Welcome to Day 13 of our 25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS series,
where we will be taking a look at holiday classics each day in the lead up to
Christmas. Today we have the quintessential Christmas action classic, DIE
HARD.
Die Hard is a
classic 1988 action film directed by John McTiernan and starring Bruce Willis
as action hero John McClane, as well as Alan Rickman, Alexander Godunov,
Reginald VelJohnson, and Bonnie Bedelia. The film has our hero, McClane,
travelling out to California to be with his estranged wife at a Christmas party
when their office building is taken over by a group of thieves/terrorists led
by Hans Gruber (Rickman). This is absolutely an action classic and a
quintessential Christmas film.
On the positive side of things, this film does a spectacular
job giving us a hero we can truly appreciate and get behind right from the
get-go. Basically everything in the set up to John McClane is about how average
he is, and even when he starts to take action he is constantly afraid and is
even reduced by his wife as just “doing his job.” This makes us really care
about him and his struggle. It also adds believability to a film that is
definitely over the top in the extreme. When you have this layer at the
character level though it develops great buy in which is why this is an action
classic.
The performances in this film are also great. Bruce Willis
embodies McClane extremely well. Reginald VelJohnson is sidelined from the
action for the film, but even he is excellent (with one monologue and one other
moment in particular). Finally, Alan Rickman is the actor that owns this movie.
This was the first feature film of his illustrious career and he is brilliant
as Hans Gruber. Creative, menacing, interesting, Gruber is a villain you can
follow, and want to follow, at every twist and turn in his plan. Rickman’s
performance gives the well written role a gravitas that a lesser actor could
not have hoped to achieve.
The film also manages to incorporate its Christmas setting
well. The fact that this is a Christmas party keeps coming up. Turning
power-off at Christmas is a plot point. Most importantly, it gives brilliant
ground for great one-liners and gags based on the holiday that give this movie
a kind of spunk most of the action films in this era lacked (and a spunk that
possibly only the Christmas season could provide).
There are few negatives in a film like Die Hard. I think the biggest negative that can be said for it is
how poorly it has held up over time. The film does not look particularly good,
or well shot, in this day in age (even when upscaled on a high-definition
standard). The plot of the film also has not stood the test of time (as
cellphones would definitely solve much of the drama in this film). I also found
many of the side characters to only have minimal development. This was fine
overall, but the film could have been enhanced with a little more development
there.
Overall, Die Hard
is an excellent film. It certainly subverts some tropes of its genre whilst
going whole hog into some other tropes. It has wonderful characters and an
interesting story. A true action staple and Christmas classic! A must watch
without a doubt!
Ryan’s Score: 9/10
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