Thursday, May 04, 2017

Script review - "They Live" by Fred Armitage (John Carpenter)

Carpenter's considerable skills as a director and composer have tended to overshadow his gifts as a writer, which are also considerable - this is skilled, lean work, which keeps you turning the page. There's no co writer here so I'm guessing this is more "pure Carpenter" than other stuff he's done.

It's the ramblings of a child of the sixties, mixed up with 50s sci fi like The Thing and Invasion of the Body Snatchers - it's all about the corporations and greed and aliens trying to dull us and "the Man". Some people say it predicts our current climate - it kind of does, only Nada the hero definitely would have voted for Trump. "He tells it like it is".

Good solid structure, very easy to read (lots of one line paragraphs) - very visual. The fight scene is fun to read - Carpenter just writes "fight scene" on several pages and that's it! I wish it was more motivated though - getting Frank to look through glasses doesn't seem enough. Nada does set about shooting people awfully fast.

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