For those of you who don’t know the film Outland was made in 1981 starring Sean Connery. It is a thriller set in a mining colony on Jupiter’s moon Io in which Connery is a federal marshal investigating a series of gruesome deaths. It has been largely forgotten for years, so when I learned that a local film group was screening it I got very excited since I had never seen it in an actual theatre before.
What is so great about this film? The social commentary. In fact I would say that this film was way ahead of its time, and that is probably the main reason why it has been largely forgotten. Back in the 80’s people under the thrall of Reagan and Thatcher thought that corporations could do no wrong, that they were trusted to do what was right because why would a corporation want to hurt people? Leap forward 40 years and a lot of people now realize that corporations don’t give a crap about them; it’s all a profit driven con to separate people from their money no matter the true cost of that profit.
I honestly think this is Sean Connery’s best role because he is playing an actual man, not some sort of spy superhero. The character has to figure out what they want and need to do to take care of the situation at hand and he really emotes that struggle in such a way that makes you care about him, whether you agree with his actions or not.
Another thing that makes this film special is the fact that a lot of the crew who worked on it also had a hand in making Alien. Because of that it has the same kind of feel; a dirty dystopian future in which people have to work in dangerous situations in order to survive. The future isn’t perfect, rather it is imperfect just like now.
Look, I’m smiling!
I very highly recommend watching this. If you like dystopian, sci-fi or 80’s thriller films this movie will be right up your alley!
The Purge definitely ranks as one of my favourite modern dystopian films. The main reason is because the premise of it is so believable that there is no way that you can totally dismiss the concept as being too far fetched to actually happen. The best kind of dystopian films show us a reality that is possible if the wrong people get placed into positions of power. Since I have proven that we are in fact living in a dystopian society the events that take place in this film are just that much more believable.
The New Founding Fathers have declared a national holiday of crime that is to happen every year. The year that this film is taking place is 2022, just a few years after the first Purge was commenced. This day of violence supposedly rids people from wanting to commit crimes for the rest of the year. Have you always hated that little bitch who teased you all through high school? Well, you have permission to hunt her down and kill her! It will make you feel all better because the government tells you it will. The government never lies…or does it?
What I especially like about the premise of the film, and what is explored even further in the other Purge films, is that the homeless and poor working class are seen as disposable. The government wants these type of people gone since they supposedly ‘waste’ government money. Why should the government help these ‘leeches’ when they can’t even help themselves? The wealthy and ‘better’ people are urged to hunt these kind of people. As evidenced by the college students who demand their homeless ‘kill’ back when the young son of the house lets him in after he begs for help outside. This whole cultural event makes those that have money and power in society feel like they are at the top of the food chain.
What is really the most frightening aspect about this film, at least to me, is that you can’t trust anybody. Your boyfriend will try to kill your father because he wants him to stop dating you. Your neighbours will try to kill your entire family because they are jealous of your success. So, you have to basically make sure that you never piss anybody off, because when the night of The Purge arrives they may come after you. Do you really want to live in worry constantly? Is that really a healthy way to live?
These mysterious ‘Founding Fathers Of America’ use the same kind rhetoric as the Republicans in America and the Tories in the United Kingdom use to control the underclass. Does you life suck and you’re really mad about it? Don’t take it out on the government, the real entities who have caused your issues! Hey, see those poor and homeless people over there? They are the cancer affecting society and your life would be so much better if they were gone! In fact, here is a special night every year in which you can go kill whomever you want, and you won’t even get in trouble for it! Get rid of those homeless and poor people, because that would make life so much better for you!
Society, as seen in this film, is filled with people who don’t question what the government does. To show their support of Purge Night people place blue flowers outside their homes. If they don’t you get the sense that such people will be easy targets for those seeking to ‘release the beast’. So, by an extreme form of peer pressure, the government is able to make sure that everybody supports their legal night of murder.
Finally, what I would like to touch on is that it is claimed by the government that crime and unemployment are at all time lows because of Purge Night. What I’m guessing is that this isn’t the whole truth. I think it is yet another form of propaganda that the government uses to get people out there killing those pesky undesirables that the government seems to hate so much.
Could this scenario actually happen in real life? Of course it could, because when has the UK or US governments given a damn about the people in society who struggle to live?
