This Blog Is Here To Chew Bubblegum And Kick Ass... And It's All Outta Bubblegum...

There's a new series of film studies books called the Deep Focus series where intellectual authors take a deep look into various cult movies. I am a firm believer of this new series. It is nice to see people taking my favorite type of movies seriously for once.

Two books are currently available in the series. there is a book on the movie Death Wish with Charles Bronson and there's the one I am almost done reading where award winning author Jonathan Lethem writes a minute by minute account of last week's Church-Less Movie of the Week, John Carpener's They Live.

This is a difficult thing for me to read. See, I always just saw this film as a fun, lighthearted, campy sci-fi eighties film starring "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. It was always just a fun escape. Now I'm reading this lengthy dissertation about the deep cultural significance and importance of this film.

Here is a sample:

The demolition of Justiceville is more than a tableau of urban renewal in fast-forward -- it takes on the quality of sci-fi nightmare. The filmmaking methodology is in the spirit of the Jean-Luc Godard of "Alphaville," or the George Lucas of "THX 1138," who forged their "futures" out of alienated modern urban spaces. Who needs Terminators when your wide-angle lens can frame helicopters and bulldozers for maximum techno-angst? Riot gear turns the phalanx of L.A. cops into another kind of machine, a collective chewer or thresher, before the battle breaks down into sporadic commando sniping. Score-wise, churning synthesizers now overrun the homely bass-and-harmonica blues, reinforcing the John-Henry-versus-the-Steam-drill feel.

Dood! What the hell? It's a freaking "Rowdy" Roddy Piper flick! What more can you say without intellectually elite padding?

It's a hell of a lot better than Hell Comes To Frogtown, I can tell you that!