Before Occupy Wall Street introduced the 99 percent and the 1 percent into the discourse, They Live gave us the story of the bubblegum-lacking, ass-kicking common man under the heel of the mind-controlling alien elite.
So put on your glasses, get a copy of John Carpenter’s cult classic about economic injustice, and download this latest edition of The Overview, our series of alternative audio commentary tracks for your favorite movies. In this installment, Matthew Belinkie, Peter Fenzel, Mark Lee, David Shechner, and Jordan Stokes uncover the shocking conspiracies behind the genteel facade of modern life.
THE ELITE OF SOCIETY CONTROL THE MEDIA AND THE ECONOMY AT THE EXPENSE OF THE COMMON PEOPLE
FAMOUS ONE-LINERS FROM ACTION MOVIES CAN BE TOTALLY DISCONNECTED FROM THE PLOT AND YET BE TOTALLY BAD ASS
And, the biggest reveal of them all:
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CONSTRUCTION IS A UNION JOB
The Overview is a series of alternative commentary tracks from Overthinking It, where the Overthinkers watch and discuss your favorite movies for your edutainment. The commentary is meant to be played while watching the movie, which means you’ll need your own copy of the movie and a way to both watch and listen to a MP3 track in order to take full advantage of what you’re buying. Find out more in the Overthinking It Store.
This is a pleasant surprise to start the new year. I’m looking forward to this one.
It’s not in the store if you were thinking that it was.
How strangely apropos, Rowdy Rod Pipper must be the ghost in OTI’s machine.
I came here to watch They Live and listen to The Overview… and Overthinkingit.com is all out of The Overview.
I’m very sorry! The problem should be fixed now. You may now consume! In fact, because we messed up, we’ll make an offer for TODAY ONLY:
Use the discount code CONSUME when you check out and get The Overview: They Live for only 99 cents!
There actually are a lot of union jobs in construction. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters, and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters are all unions whose members might be involved in construction. I know that there are a lot of non-union construction jobs out there, but… fuck it.
I don’t think we’re so much surprised by the idea that construction is a union job as by the fact that the movie makes such a point of it for no reason. When the guy says it’s a union site, you expect Nada to admit that he’s not a member. When Nada sort of awkwardly says “fine, let me talk to the shop steward,” it seems like it’s setting the stage for a subplot where he pretends he’s in the union even though he really isn’t, or where he begs the guy to take him on even though he’s not a member. But none of that happens. “It’s a union job!” “That’s good, because I’m a union member!” “Okay then!” The end.
The scene does have some function, of course… it helps to establish his working class bona-fides, if nothing else. And maybe it tells us that he’s an unlucky drifter rather than a lazy one. (Also, being a union member probably meant something different to people watching it at the time than it means to people watching it now, in this post Season-2-of-The-Wire world.) Nevertheless, it’s a pretty weird couple of lines.