Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7841 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-09-22
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 90 minutes

Synopsis
John Nada (Roddy Piper) is a quiet loner, a drifter who gets work where ever he can find it. While working on a construction site in L.A. and sleeping in a vagrant community at night, John stumbles upon a secret society of alien beings who pose as wealthy and powerful people in human society. John joins a rebel group commited to exposing this conspiricy, and becomes their reluctant leader and the only hope of the human race. Wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper is outstanding as the unassuming hero, playing the role with understated shock at what he uncovers and stubborn courage when he confronts it. Director John Carpenter laces the film with his trademark blend of humour and horror, making aliens that are hideously arrogant, greedy, and easy to hate, while the humans are confused and desperate in their struggle against them. The world looks a little different at the end of THEY LIVE, and one will never look at billboards, money, or sunglasses the same way again. The film contains the longest, and perhaps most realistic, fist fight in film history. Paying homage to INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, the film was based on the short story EIGHT O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING by Ray Nelson.

Customer Reviews

Amazing movie!
Hi,
I personally can't wait for this movie to be released again.I'm looking forward to the Blu-Ray in particular.This is my favourite John Carpenter movie and i think in this day and age for me anyway the message in the movie becomes clearer and clearer.It really is a great reflection of western society in particualr and how our brains are manipulated 24/7 365 days a year by commercialism and things that have no real importance in the grand scheme of things.Well back to the movie and what a great performance by Roddy piper and also Keith David.My favourite line in the movie is when piper goes into a bank and declares:"I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass.....and i'm all outta bubblegum"!!
I emplore anyone who is reading this and has not seen this movie to give it a go.Well definetely for me a 5-star movie quite frankly there has been nothing that has come close to it in it's 20 years.
Long live John Carpenter,granted he has made some crap in his later years but still i would love him to do a sequel!!

old films
they live is another classic film just love these
type of films this is a must buy great film

80s sci fi satire
This is one of several good films made by the Americans in the 1980s which warn of the effects of Thatcherism on society, others being Maniac Cop (policing), Running Man (capitalist media and mob justice), and Hellraiser 1 & 2 (capitalist health services). The meaning is in the symbolism. This one satirically portrays a society divided between the normals (those of us who identify with the talent and principles that created our nations), and the aliens (Mrs Thatcter's exploiters and opportunists, who have the opposite value historically). The difference can only be seen from experience (the sun glasses). Like Maniac Cop this film has its own sci-fi story to it, which is entertaining, and it has an independent low-budget look about it, but it is well made. Most of the creativity of the 1980s was anti-Thatcherist. This one is always enjoyable to watch.