous, only they're bent on our subjugation and exploitation. They have created a nightmare dystopia of spent natural resources and economic depression, but nobody living in it is even aware it's going on.
When Nada (Roddy Piper) puts on the sunglasses for the first time, he sees clearly what they have hidden from humanity - subliminal messages compelling human behavior. OBEY. MARRY AND REPRODUCE. NO INDEPENDENT THOUGHT. He sees them too, milling about like humans, seemingly smug in their certainty they own us. It shakes him to his core, and all he can think about is how to get rid of them - like looking down at your shirt and finding a flea.
But what makes They Live truly chilling is how close it is to reality. We don't have a secret cabal of aliens running around with a specific goal of enslaving the population and consuming all of the planet's resources. But we don't need that; we're doing it all on our own. We buy things (CONSUME) we don't need to make ourselves feel important. We mortgage the planet's future to make things more convenient today (STAY ASLEEP). We're trapped in jobs we hate because we can't afford to do anything else (SUBMIT). Our leaders on the television preach that everything will be fine as long as we do what they say, but the arbiters of the press won't tell us which of them is right (DO NOT QUESTION AUTHORITY). We're pulled in multiple directions and so end up going nowhere. Entertainment sells us fantasies of wealth that we'll never achieve, and we eat them up because it distracts from how miserable we are (NO IMAGINATION).
That's an overly pessimistic and cynical view of the world, but it's closer to the truth than we'd like. And it's something we see reflected in the world of They Live. As metaphors go it's perhaps not the most subtle, but a metaphor doesn't have to be subtle to be effective. The brilliant, minimalist production design of what Nada sees through the glasses is brutal in its simplicity. There's no room for escaping what's going on around him, and we're forced to confront the similarities between the film and our own reality. John Carpenter tapped into a fear we had about our own society and made a film that foregrounded it, shoved our faces in it, and dared us to get better. He's Nada to our Frank (Keith David), beating the crap out of us in an alley until we wake up.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 12/10: Dirty Dancing
IT'S LADIES' WEEK!
Join us next week for the best time of our lives as we cover the 1987 classic Dirty Dancing! While not directed by a woman, screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein was the driving force behind its production. Dirty Dancing is available for rent on Amazon Video, though it is not free for Prime members.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 12/4: Widows
Where Thief showed us Chicago in the 80s, Steve McQueen's new Widows takes us on a tour of the city today. Join us next week for our own essay and discussion of Widows, still in theaters.