Snow Ball Paper - They Live (Final Edits)

[They Live]
In the Sci-Fi movie They Live, directed by John Carpenter, is a story about a homeless man who discovered how corrupt society was by looking through a pair of sunglasses, which were banned in the city he lived in. John Carpenter, known for his dark cinematography, wanted to show a movie that not only had hideous creatures symbolizing corruption, but a “film [that] addresses the issues of the homeless in our country, social irresponsibility, mass consumption, environmental destruction, corruption, the attractiveness of our capitalistic society and the incredibly strong influence of the communications media.” (http://www.theofficialjohncarpenter.com/). The main character of the film did not originate from the city. He was a hitchhiker who settled in a community of homeless people, welcomed by a man named Frank, acted by Keith David.
In a particular scene, the main character witnessed a blind man preaching about the government which the main character did not know about. The main character watched the blind man as he preached, explaining “Outside the limit of our sight, feeding off us, perched on top of us, from birth to death, are our owners! Our owners! They have us. They control us! They are our masters! Wake up! They're all about you! All around you!” The blind man told listeners to wake up. Wake up from being bombarded by the media and government with manipulating messages.
Unfortunately, the main character did not understand the blind man’s revelation. He instead walked away towards the homeless community. Across the street from the homeless community was a church. The main character was suspicious about the church after a couple of men drove away from the church. The main character decided to investigate the church by entering the back house, discovering a box that was stored in a secret storage area behind a wall. He leaves the church after the same blind man, who coincidently was involved with the church, told him “this world may have blinded me, but the Lord has let me see.” The main character walked away, assuming that the blind man was talking about his encounter with him. One can agree that the blind man was not necessarily talking about the main character and his whereabouts in the church, but about how the blind man was aware of the government and the lies that the government placed in society, blinding individuals by manipulating those who cannot see and are not awake.
After walking away from the blind man’s revelation, the main character finally understood what he meant after finding a box of glasses in a hidden wall of the church. He takes the box into an alley so no person can see him. He took a pair, assuming the glasses were like any other pair and started wearing it. Through the glasses the main character saw things he had never seen before. Using the glasses had shown the main character the true essence behind the billboard adds, magazines, books, television shows, even people. He soon realizes that it is the appearance that fools everybody in the society. The corrupted people in society are reveled as these hideous creatures that nobody can see unless one is wearing these special glasses. The glasses in the movie symbolize the truth, revealing the main character various revelations; everything is a lie and the need to fight the power.
Because of the glasses, it separates the social classes into two groups, between the rich and the poor. The binary opposition, rich vs. poor in comparison to the binary opposition, essence vs. appearance shows the similarities between poor and essence vs. rich and appearance. The two helps the audience go in depth about the poor revealing the essence of the world around them. Not everybody could see the essence of humans, and because everything is not how it is supposed to be, people are often fooled by his/her appearance which tends to attract people, leading them into manipulation, a common revelation trope in most cases. A man is manipulated by society, soon figuring out that everything is a lie, which he tries to gain the support after teaching himself to fight against the power. The ending of the story varies to how the director may want to end the movie. Fortunately, in the movie They Live, the main character was successful to open the eyes of many people after shutting down a machine that hid the truth behind the creatures’ fake appearance.