Carpenter Trio: Invasion of the Individual
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Carpenter has used these themes in other films of course, and went on to
use them in Escape From L.A. and Vampires as well. However, the difference
between Snake Plisskin’s conflicts with the corrupt futuristic government of the
United States is a pretty literal one. In keeping with the tradition of some of the
favorite films of his childhood, John Carpenter uses the stolen identity film to
metaphorically point the finger at issues that hit the nation during the period in
which the film was made. Carpenter has updated the concerns of the fifties,
namely communism and nuclear power, with the concerns of the eighties: frantic
consumerism, urbanization, narcissism, and materialism.
Why examine these three films on identity theft now? From a historical
perspective it is fairly easy to see the social issues that Carpenter was taking aim
at with these films. But why bring them up again, years later? Even if
Carpenter’s solutions to the problems explored in his films can be quite simplistic,
the issues under the lens in The Thing, Prince o f Darkness, and They Live are
prevalent again, especially with regard to theft of identity. After the tragedy in
New York City, an important issue debated in the United States legislature was
the creation of a national ID card. How do we trust that someone is who he or she
claims to be? For the World Trade Center and Pentagon disasters, it was easy for
Americans to point the finger at extremist factions of an altogether different race
and religion. Fake identities allowed these terrorists to commit their crimes.
However, consider the Oklahoma City bombing, the Columbine massacre, and the
politically motivated terrorism of the Unabomber: all were committed by white
males, a group that your average American would feel very comfortable with.
Suburban America continues to insulate itself from their neighbors and the world
at large. Combine the gradual disconnection of families from others in their
neighborhood with the crimes committed by seemingly innocuous, average
people, and it suddenly becomes very difficult to trust anyone but oneself.
Carpenter repeatedly hammers this loss of trust into viewers of his films.
The only people who survive a Carpenter splatterfest are those who are willing to
work together to solve the group’s problems, while the selfish end up dead,
usually creatively dismembered. The Thing is the exception to this rule, of
course, with everyone out for themselves and unable to trust the others. This
makes The Thing Carpenter’s most cynical film on the human condition and loss
of identity. Prince o f Darkness and They Live are much more positive in the end.
However, like all Carpenter films, and like most horror films in general, there is
no such thing as a happy ending. Evil may be defeated temporarily, but it is the
truth of the human condition that it will arise again because of human greed and
corruption.
Art Institute of Philadelphi