Die Hard

A gritty super fun action film about a weary police detective fighting off terrorist-posing bank robbers in a large-scale skyscraper must be good when it’s also considered one of the best Christmas movies ever made. Although that seems like a really odd mixture, its surprisingly a topic that discussed a lot whether anyone talks about the 1988 film, Die Hard. It’s a debate that might seem stupid on the outset, but once the movie has been seen and your given a chance to see how the movie is able to thrill and entertain you so effectively, you will definitely what to consider it a Christmas classic. On the Eve of Christmas, NYPD officer John McClane (played by Bruce Willis) is travelling to Los Angeles to visit his wife, Holly (played by Bonnie Bedelia) who works at the Nakatomi Plaza. Like coincidental clockwork, this get troublesome once he arrives as the building is placed under siege by Hans Gruber (played infamously by Alan Rickman), a German radical who is posing as a terrorist in order to steal the contents within the building’s vault and is holding the building hostage in order to extract the information needed. Being able to avoid detection due to being a surprise visitor, McClane is left alone to fight off this threat. One against many and being pretty out of his element, it’s up to McClane, along with a roped-in cop on the outside named Al Powell (played by Reginald Veljohnson) to free the prisoners, save his wife, kill the terrorists, and escape the building before it all blows to sky high. Based on the 1979 action thriller novel, Nothing Lasts Forever, written by Roderick Thorp, while it was originally not expected to be much when in development by audiences and even the people working on it, Die Hard has become an action movie staple, often considered one of the greatest of its era and of all time. It’s the perfect amount of silly action film fluff; it has all the gunfights, the action stereotypes, the explosions, the one-liners, the great sense of humor, the unbelievably corny atmosphere and the sheer amount of craziness that is expected from a movie of this era, but that doesn’t mean it’s without thought, pacing and even moments of enthrallment. It succeeds at every moment of intensity and sincerity and never gets tiring no matter how many times it’s viewed.

The story is very straightforward, but one that offers a lot of fun and enjoyable moments. While the framework is the same from the novel, it does change a lot of the spirit and tone from its original source, taking what feels like a traditional action thriller with a cynical, even depressing edge, and making it a high-flying action thrill ride that loves to entertain above anything else. While sticking an action movie solely in a singular building for its entire running time could sound uninteresting, it manages with clever handling of tone, pacing and energy to make every moment count in building this atmosphere that’s great at being blood-pumping in a thrilling and intense way. Its paced out perfectly between its fast-paced action and its slower story points and neither is uninteresting to watch because both is treated with the same level of great care and passion. It’s a movie that can be as brutal as it can be incredibly goofy, it operates in this wonderful middle ground which feels possible thanks to having director John McTiernan behind the belt. Though still a relative newcomer at the time (only directing two movies prior to this) his work on Predator showed that he was comfortable in this environment and knew how to work with the tropes, even though ironically this movie is famous for trying to buck that cliched route for action movies at the time. Showcasing the ‘super-powered macho man saving the day in epic fashion’ was very prominent in action movies at the time, and this movie went a little more colorful with its portrayal. While it still features familiar tropes like the evil villain gangs with eccentric personalities and other popular archetypes within the genre, they are handled in the correct manner so that none feel unpleasant or boring to watch for the most part. It’s a story told with an energy that is definitely a period of the 80s, but due to its wonderful passion and energy as well as likeable characters and writing that comes through the script written by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza, it’s also wonderfully timeless.

All the characters are amazingly entertaining and insanely charming. A lot of the movie relies on how well these roles work off each other and a lot of that wouldn’t work as effectively if they didn’t pick such great actors to make this good but still familiar material engaging, and the actors in this movie are perfect at finding that right balance between cool and confidant, but also shouty and frantic when its required. Bruce Willis as the gun-wielding wise-cracking ‘’cowboy’’ cop is done exceptionally well. Most of the movie’s awesomeness and entertainment comes from him and it’s even funnier thinking how the studio was so against him for the film because he was mostly known for his comedic roles before this film. His built but not chiseled appearance and more ”every-man” appeal rather than a superhero was a key reason for why he worked so well for this film and why he’s beloved by so many viewers. But a hero is only as great as his villain and Alan Rickman excels as Hans Gruber. Still considered one of the greatest action movie villains of all time, for only his first movie, he instantly proved himself as an incredible and memorable actor right away with how he effortlessly creates this character; his charisma and grace coming off of every word provides some great laughs, but he can also so easily just randomly shoot a person at any moment and definitely has the ability to do so, he’s a great character and a great villain from a fantastic actor.  Each actor feels like a character actor in the 80s, giving bit parts great amounts of personality without much interaction and it really comes through in a movie like this where there are a lot of side characters and side villains, yet each one of them feels defined and stands out despite how little time they are given. While some are annoying archetypes like Paul Gleason as the one-note shouty police deputy, It’s an aspect of action films that is always great to witness and its handled wonderfully in a movie like this from people like Alexander Godunov, Reginald VelJohnson, De’voreaux White, Bonnie Bedelia, Hart Bochner and William Atherton.

The practical stunts and effects are great to watch and real cool to witness. In a movie like this where the threats feel more severe and the method of fixing said problem isn’t as simple as it would be in a traditional Schwarzenegger or Stallone movie, it only makes it that much more engaging watching the hero trying to survive. It has a fair balance between its gun fights, regular fists fights and even its own death-defying stunts, and all work quite nicely together and never dull to witness or feel tagged in. It’s not a movie that is run by its action and that is appreciated and even surprising (especially for a movie like this), but it’s good to know that its action is still just as thrilling and effective as it would be in any other movies of its type. The usage of gore and even a few of the more graphic kills really adds that nice feeling of gruesome intensity that is never overblown or forced in, instead it just feels natural and makes the threats all the more real. The shots are well composed and do well at showing off the action as well as the environments in a cool way. One of the biggest aspects of making this environment work so well was that the crew wanted the building to have plenty of character as well so it could feel like an entity of its own, and that comes through in all of the intricate designs and added flair that works in making this a fun location to spend the movie in. Considering how much time is spent in this one location, it needed to be a nice looking one, and it managed to pull that off quite well.

For what should have been just another action movie of the time with ties to a classic thriller novel, Die Hard easily became a movie for the ages even though it wasn’t really seen as that at the time. Everything that this movie has to offer is largely enjoyable and memorable. The aspects that work in traditional action films (both new and old) are bumped to a hundred and it results in this masterfully zany action-packed fun-ride that thrills and engrosses at every step of the journey. The story is very effective at building tension and raising the stakes, the characters are great to watch, and the acting is spot on, the effects are cool, the action is a lot of fun, the environment never gets dull and it’s just a fun cool action flick while also standing out for itself by breaking away from some familiar cliches. It’s a film that can be watched time and time again yet feel the same level of awesome thrill and gripping engagement over and over again. Decide for yourself whether or not you think this should be considered a Christmas classic, but regardless, it’s pretty clear that Die Hard is a fantastic action movie.