To me this comes across as a satire on the 'greed is good' yuppy culture of the 80s, in a very similar way that Robocop does, which I think was a much better movie (admittedly that had a bigger budget). But the humour in Robocop was much more effective, as were all other elements.
Seeing as They Live was made the year after Robocop, dou you think it was inspired by it?
They Live and Robocop are both strongly anti-capitalism movies.
That doesn't mean that They Live was influenced by Robocop. Anti-capitalism is a very common idea. The 80's and 90's had lots of anti-capitalism ScifFi movies (i.e. Blade Runner, the Alien films, Total Recall, Starship Troopers, etc).
All great movies (and of course SST was directed by Paul Verhoeven after RoboCop) but I was referring to the strong satirical elements of Robocop / They Live, your other examples may all have anti-capitalist elements but only They Live and RoboCop (and SST by default) were "satirical" in the humorous definition of the word, as I understand it. The others were played straight.
shareBoth movies were a reaction of two independent directors to Reaganism.
And they were shot more or less at the same time.
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They Live and Robocop are both strongly anti-capitalism movies.
Way more anti-capitalist than anti-establishment.
shareHa, maybe you should watch the movie before you attempt to comment about it.
It's about an alien-run oligarchical establishment which is enslaving the human race through mind control/propaganda.
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"All great truths begin as blasphemies."
- George Bernard Shaw
Ive seen it more times than you, and clearly understand it more.
shareWay more anti-capitalist than anti-establishment.
You didn't understand what you were watching if that's what you think.
The movie is 100% about the Jewish global oligarchy, as practically every detail in the movie matches the real world global oligarchy we presently live under, which is without any doubt Jewish (just look at who runs the financial system and media). That's why two of the main scenes in the movie take place inside a bank and TV station. And Jews are the only notable ethnic group that tends to hide among a host population in an attempt to conceal their identities, much like the aliens in the movie.
John Carpenter was simply trying to show people how the world works and who ultimately runs it. He just did it with a movie.
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They Live was based on a comic book. I doubt it had anything to do with Robocop, this backlash against yuppy culture was just a growing trend in the mid to late 80s, due to people getting tired of Reaganomics, the stock market crash, etc.
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Slight correction, if I may- it was a short story called "Eight O'Clock in the Morning", by Ray Nelson. Was it in the form of a comic? Certainly not taking up a hwole comic, but just a story included in a comic book.
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