Companion Viewing
A trio of pop culture satires on the Reagan era
"The Thing" (1982)
"RoboCop" (1987)
"The People Under the Stairs" (1991)
Landmark’s Ken Cinema has found success with it’s classic film weeks and midnight movies. This Saturday you can see "They Live" and pay tribute to the late Roddy Piper.
When Roddy Piper died at the end of July, many fans turned to John Carpenter’s "They Live" as a way to remember the wrestler.
Carpenter’s sci-fi actioner perfectly tapped into Piper’s bad boy wrestling image as he played a reluctant savior of humanity.
Piper's character is referred to as Nada because he never gives a name. He's a down on his luck, unemployed construction worker who happens upon a pair of sunglasses that let him see the world as it really is. The shocking reality is that it's run by the bug-eyed, skull-faced aliens bent on world domination. Nada can now seem subliminal message buried in everything and urging the humans to consume and obey.
But Nada is in no mood to do either.
Piper supposedly improves one of the film's most famous lines, "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum."
You may quibble about Piper's acting abilities but he does endow the film with its memorable fight in a back alley with co-star Keith David.
A key drawing point of the film is its sly satire on Reaganomics. The film came out just as Reagan's presidency was coming to a close and the film reflects Carpenter's criticism of a society and political climate that pushed consumerism and seemed eager to increase the gap between the have's and the have not's.
"They Live" screens Saturday at the Ken Cinema and there’s nothing better than a midnight crowd to show their rowdy appreciation for both Piper and Carpenter’s sci-fi satire.