They Live

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Publication.png They Live 
(filmIMDBRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
1988They Live poster300.jpg
Typefiction
Publication date4 November 1988
Author(s)
Subjectssocial control

They Live is a documentary according to Roddy Piper,[1] who was an actor in it. John Carpenter during an interview once said that: "it has some sort of message to it, but basically it is an action movie".[citation needed] It could be described as an allegory for corruption and white collar crime.

It does contain one of the longest fighting scenes in movie history between a black and a white dude, one trying to convince the other that the world he sees is real. An observation that could be made is that in real life (who is trying to convince whom), it is rather the other way around.

Box office

Robbie Graham in his book Silver Screen Saucers writes:

Unfortunately for Carpenter, his film's searing political vision may have been a key contributing factor to its undoing at the box-office. They Live was pulled just two weeks after its 4 November 1988 release date. While Carpenter blamed audiences who "don't want to be enlightened," co-star Keith David had a more conspiratorial take on the film's failure: "not that anybody's being paranoid," said the actor, "but it was interesting that They Live was number one at the box office... and suddenly you couldn't see it anywhere - it was, like, snatched".[2]
Putting on the truth sunglasses


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References

  1. http://archive.today/2015.01.22-125942/https://twitter.com/R_Roddy_Piper/status/383693269068050432
  2. Silver Screen Saucers, page 76, Keith David's comments feature in a 'making of' documentary on the Region 2 DVD release, Momentum 2002