آن ها زندگی می کنند

by D. Harlan Wilson, بابک کریمی (Translator)

در عموم فیلم‌های جالن کارپنتر، این «استاد وحشت»، «آن‌ها» نیروی شوم عظیمی هستند که تشکیل یک کل واحد را می‌دهند و یک کارکرد و هدف دارند. همان نیروی شومی که همیشه وجود داشته ولی از ما (ساکنان شهر) پنهانش کرده‌اند. به شکل عجیبی همه‌ی این‌ها در تک‌تک فیلم‌هایش از جمله همین «آن‌ها زندگی می‌کنند»، مصادیق درست و کاملی دارند. نیروی شر خارج از کنترل (ساختار هرچیزی را بتواند کنترل می‌کند. هرآنچه از کنترل او خارج است، شر خطاب می‌شود!) که همواره قدرت یا بخشی از قدرت آن را از ما پنهان کرده‌اند یا اینکه در سربرآوردن آن نقش داشته‌اند و ما از آن بی‌خبریم، هر ارگانیسم مسلط، منطق مسلط، علم در معنای چیزی که شناخته‌ایم تاکنون، همه را پس می‌زند و برابر تک‌تک این‌ها یک امر تعریف‌نشده یا تعریف نشدنی علم می‌کند. فیلم «آن‌ها زندگی می‌کنند» در قامت یک فیلم کالت دهه‌ی هشتادی، بر همان نکته‌ای دست می‌گذارد که کارپنتر چپ‌گرا، فیلم به فیلم به آن‌ها پرداخته و نشان‌مان داده که چگونه «آن‌ها» بر ما مسلّط شده‌اند و تحت انقیاد خودشان درآورده‌اند. «دی. هارلن ویلسن» که خود در زمان اکران فیلم نوجوانی شیفته‌ی سینما بوده، تجربه‌ی نوجوانی‌اش در تماشای این فیلم را در نوشتن کتابش چنان با دقت و ظرافت وارد کرده که موجب شده یکی از بهترین تک‌نگاری‌های تمام این سال‌ها پیرامون فیلمی کالت، شکل بگیرد. کتاب «آن‌ها زندگی می‌کنند» با دستمایه قرار دادن همه‌ی عناصر فرمی و سبکی این فیلم، وضعیت سیاسی، اقتصادی و اجتماعی جامعه‌ی آمریکا در زمان ساخت آن، رویکرد کارپنتر نسبت به جامعه و سیاست و میراثی که فیلم برای پس از خودش به جا گذاشته، موفق شده تصویری به کمال از چنین فیلم مهمی به خوانندگانی ارائه دهد که می‌خواهند بدانند چرا جان کارپنتر فیلم‌ساز مهمی‌ست و هر روز هم مهم‌تر می‌شود!

Genres: Film, Nonfiction

156 pages, Paperback

First published February 17, 2015

About the author

D. Harlan Wilson is an American novelist, critic, editor, playwright, and college professor. His body of work bridges the aesthetics of literary and film theory with various genres of speculative fiction. Recent books include Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination: A Critical Companion (2022), Minority Report (2022), Jackanape and the Fingermen (2021), Outré (2020), The Psychotic Dr. Schreber (2019), Natural Complexions (2018), and J.G. Ballard (2017).

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great study of a great film -- it not only provides an array of historical contexts for understanding the film, but succeeds as an introduction to essential film theory as it relates to cult cinema and kitsch. Very different than DHW's bizarro fiction, yet reading this book can help to understand the author's thinking about text and reveals his deep affinity for -- and critical facility with -- the power of counter cultural narratives. Recommended to anyone familiar with the film.

[Brian Tasler · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent addition to the Cultographies library. Wilson's critique of They Live is both academic and entertaining. Drawing on the obvious connections of the consumer-era Reagan 80's along with Carpenter's love of Pro wrestling Wilson makes a strong case for taking another look at this overlooked 80's cult classic. While I doubt most people that remember or love this movie will put as much thought as the author does into critiquing Carpenter's true intentions of making the film the book does a great job of analysis on the hidden meanings within the film.

