Consumer Culture In John Carpenter's Film They Live

Erstwhile president Ronald Regan, who whilom fashioned his presidency with the phrase “Make America Great Again”, originated Reaganomics to bring to fruition his pledge to the American people. Essentially Reaganomics was an economic policy that included tax breaks for the wealthy. Though Reaganomics called the attention of many critics, the most inventive was John Carpenter who commented on his economic policy with his 1988 film, They Live. They Live exhibits a dystopian view of the present in which the wealthy are presented as evil extraterrestrials who spend money and rule society, which directly relates to Reaganomics in the sense that the wealthy are trusted to invest in the economy and in return receive benefits that those who are not wealthy do not. Carpenter’s film centers around the control advertisements have on consumers. During the 1980s, the focus on consumers skyrocketed. This was mostly due to the fact that amount of consumption was increasing. American people were buying homes and products. This was mainly related to the state of the economy in the 80s relying upon consumers to purchase to keep the economy booming. Since the amount consumers purchased was so important, considering Reagan cut taxes in order to increase spending, advertising was more prominent than ever before.

In fact, many of the messages that Nada sees, where the advertisements would be, say things like “Stay Asleep” and “No Independent Thought”. Carpenter believes that those in charge push these ideals and consider them simply part of business. For example, when the man gives them a tour of the alien headquarter area he states that the damage done is just part of business. Carpenter’s view of culture is a fair observation considering that Reaganomics truly did represent the changes that took place during the