THEY LIVE! (Part I)

At the beginning of the movie, we see that the main character George Nada went to the job center and he did not succeed after that when he was walking, he notices that a blind clergyman talks about some people. According to him, these people do not let them see the truth and they seduced wealthy people. He says that they are all around us. After that, we see lots of TVs on the scene. At that time, TV was an essential tool for Sonramedia and communication. 

Later on, we see that Nada found a job and he started to work, he met a person named Frank at the work and Frank took him to a place to stay. Towards evening, when other people watching the TV broadcast suddenly change and an old man does not come out he talked about how “they created a society in which the society does whatever their wants/wishes. They alienated us from ourselves. They yearn to tame us. They send messages to us with signals.” I think that “they” provide these messages to the media. Because even at the beginning of the movie, there is too much TV emphasis. For giving messages with TV, you have to keep economic power in your hands to fund TV channels. Big guys who have economic power started to control our lives without us noticing. One of the well–known people in the Frankfurt School, Herbert Marcuse said that “Industry taking over technology and science society always more effective than its resources to benefit from human and nature always more organized to dominate effectively.”  

Moreover, in the movie, after the church raid, Nada finds a box of sunglasses but these sunglasses are not regular sunglasses, Nada when puts on the sunglasses, he sees messages behind everything. Especially he was surprised by the messages in advertisements such as obey, marry & reproduce. Adorno and Horkheimer are aware of and also argue that the manipulative power of advertising, aggravates the phenomenon of consumption. The more meaningless the advertisement appears under the monopoly condition, the more powerful, and effective it becomes is becoming. But advertisements are not the only one that includes messages, later on, Nada sees that also messages take place on every product which we use every day, maybe these products are not necessary but we feel to have to buy these unnecessary products. Some people try to create a common culture and industry to provide more capitalism. According to Theodor W. Adorno, the culture industry is to produce and consume the culture suitable for consumption and also has a functionality that will motivate them by what they produce. The culture industry has created a constantly self-financing system. For products to be consumed first, the infrastructure is arranged, and then the products are launched. Not to be consumed after that not much to say.

To be continued...

References

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