Some of the analysis that I enjoyed most included Wilson's notion of "Becoming-Piper" within the film whereby the protagonist (Rowdy Roddy Piper for those who have not seen the film) goes into action mode and essentially becomes a parody of other 80's action heroes such as Stallone or Arnold. Wilson also does a good job of analysis on the extended fight scene of the film which is what most people will remember most from the film.

All in all this book is a good, quick read that is both well-reasoned and entertaining.

[Eric Matthews · Rating 5 out of 5]

These in depth analyses of cult movies really make me happy.

[Kristi Lamont · Rating 3 out of 5]

BOOK REPORT
Hey, y’all? If you’ve never watched the 1988 movie They Live,** starring Rowdy Roddy Piper, then you might want to just pass right on by this particular Book Report.

Unless, that is, you would like to go down a particularly tangential and memory-filled rabbit hole with me…..

So, where to start. Umm, I guess at the beginning?

OK, then.

The Beginning
Way, way back in the day, my brother turned me on to this movie. He’s a little bit younger than me, so he’d really grown up watching pro wrestling (wrasslin’) on TMC, Hulk Hogan and the like. I thought all that shit was about sixty-leven kinds of ridiculous, but even though the movie starred a wrestler, my little brother had a really good track record when it came to knowing what was good entertainment/something I would enjoy. (I could totally go down a whole other rabbit hole regarding Better Off Dead*** starring John Cusack, but I won’t. Oh, but I wish I could. “I want my two dollars!” Oh heavens. Now I want to talk about Gross Pointe Blank**** and how my husband and I watched that with The Precious Nephews this summer and how Joan Cusack is criminally underrated! Criminally!)

See, I KNEW this would happen!

Ahem.

Anywhoodles, I watched the movie with him, and “the” line from the movie became part of our shared familial vocabulary from that point forward.

“I’m here to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and I’m all out of bubblegum.”

You’ve got to understand that neither one of us was exactly marching in time with any proscribed societal drummer at that point. It was the late 1980s, early 1990s, and—to differing degrees—we were both already way far left of most of our respective peer groups (something that hasn’t changed much to this day). We not only enjoyed the movie for its sheer over-the-top-ness, we also appreciated the political commentary, both inherent and overt.

So when my brother sent me an email a couple of months ago about a book ABOUT the movie? Well, there wasn’t like I had any choice in the matter, was there? I was going to read it. ESPECIALLY because that same brother had given me an actual DVD of it for my birthday this year, AND because the previously mentioned husband and I had then watched it with The Precious Nephews***** earlier this year, as well!

The Emails
My brother’s email, sent at the end of August of this year and subject-lined “170-(e-)page critique of They Live," began thusly: “I just finished reading this, and I think you might find it both as interesting and pedantic as I did (more the former, on my part). I found myself re-reading some paragraphs, just in case I missed something.”

My response, sent in the middle of November, was (mostly) this: Read this over the course of the past several days in honor of your birthday. 😎 And? And the fact that I actually finished it should be proof immemorial of just EXACTLY how much I fucking love you. Because this guy is not only a pedant, he's a pedant's pedant. Jesus Christ on a cracker. But, yes, I did find it interesting.

The Book. Yes, The Actual Book.
Of course you know the book is They Live, by D. Harlan Wilson. It is, as I explained to my poor, long-suffering, and much-beleaguered (when it comes to matters such as this) husband, an academic treatise on the movie by the same name. One that I never in the fucking history of time would have thought to seek out—and about halfway through the damn thing at which I was so mad about my brother “foisting” upon me that I was ready to get in the car and drive the hour and 45 minutes northeast to see him just to have the pleasure of choking him to death with my bare hands.

Or landing a good pile drive, at the very least.

I preserved, though. Lord help, but did I persevere. So now I feel compelled to share my highlights, and thoughts thereunto.

The Highlights
”I will explore the variables of that schlock in the next chapter…..

Schlock. Oh, be still my heart—schlock! On e-page 88! I do so love me some schlock and people who know whereunto! Hope for the future! (Why do I keep using unto? Why I am going back literally centuries in time with my writing style?)

”Kroker and Cook aptly reference Baudrillard, who theorises the relationship between television and the human condition, making a case for the ‘telefission’ of ’the real and of the real world; because TV and information in general are a form of catastrophe.’”

