They Live is a B-Movie, But the "B" Stands for "Brilliant" (3x5)
Air date: Oct 13, 2024
John Carpenter's They Live from 1988 was a stiff middle finger to Reagan-era consumerism, with the swagger of a professional wrestler. The story of a drifter uncovering a vast alien conspiracy to keep humanity subjugated with hypnotic suggestion and subliminal messages, is a schlocky B-movie veneer on maybe the most prescient political film of the '80s. Clint, Cal, and Alex talk about smartly deployed idiocy, the sneaky difficulty of the film's black and white photography, and the Nostradamus-level prediction Carpenter made 40 years ago that has absolutely come true.
