The Worst Scene in American Cinematic History?

I remember when I saw this movie in the theater in 1988 and I saw the fight scene I thought right away it was the worst scene ever filmed in an American movie.

I thought it was a joke that went on waaaay too long.

Today, this movie was on AMC and wouldn't you know when I landed on the channel it was at the exact beginning of this scene.

There has to be a God.

And I hate to admit it, but I laughed quite a few times watching this.

Rowdy Roddy Piper (without the "Rowdy") and Keith David are very funny in this.

Here's the original clip and then a wisenheimer on YouTube made the obvious even more apparent by juxtaposing this fight with the infamous "Cripple Fight" on South Park.

I think everybody knew that's the movie they were "quoting" in that scene but it's nice to have them side by side for comparison.

They Live is pretty much a terrible film, but it's funny and it's the sort of movie critics love to seize on because of its sly, sidelong reading of Reagan-era America and the Doublethink that was everywhere. It's an elaboration of the original paranoid schizophrenic conspiracy theory, and in particular the idea that "the rich are different." In fact, they're aliens. Perhaps the movie shouldn't be called science fiction at all, since it simply states the truth of the eighties. Behind the apparent striving towards an enlightened and equitable society, the messages writ large in public and civic spaces, are the shibboleths of the secret elite and the subliminal messages they are inculcating to keep their cattle compliant and complaisant. Hide the plot in plain sight. Jenny Holzer's "The beginning of the war will be secret" comes to mind.

But this movie didn't want to do the extra work to make this a really smart or memorable film.

I suppose people like Godard do this sort of thing better, and they don't constrain themselves with the literal when they write their parables along these lines.

But I don't think John Carpenter would ever want to be accused of subtlety anyway.

We love him for being John Carpenter.

Just in other movies than this one.

It's best seen as a few short clips.

As a full-length movie, it drags and looks very dated.

It probably would have been best as a film short.

But the view through the dark glasses is still fascinating. Especially when the creatures have that big eighties hair on top of those skeletal robotic faces.

Here's the original scene...



And here's the scene intercut with the South Park fight...