Um, well, yeah. Which maybe is why so many mental health professionals over the years have told me that I am prone to catastrophizing? At my very core I’m a journalist, programmed (ACCCK!!!) to provide information…..

But, back to the book—I wonder what Our Esteemed Author might have to say along these lines now, vs when the book was published (at the beginning of 2015)…..post-Trump era presidency, post January 6, post-Covid, post-……..ummmm…….well……continued breakdown of society as we knew it? What is factual? What is a deep fake? Infotainment wins out in the end, y’all….

But what about its place in the wider sphere of the culture? Younger generations often dictate American cultural form, production and memory, and unlike many cult films, They Live does not seem to have been favourably passed down the line. Expected for the fight scene, immortalized by cartoon satire, it has been, to some degree, ‘lost.’

Nope, you’re wrong, D Harlan. Well, you’re wrong _now_, in 2023. Because while the husband and I thought we were going to be turning The Precious Nephews onto the film, it turned out that their daddy—who’s about eight years younger than me—had already done so. And some of their friends had already seen it. So that’s at least a couple of generations of teenage boys down the line….

“…the film as a projection of Nada’s broken and schizophrenised unconscious.”

Lots about schizophrenia/schizo-affective disorder in this book. LOTS. And I get that that is a totally valid lens through which to view the movie, pun/s mostly not intended, just inevitable, it seems. But at this point in my life, I have to wonder if maybe those diagnosed with such are not in fact the more sane amongst us, seeing and hearing things that the rest of us will come only later to learn were real. I mean, we’re living out 1984 and Brave New World as I type, are we not? Wouldn’t I have been thought (and thought myself) insane if I’d bought into those ideas as fact-based reality back when I read them originally, in high school?

“…Capitalism: A Very Special Delirium [as theorized by Gilles Deleuze]….‘Underneath all reason lies delirium, drift. Everything is rational in capitalism, except capital and capitalism itself. The stock market is certainly rational; one can understand it, study it, the capitalists know how to use it, and yet it is completely delirious, it’s mad. It is in the sense that we say: the rational is always the rationality of an irrational.’”

Well, yeah.

In Conclusion, More Or Less
I’m glad I read this book when I did, with the movie more or less fresh in my mind. It gave me some food for thought, but mainly it made me reflect on the steadily increasing surreality of our current existence.

Will I watch any remake, if and when it ever happens? I dunno. (I DO know that I won’t be watching any remake of Roadhouse, though. Perish the thought.) But I gotta admit this one looks like it has potential…..

https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/ent...

Time to get on with my life, now. Fortunately, I’ve still got just a little bit of bubblegum left. Not gonna make any promises about what will happen when I run out.

**They Live**
Here’s a link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096256/

***Better Off Dead***
Here’s a link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088794/...

****Gross Pointe Blank****
Here’s a link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119229/...

*****The Precious Nephews*****
They’ll be 15 in a few weeks. Bless everybody’s hearts. Other classic films screened at this past summer’s session of Camp Aunt Kristi were Roadhouse (why yes, in fact, they did see the resemblance between their uncle and Sam Elliott, and no, children, that’s not a coincidence….Miss Aunt Kristi does love her some Sam Elliott), Doctor Zhivago (verdict=“bleak,” not inaccurate at all), The Graduate (“This is kinda cringey, Aunt Kristi”—again, not inaccurate), Local Hero (there’s a whole other story waiting to be told about how the husband and I made a pilgrimage to Pennan, Scotland, where parts of this were filmed—the short version is you really can’t get there from here), and Smoke Signals. The boys found the latter two a bit too slow for their taste. Also, we all agreed that the 1980s were much, much more uncivilized in many ways than now.

[Mary Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just like the film, this is even more relevant today as it was back in the 1980's
"I'm Here to Chew Bubble Gum and Kick Ass."

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read this like 5 times because I teach it regularly and it's a consistent student favorite!
Fantastic insights and writing.
If you love the movie, you need to slip these pages over your eyes.

