A drifter looking for work finds a place in a homeless camp on the outskirts of town. When he finds a unique pair of sunglasses that reveals aliens all around him, he decides there's more to life than just surviving.
Second in my "Wrestlers On the Big Screen" triple feature and starring the late Roddy Piper, They Live is a cult classic from the 80's by John Carpenter.
The class war is just as relevant today as it was then, so the overall theme holds up fairly well. The bluesy musical two-cord motif running constantly in the background is pleasant at first, but starts to grate on the nerves a half an hour in. This was about the time those plain, black-and-white generic product boxes were first brought on the market, so the revealed subliminal messaging reflecting that style is both amusing and puzzling. Did Carpenter have a fear of generic goods? Did the rows and rows of black and white products in stores trigger some kind of artistic-based loathing? I'd love to ask.
There's sleuthing, action, adventure, and some really terrible looking aliens once they're revealed. Meg Foster always seems to play an alien or alien sympathizer in anything I see her in (I'm still traumatized by her mouse-eating character on the original V mini-series). I guess when your eyes are that unusual, you get typecast.
Since I've seen this many, many times before, my counts are probably off, but I had one laugh out loud moment... at an '80s mullet on a guy on a TV commercial. One needle dropping moment during the bank scene. Otherwise it's a good movie to craft to, especially on a repeat viewing.
Since it holds up fairly well, with its messages about economic turmoil and a rather heart-rending scene when the bulldozers level the homeless camp with fascist thuggery, it still gets a three stars out of five. It would probably get more if that musical motif didn't make it feel like the middle of the movie is plodding along like a tired draft horse.
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