EDIT: I wrote yet another post about this film because I had forgotten about this one. I’m going to keep both up because I make some different points in each.
Please remember that there will be SPOILERS in this article. Instead of reviewing films I am talking about how I connect to them and what they mean to me and society at large.
I am a John Carpenter fangirl! He will always be my favourite horror/sci-fi director, and I have seen most if not all of his films. Even when he makes a supposedly ‘bad’ film, such as Escape From L.A., it is still entertaining. Honestly, I don’t think he makes bad films. I just think that he makes great films and others that aren’t as great but are still fun to watch. I will be talking quite a bit about his films on this blog…because they are nifty!
The plot of They Live is pretty basic. Alien creatures from some far off planet have colonized Earth, and have gotten themselves into positions of power by successfully disguising themselves as humans. They subliminally influence and control the population by hiding words in programs, ads, books, etc.. How do they do this without people being aware of their evil machinations? What looks like a regular billboard adverting jeans actually says such things as ‘buy’ ‘consume’ and ‘conform’. The only way that humans can see what is really going on is by wearing some sunglasses that shows the world in black and white; the advertisement messages and the aliens out in the open. The sunglasses basically interrupt the signal that the aliens use to disguise themselves and their subliminal messaging. The good guys blow up the satellite that the signal comes from and then everybody sees life as it really is.
It is really obvious that They Live was meant to be a social-political statement against Reaganomics. Reaganomics was a ‘trickle down’ type political theory that stated the following; if the wealthy class of people are given tax breaks the money that they have saved will eventually reach the underclass. It was been proven wrong again and again. What the wealthy do with the extra money are things such as buying back company stock shares, and buying mansions around the world that they actually really don’t need.
How did Reagan, and his cronies, fool the middle class and underclass? They promoted conspicuous consumption as something good that everybody should do to help the economy. Want a new car but don’t have the cash to pay for it? That’s okay, just take out a loan with interest levels so high that you will never actually own the car. Who cares though! You are driving a newer car and people are noticing! That is what was so important in the 80’s, to be seen following trends no matter how ridiculous said trends were.
I am very proud to say that I never owned a neon piece of clothing in the 80’s.
What happened in the 80’s if you did not conform along with everybody else? You were thought of as strange, that something must be really wrong with you to not want to be like everybody else. So, if you looked different or listened to non-mainstream type music you would be confronted all the time. Other people listen to Wham and wear neon coloured clothes, why can’t you? No matter what answers you gave to these type of people they would never be satisfied because wanting to be different in a largely conformist society is just not done. You become the ‘other’, a type of person who doesn’t deserve to be treated well because how dare you flaunt your nonconformist ways. Often you would even be physically threatened or have things thrown at you when you are just minding you own business walking down a street. Quite often even in school you weren’t safe. I remember being sent to the ‘Student Responsibility Center’ one time in high school for verbally defending myself. The teacher who was in charge of watching us told me that I wouldn’t have so many issues if I just dressed normally. Yep, he victim blamed me.
For the record, in the 80’s conspicuous consumption and conformity was even done sometimes in the ‘alternative’ type communities. If you didn’t wear the right outfits or listen to the right bands you weren’t considered weird enough so you were banished to the bottom of the weirdo totem pole. So, not only did you get shit from the ‘normal’ people, you also got shit from others who thought they were better at being a ‘weirdo’ than you were. Instead of helping you learn about music,etc… they would hold the information out of your reach. You had to really be into ‘alternative’ type music and clothes back then to have survived all of that. I honestly don’t think that a lot of the younger folk into such music and clothes right now would have survived as a weirdo back then.
Does the society that They Live depicts seem eerily familiar even though it was made over thirty years ago? The lessons that John Carpenter wanted us to learn by watching the film have not been absorbed, and instead we are right back where we started from. Trump is yet another mentally deficient racist president who tells lies in order to hold onto the support of his fandom, who consist of mostly the white underclass. Trump is the greatest president that the world has ever known because they voted him into office and they could never be wrong, right?
What can you do to fight against such a society as the one we now live in? What has the film They Live taught us?
-Don’t buy crap you don’t need. You do not need to shop at certain stores or wear certain brands just because everybody else is. Also, we are in the midst of a global pandemic. Use some common sense and buy things that you actually need such as food.
