As with the cult of fans of John Carpenter’s remarkably poignant 1988, sci-fi action movie They Live, Martin Scorsese will obey. In a review Scorsese wrote a number of years ago but going viral now, the legendary director named They Live as “one of the best films of a fine American director.”
In his review of They Live, Martin Scorsese offered a dissection on the themes. “This movie was Carpenter’s commentary on what he saw as the excesses of the Reagan era, and the movie shares many qualities with pictures made during the Depression, such as Heroes for Sale and Wild Boys of the Road. It’s lyrical and tough at the same time, with a strong sense of community among the displaced people living in makeshift homes on the outskirts of L.A…and the mood is unusually sad and bitter.”
But Scorsese didn’t focus exclusively on They Live, directly praising the style of Carpenter throughout his career, saying of the “master craftsman”, “His pictures always have a handmade quality–every cut, every move, every choice of framing and camera movement, not to mention every note of music (he composes his own scores) feels like it has been composed or placed by the filmmaker himself.”
Scorsese didn’t just praise They Live, either, pointing out “startling moments” in some of Carpenter’s other films: “the murder of the little girl with the ice-cream cone in Assault on Precinct 13; the appearances of Michael Myers on the very edge of the frame in Halloween; the appearances of the creature in his truly terrifying remake of The Thing. And the mood of his pictures is so carefully crafted and sustained. I’m a great admirer of The Fog, the mood of it, the sense of mystery.” One moment that stood out for Martin Scorsese in They Live was the iconic fight scene between Roddy Piper and Keith David, which he accurately called “hilariously long.” And why not recreate it with one of your old WWF figures and NECA’s incredibly cool Frank Armitage one?
We may not know if John Carpenter ever read Martin Scorsese’s take on They Live, but if he did, maybe he would get moving on the oft-discussed sequel.
Does Martin Scorsese make valid observations in his review of They Live? What are your thoughts on the film? Where does it rank with other John Carpenter greats?