Reel Rumble V: They Live
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
Last night, I wrote about the wrestling half of Reel Rumble V. This post is all about the feature film that many of the wrestlers stuck around to watch with us.
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| Show banner designed by Andrew Kern |
One of my favorite sci-fi action movies of all time was shown on the big screen from an original 35mm print when the sun went down after an afternoon of pro wrestling matches on the lawn.
As is often the case, there were plenty of folks in attendance who came in cosplay. This very cool dude in a Joe Bob Jamboree t-shirt came as one of the aliens from the movie we were about to see.
They Live is a masterpiece of a film. It premiered on November 4th, 1988 and was largely inspired by writer/director John Carpenter's dissatisfaction with Reagan-era politics and the ways that the rich get richer while the poor and middle class struggle just to get by. The message of this film still rings true 36 years later, and unfortunately, it probably will continue to do so 36 years from now.
I saw this film for the first time in 1992 when my dad and I were living in South Florida. He was flipping through the TV Guide one day when he saw that there was a movie coming up on one of our channels that starred a professional wrestler that he and I are both huge fans of, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. We both saw it for the first time that day in our living room in Boynton Beach and we both loved it. It was one of the first movies that I bought on DVD when the format was still in its infancy, and I've watched it dozens of times in the years since. Getting to see it on 35mm on the big screen at the drive-in is just the latest in a long list of dreams that have come true in Lehighton, PA.
