A Fun Review of 80s Classic Film

 They Live: A Novel Approach to Cinema (Deep Focus) by Jonathan Lethem

They Live book cover

I’ve had this book several times, but I always seem to lose a copy. When I recently bought another copy, I made sure to bring it with me on a trip and read it. This was my first read of the Novel Approach series, and I really wanted to read Lethem’s analysis of this movie. I watched They Live again over the summer, and I probably could have watched it again. Nevertheless, I think watching the movie within the last year is helpful in walking through Lethem’s scene by scene analysis. Lethem doesn’t get too in depth with his analysis and nothing is really that ground breaking, but it is a fun read. I found myself laughing at times as Lethem explores some of the ridiculous scenes, proposing some interesting backstories for some characters. He does do some cursory research of the movie, but he admits that he doesn’t know too much about Carpenter. As someone who really admires Lethem’s writing, this was a fun book to read. I appreciated the context of the film—as the end of the Reagan era was approaching, and considering how this film used Roddy Roddy Piper as an action hero (something that didn’t really work out as well as some future wrestling stars). It was a quick read, and I liked that the book focused on scenes—especially noting how ridiculously long the fight scene between Piper and Keith David is. I have one other book from this series to check out, but I don’t know how much I’m looking forward to watching Death Wish.