Strolling in the city, he tries a pair on and the world changes. Everything is in black and white. All the billboards with bikini women and suited men are really commands like OBEY, CONSUME, SLEEP. It's on the money, the newspapers, everything. Not bad enough? There are monstrous looking bug eyed entities walking about. When the glass come off these figures are cops, white collar workers, bosses. He goes into a shop which is full of them, one of whom reports into her watch, "I've got one that can SEE!" He does a little damage and flees the scene, pursued by cops which he dispatches, grabbing an assault weapon. Going into a bank he proclaims: "I'm here to chew gum and kick some ass. And I'm all out of gum!"
John Carpenter's most overtly political film mixes satire with a beefy sci-fi paranoia story as we witness a stealthy alien invasion that looks worryingly like normal life. Commercials and talk shows glimpsed on tv depict a society for the privileged and complaining rich while the remaining human population is either bought off or pushed out of their jobs, houses and security.
This film is famous for a fight scene that goes for an absurd stretch of running time as Nada tries to get his new friend to put the glasses on and see the truth. While the scene is affectionately mocked it bears poignancy for our time as well as its own. It's poignant because it's reversed now. The blue collar worker who voted against their own interests, buying into the lie of trickle-down is the one who resists the revelation, preferring the doublethink that allows him a life of apparent ease. He needs the glasses to see the oppressor. Nada's epic alley fight with Frank demonstrates Frank's obstinate belief in the fantasy. It's not just that putting the specs on against his will feels like losing but that his acceptance of his life amounts to the sacred values addressed by contemporary sociology. The notions offer comfort and are supported by a community and consolidate to form beliefs beyond debate. Roddy Piper's character is Nada which is Spanish for "nothing" and suggests that he is a clean slate. He's never called that in dialogue, it just appears by Piper's name in the credits. It's not a reach to consider it Carpenter's comment.
Post COVID, the rise in profile of the conspiracy fantasists has changed the lenses to adopt whichever theory that their undeclared leisure industry can come up with. They are the ones seeing the monsters, the state paedophile networks in pizza shops, the nanobots in the vaccines, the brain frying damage of the 5G towers, adrenochrome, veterinarian medicine as the real cure, sovereign citizenship and whatever other fictions that escapes the screaming void of bullshit that convinces the dispossessed that they have power because they have found the truth. If it was remotely close to the truth they might have had a point. If we had some polaroids that could let them see with their own eyes that a virus is just a virus and a vaccine an attempt at combatting it. If wishes were horses.
I'm not just ranting (well, not really, however fun it feels), there are generations beyond the one in the film that still subscribe to trickle-down economics as though it was established reality. You needn't even lump it all on the anti-vaxxers today, go and read some of the placards at the ragged end of the cooker marches and try to find some cohesion among the wildly varying slogans; you'll find everything from the 5G bores to thinly veiled nazis. These are the people who think they are wearing the sunglasses.
Nada and Frank going each other to bruised and bloody effect is the kind of fight Carpenter might have longed to see but was resigned to leave on the screen. Yes, this is about concealed alien overlords using a massive global signal to control everyone but, also, this is science fiction, satire, paranoia horror, allegory, not documentary. The irony of it is that the message here should be aimed at the Trump voters under the poverty line or the "exposers" of the lizard elite who would only receive it as truth in fiction. Movies really can seem too clever for their own good, even the good ones.
Viewing notes: I watched the locally available Studio Canal 4K special edition which has an undeclared Dolby Vision enhancement which belies the movie's humble production origins. While there is no corresponding Dolby Atmos audio the DTS hi def 5.1 ensures a good booming ride. This, and a handful of other UHD Carpenter releases are very pleasantly available affordably and get some fine treatment from the French SC label. Worth it.
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