We'll be screening John Carpenter's subversive, more relevant than ever Reagan-era classic on the 30th anniversary of its original release date (November 4th, 1988). "Carpenter’s 1988 paranoid freakout deserves to be thought of as a masterpiece, an artist’s defiant last grab at substance... 'They Live' was a bridge for some of us, a bona-fide act of subversion from a filmmaker who invested his famous style of clean widescreen compositions and Hawksian gab with something larger, something flattering to the audience’s intelligence." - Rolling Stone
"The film was was responding to the start of the US rust belt and Reagan-era consumerism, but its themes of working-class subjugation and omnipresent media control have only become more pressing." - The Guardian
"John Carpenter's They Live has cult favorite written all over it, and part of the reason is the way it regenerates the cheap, juicy, surprisingly potent sci-fi of the 1950s." - Boston Globe
SUMMARY: A homeless drifter discovers a reason for the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor: a conspiracy by non-human aliens who have infiltrated American society in the guise of wealthy yuppies. With the help of special sunglasses that reveal the aliens' true faces and their subliminal messages ("marry and reproduce," "submit to authority"), our hero tries to stop the invasion. This satire of Reaganomics and the "greed is good" era also has one of the funniest (and longest) fight scenes in American cinema. Rated R, 97 minutes.
***NO FREE PASSES for this screening, thank you.
***Please note that NO OUTSIDE DRINKS OR FOOD are allowed inside Richards' Goat Tavern & The Miniplex for legal reasons and violators of this rule may be banned from the theatre permanently. Cocktails, non-alcoholic beverages, popcorn, and cookies are available at the bar. If you are interested in one of our hot food specials, please show up at least 30 minutes early to finish it in the bar area, as hot food and glass is not allowed inside the dark theatre for your safety. Thank you, see you at the movies!