[Brian Shevory · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy these Cultographies books since they focus on cult movies and provide useful insights and analysis on some films that are often underevaluated or underappreciated. They Live, although it has gained cult status, is probably one of those more underappreciated films. Yet, with the continued escalation of conservative values and the push for conformity online, it is only fitting that They Live has a new analysis since its messages and iconic symbolism can be applied to today’s context to better understand forces in power and the means with which they communicate using media, advertising, and imagery. However, Wilson’s book goes beyond analysis and presents a historical context as well as important background information for understanding Carpenter’s film made in the late 80s, but developed from a story from the 1960s and a comic adaptation of that story from the 1980s. I knew about the story, but didn’t know about the comic, which included the main character of Nada, an everyman who is seemingly nothing in this new society dominated by conservative young professional values of working, consuming, and reproducing. In addition, Wilson provides his own personal connection to both Carpenter’s films as well as the excess of the 80s and how professional wrestling and masculinity factored into the development of They Live. I was also a big WWF fan in the 80s and remember how Roddy Roddy Piper stood out among the various villains and heroes. And while Piper’s acting is not great, it is surprising that based on his wrestling antics and skits, he wasn’t considered for many other leading roles in films. The book then examines different elements of both the film’s plot and its style, helping to frame both the cult legacy of They Live along with its messages and criticisms of Reaganism and the greater push for conservative values in American culture. I found this interesting, especially since Wilson explains that this was probably Carpenter’s last good film (some might say In the Mouth of Madness from the mid 1990s), and part of this might be that once Reagan left office, tastes for horror and sci-fi changed. There were fewer allegorical or critical horror and sci-fi films that were lower budget, and it probably wasn’t until the Matrix, which really wasn’t political, that a sci-fi film had that kind of allegorical or symbolic approach. I can also think of Fight Club as being critical of society, but I wouldn’t call that a cult film like They Live, and it is definitely not a sci-fi film, even though it tends to critique some of the concepts about masculinity, capitalism and consumerism. Regardless, I think Wilson’s analysis made me wonder whether the studio system and the changing dynamic of audience tastes may have prevented Carpenter from making the kinds of films he wanted. It’s not that his films went out of style—they seem even more relevant and popular today than they were when released; however, it seems like the studio system, part of the messaging and consumerist system that Carpenter critiques in They Live, was unwilling to pursue some of these allegorical approaches to films. That’s why I appreciated this analysis and contextualization of They Live. It challenged my thinking about films from the 80s, but also helped me reinterpret elements of They Live that are still relevant today. Furthermore, as Wilson notes from the various reviews and criticisms of the film from its release, They Live was really not well received, with only a few critics recognizing its cult status and B-Film references to 1950s alien films that similarly criticized McCarthyism and the red scare. I also greatly appreciated that this book went beyond a critical recap of the action of the film and looked at several elements surrounding its production, legacy and symbolism. Although he references Lethem’s critical recap, Wilson’s analysis is deeper and more nuanced, although maybe not as humorous as Lethem’s. I’m glad I read this book since They Live is a fun, yet also critically important film, and this book adds to the critical discussion, helping me think differently about the film and its legacy.

[Michael O. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't really understand who this book is for. It's a piece of film criticism that oscillates between the boneheadedly surface-level (did you know Reagan was an actor turned president? or Arnold used steroids?) and arcane critical theory, though often even that is usually barely above the level of name-dropping. It literally explains that Rottentomatoes is a review aggregator on which 90% is a rare score and then only a paragraph later casually drops "jouissance" on the reader (in italics, naturellement), and a page or two later, "polyvalent sobriquet." Yet with all that (or more likely because of all that) I barely learned anything new or interesting about They Live. I like the idea of the Cultographies, but I hope the next one I pick up has more meat to it.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good. It peters out at the end as the discussion on the lasting influence of They Live is a bit underwhelming (I mean...we have an entire book on the film). But the discussion on the political philosophies on the film are inspired. And I was illuminated on some of the racial discussions and implications, even if I didn't agree with some people who were quoted.

[mehran · Rating 3 out of 5]

آخرین فیلمی که از کارپنتر دوست دارم... بعدش هم عمر سینمای اش مُرد

[Simon Sweetman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gets a tiny bit repetitive at times, but I love the film so much and enjoyed a lot of the insights. So, worth it.