They Live (1988)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

They Live (1988) – J. Carpenter

It takes a lot longer before Rowdy Roddy Piper puts on those sunglasses than I remembered.  Before that, this is a downbeat tale about homelessness in Reagan’s America, shot in a pretty rundown looking Los Angeles.  Roddy gets a job on a construction site and meets up with Frank (Keith David), another down-and-out but upright guy looking to keep his head above water (and support his family back in Detroit).  Soon, Roddy (the character’s name is apparently Nada) notices some activity in a nearby church that seems to be associated with a mysterious broadcast that over-rides the local TV signal, claiming that the rich and powerful are running society and keeping people down and pacified by consumerism.  When he sneaks into the church, all he finds are boxes of sunglasses.  Soon, the church is attacked by a SWAT team, which also destroys the tent city where the homeless are living as a supportive community.  Roddy finally puts on those sunglasses and then he’s on the run.  If you’ve seen the film, you know that it totally shifts gears at this point.  If you haven’t, you are in for a surprise.  But once the concept is out there in all its glory, this does turn into a bit of a generic action flick (with an epic fistfight between Roddy and Keith David, as he tries to get him to wear the sunglasses – hilarious).  Only at the very end, when they are trying to turn off the signal at the TV station does director John Carpenter really cash in on the sci-fi aspects of the premise. As a metaphor for a society where some are willing to sacrifice and use others to facilitate their own accumulation of wealth (and others complicitly allow them to do so), this film stands alone in its greatness (and sublimely great weirdness).  A plea for humanity!