Slavoj Žižek on “They Live” :
Great vid about one of Carpenter’s greatest works. Žižek expresses a lot of the thoughts I had while watching Piper interact with that world. -Especially the sunglasses-fight.
I know a lot of folks who don’t like the extended fight scene. Me? I love it!
Excellent.
They Live is one of my all-time favorite John Carpenter films. In spite of that, I had never seen the long fight scene in that context before. I had always figured that since the star was Rowdy Roddy Piper, it was inevitable to have him in a gratuitously big fight scene. I never viewed it in the symbolic context of people’s strong resistance to seeing and acknowledging underlying truths…a very forceful version of The Matrix’s red pill/blue pill scenario.
Great film, and Zizek is always fun. ;D
He has some more videos commenting on a few other films, which you can find by searching The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology at youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=The%20Pervert's%20Guide%20to%20Ideology&sm=3
Yep the fight scene just goes on and on. When you think its going to end, it carries on…good stuff.
Actually, not to make this thread entirely about Slavoj Žižek, but I guess The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology is a 2013 documentary film where Žižek examines many different films and not all the clips are on youtube. Haven’t watched it yet
Films discussed include:
Triumph of the Will (1935)
The Eternal Jew (1940)
Brief Encounter (1945)
The Fall of Berlin (1950)
The Searchers (1956)
West Side Story (1961)
The Sound of Music (1965)
Loves of a Blonde (1965)
Seconds (1966)
The Firemen's Ball (1967)
Oratorio for Prague (1968)
If.... (1969)
MASH (1970)
Zabriskie Point (1970)
Cabaret (1972)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Jaws (1975)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Brazil (1985)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
They Live (1988)
Titanic (1997)
I Am Legend (2007)
The Dark Knight (2008)