If you're like most, you don't give a second thought about the release date for Blu-ray Discs and DVDs. You know that they come out on Tuesday (or maybe Friday for special releases) and that's about it. In most cases, the only time that release dates really stand out is for holiday-themed movies, and those often don't make sense. (They always seem to come out two months before the holiday to which they are tied.) So, I'm sure that the release date of a semi-obscure title like They Live won't stand out to most. You see, it comes out on November 6, 2012...Election Day. And given the not-so-subtle political subtext to the film, I must say kudos to Shout! Factory for this sly move. And let's not forget to celebrate the fact that the film is finally going to be available on Blu-ray Disc.

They Live opens with Nada (Roddy Piper) arriving in a city. He's homeless and looking for work, finding temporary employment at a construction site. A fellow worker, Frank (Keith David), leads Nada to "Justiceville", a shanty town for the homeless. There, Nada witnesses a television broadcast being interrupted by a man who is spouting what is apparently nonsense. He also sees people going in and out of a nearby church all night long. When the police raid "Justiceville", Nada flees to the church, where he discovers a box of sunglasses. Assuming that these are normal sunglasses, he puts them on, only to learn that they reveal the truth about the world. The world is actually in black-and-white, every object which contains writing is actually a subliminal message, and grotesque looking aliens are everywhere, disguised as humans. Armed with this new knowledge, Nada begins a campaign to learn the truth, hoping that Frank will assist him.

And when I say that They Live is strange, that's just the tip of the iceberg. The movie is a sci-fi/action/horror hybrid. The fact that the story deals with aliens and mind control places into a sci-fi category, but it never has the look or feel of a sci-fi movie. The movie contains a few action scenes (more on that in a moment), but it never goes fully into action mode. The skeletal look of the aliens certainly brings horror movies to mind (and, obviously, this was the genre which carpenter was known for), but this is in no way a horror movie. So, what is it? They Live is a film which attempts to be many things at once.

Even odder is how the tone of the film shifts. At its core, They Live has a very serious message about how the rich and elite in America control the lower classes through economic oppression. The movie is literally telling us that the powers that be only want the general populace to concentrate on working, sleeping, and being good consumers. This will keep everyone docile while the rich get richer and more powerful. In the extra features on this Disc, Carpenter explains how these ideas came from a reaction to Ronald Reagan's politics.

But, for a movie with such serious ideas, They Live comes across as very silly at times. The idea of the "magic sunglasses" falls somewhere between cool and ludicrous, depending on your point of view. (Why would sunglasses block out a signal going to one's brain?) Professional wrestler Roddy Piper is actually pretty good in the lead role, but Carpenter made a mistake allowing Piper to throw in one-liners (Yes, the "chew bubblegum and kick ass" line sounds cool... until you hear it in the context of the film and you realize that it makes no sense). Carpenter's films are often a slow-burn, but the pacing in They Live is especially slack and until Nada dons the sunglasses over thirty minutes into the story, the movie feels somewhat pointless. And then we have the famous fight scene. Piper and Keith David go at it for over 5 minutes, beating each other to a pulp due to a disagreement over the sunglasses. Perhaps Carpenter feel like the audience would want to see Piper wrestling, but the whole thing is just ludicrous and it completely destroys the film's already sluggish pacing.

I'm a huge John Carpenter fan, but I've always been torn over They Live. The central idea is a great one and the reveal of the "Obey" and "Marry and Reproduce" signs is great. The finale is pretty exciting, despite the appearance of hardware leftover from Ghostbusters. As with any Carpenter film, They Live has a great look. However, the pacing and the truly bizarre bits are hard to overcome, although I think that Carpenter did the best that he could given the limited budget. Given that, the movie's underlying them resonates even more today than it did in 1988, and if nothing else, it should make you realize just how important Election Day is.

They Live made me jealous that my Wayfarers weren't magic on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Shout! Factory. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 29 Mbps. The image is sharp and clearing, showing no overt grain and only a very few minor defects from the source material. Shout! Factory has done a nice job on this transfer, as the film's age and budget aren't evident here. The colors look good and the image is never overly dark or bright. The picture has a nice amount of depth, and while some shots look a bit soft, the level of detail is good. Overall, there's a nice crispness to the picture. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track (despite the fact that the box claims it's 2.0) which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 2.2 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. Carpenter's bluesy score provides a nice bassline, even at low volume. The action scenes show real presence in the audio, as explosions fill the front and center channels, as do crowd scenes. These effects aren't especially detailed (we don't get many individual sounds), but the stereo separation is good and the overall power of the audio helps to pull the viewer in.