Scary Socioeconomics: John Carpenter's "They Live" (1988) and Brian Yuzna's "Society" (1989)
In John Carpenter's They Live , Roddy Piper, ripped and rugged, is a drifter wandering through the desolate Pacific Northwest, looking for an honest's days work in the aftermath of Reaganomics America. He finds a gig on a construction site in Los Angeles, where he can shovel dirt, with his muscles glistening in the warm sun, finding refuge in the tent cities that director John Carpenter constructs as a prediction of a future caste system to come to the USA. Casting the Saskatchewan born Piper was a brilliant move, because his tough-guy wrestler shell exuded all that was America at the time, yet his knowing, wearied stare gave him a Gregory Peck quality, he was worn down but not beat down. He wasn't Hulk Hogan ripping his shirt off, but he would kick some ass. And beat ass he did, in a totally awesome fight with Keith David, in which he's trying to convince his friend to try on the sunglasses that allow him to see the creepy aliens disguised as the bourgeoisie upper