-Question authority. Always question leaders and people that sit in a place of power as to why they do or say certain things. Just because they got voted in doesn’t mean that their opinion should be taken as the truth.
-In the wise words of the Subhumans, just think for yourself.
This is the first in a series of posts that I am calling Film Conversations. They are not purely reviews because I will be speaking only about films that I enjoy. Also, I will try to take a deep dive into the themes and events that happen in these films. This will mean that there definitely will be SPOILERS contained within these type of posts. So, if you have never seen this film please do so before reading any further.
First off I would like to state for the record that this film is known as The Road Warrior in America and Mad Max 2 just about everywhere else. The reason for the name change in America is because the first film in the series, Mad Max, didn’t do as well in America as elsewhere so they decided to promote it as a stand-alone film.
This film helped to shape me into the person that I am today; a weirdo who is heavily into post-apocalyptic and dystopian themed films. I first saw the film on cable in the early 80’s when I was a young teenager, and almost every single time it came on I would watch it. I saw it so many times back then that to this day I still know most of dialogue by heart. What was it about this film that spoke to me?
During the 80’s the Cold War was still raging and it really felt like Reagan was going to push the button that would decimate us all. I don’t think people who weren’t alive back then can fully comprehend just how frightening the Cold War really was. There was a TV movie that came out in the early 80’s called The Day After that was all about a nuclear war happening and its aftermath. I remember watching that on TV and being so scared that my friends and I went to our school principal the next day and asked if the school had a bomb shelter. In the UK there was a TV movie called Threads that was twice as scary and very graphic. I saw it for the first time a few years ago and it really shook me.
The Road Warrior takes place after a nuclear conflict, but instead of wearing rags and having open wounds some of the characters that populate this film are dressed in really cool looking black clothes along with haircuts and accessories that make them seem dangerous, but in a splendid kind of way. They looked way more interesting than the supposed ‘good’ guys who wore light colours. The only character in the film that looks somewhat sick is Lord Humungus. He seems to have some radiation burns on his head, so he wears a metal mask to cover them. I’ve always liked villains in films way more that the heroes because they almost always have a better sense of style, and this is no exception.
Lord Humungus The Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla
In the film the survivors of a nuclear war are driving all over the wasteland, their main concern being that of finding gasoline so that they can do even more driving about. Instead of hiding out in a bunker for decades, like in the Fallout series of games, they are out there living their lives as they see fit. It’s still gloomy as hell, but there seems to still be a spark of life within these characters to drive them forward, some sense of hope that maybe things will get better if they are around to watch such events happen. This includes the character of Max, who despite the loss of his wife and son still hasn’t given up on life. There is some sort of hope in the back of his mind that maybe, just maybe, he can find happiness yet again. All he has to do is keep driving until he reaches it.
The character of Max is neither totally good or totally bad, and this makes the film less fantastical and more realistic. In my opinion this is the mark of a really good film. Max brings a dying ‘good guy’ back to the compound after the guy is attacked by the bad guys while trying to flee. He isn’t doing this for altruistic reasons, instead he is only doing it because the dying guy promised him all the gasoline he could carry if he brought him back to the compound. The guy dies right after Max is let inside rendering the deal useless.
After some other events Max ends up helping the ‘good guys’ obtain a truck and trailer so that they can escape the compound with a huge container of gasoline. Max is almost killed in the ensuing chase and comes to find out that he has been used as a distraction because the trailer contains sand and not gasoline. The ‘good guys’ drive away in a school bus filled with barrels of gasoline. I always thought that was really messed up. Max puts his life on the line to help these people and they use him for a really selfish reason, as if his life is expendable.
This film really spoke to me because even though a nuclear war decimated the human population in some ways it was a more honest society than we are living in today. Everybody is out searching for gasoline, food, water,etc…and every single person knows that is what others are also doing. There is no escaping this endless search, it is something that must be done. When it comes down to it there really is no difference between the good or bad guys. Both use lies and manipulate others to do their bidding. Max only loses in the end because he fell for the lies that the ‘good guys’ told him. Before Max met those people he knew the score, but the moment he put his common sense away he set himself up to fail.
Would I want to live in the wasteland constantly on the prowl for my next meal or tank of gas? It would be a hard life, but it at least would be an honest one. No pretensions, just striving to make your way towards a new future that might just be better than the one you left behind.
