All right, listen up guys. ‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except for the four @$$holes coming in the rear in standard two-by-two cover formation. -Theo
Every year at Christmas, the classics come out. It’s a Wonderful Life, Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer, White Christmas, and many others make their way into our DVD players and VCR’s as well as flooding the airways once the season starts. These films have become classics due to their enduring ability to make us feel warm inside and make us love the holiday season.
There are a lot of us though, that prefer a different type of Christmas movie when the season rolls around. Those of us that prefer a Christmas “slay” to a Christmas sleigh. Our lineup looks a little different. Film’s such as Joe Dante’s Gremlins, where a town full of people is seemingly wiped out by an army of little monsters on Christmas, is on the list. Richard Donner’s Lethal Weapon teams up Danny Glover and Mel Gibson in maybe the best Buddy Cop movie ever made. Did I mention that Gibson’s Riggs is suicidal because it’s the holidays? The sounds of Jingle Bell Rock fade into a nude girl jumping out of her hotel window. Makes you feel like drinking eggnog doesn’t it?
Well at the top of this list is a movie that has become part of the American culture. With its TV star in the lead, and its familiar plot, I’m sure the filmmakers involved didn’t think the movie would spawn two sequels and become a cultural phenomenon. Instead the film began its own sub-genre and made its leading man one of the biggest stars in the world.
Die Hard Starring Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman. Directed by John McTiernan
Of all the rogue cops that have graced the screen probably none are as identifiable as John McClane. John isn’t untouchable like Harry Callahan and Martin Riggs. Other rogue cops usually try their best to distance themselves from the audience to keep an air of mystery and toughness. This isn’t the case with Die Hard’s hero. Bruce Willis plays McClane as an “everyman” as he possibly.
You know from the start McClane has some personal issues. He’s a New York Cop who’s estranged from his family, as his wife has more ambition than just being a homemaker. She’s taken a job with the Nakatomi Corporation in Los Angeles and has their family with her. John’s in town for the holidays to try and patch things up.
Because he wasn’t a huge star at the time Die Hard came out, Willis seems to really be able to connect with his audience. Many times a huge star in an Action movie seems…like a huge star in an Action film. Let’s face it, does anyone buy Arnold Schwarzenegger as a fire fighter in Collateral Damage? Anyone? I didn’t think so. This totally doesn’t apply to Willis in Die Hard. He’s a bull headed, smart-ass who seems completely natural for every moment he’s on screen. Even after great roles in Unbreakable, The Sixth Sense, and Twelve Monkeys, John McClane may still be the role Bruce Willis was born to play.
Things are not going well initially for John when he reaches Nakatomi Plaza. His reception is less than warm from his wife, but things go from bad to worse when a group of terrorists invade. When things really start to go downhill for McClane though, Willis’ star starts to rise.
Up to this point, the biggest thing the actor had done in his career had been Moonlighting. After Die Hard, Willis would be one of the most sought after action stars in the world. The key to McClane at this point in the film is that so many Action stars make taking out the bad guys look easy and escaping from danger. For John McClane, it looks like the hardest thing ever done. You can feel his pain as he runs through glass, hangs on for dear life in the air ducts, and takes bullets in the shoulder. On the other hand, you can see Willis’ career take off with every villain he blows away.
What’s hard to believe is that Willis was the FIFTH actor considered to play Die Hard’s hero. Can you imagine Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Burt Reynolds, or Richard Gere as John McClane? Apparently the producers could. Thankfully, Willis got the call.
What some overlook when thinking about Die Hard is that the film wouldn’t be nearly as memorable if it had your run of the mill heavy. What Die Hard has is one of the top 5 villains in movie history. Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber is on a level all his own compared to nearly every other baddie in this genre. Rickman as well as Screenwriters Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza have crafted a brilliant villain that is easily one of the most charismatic ever put on screen.
In fact after McClane himself, Gruber is probably the film’s most likeable character. His team’s plan is to invade Nakatomi plaza acting as international terrorists. Posing as freedom fighters looking to free other terrorist groups in captivity; Gruber’s clan of assassins actually plan to just rob the Nakatomi Corporation of its millions.
Rickman looks to be having tons of fun as Gruber makes his list of demands. His brilliant “I read about them in Time magazine” line is a laugh-out-loud moment. Every moment he is in the movie, Rickman is the coolest cat on screen and Hans Gruber is that much more memorable for it.
Rickman has especially great chemistry with Clarence Gilyard Jr.’s Theo, Gruber’s safecracker and tech wizard. Theo seems to be having the grandest time during this heist. One sequence where the supposed terrorists are battling the L.A.P.D., Theo acts as if he’s doing commentary at a football game. The sequences between Hans and Theo add great levity to the film. Its a great counterpoint to the tons of action and makes the experience that much more enjoyable.
The only scene putting Rickman and Willis together was actually an afterthought. While each performance was going better than hoped, filmmakers scrambled to get the two actors together. In the scene, McClane catches Gruber off guard, but the wily villain is able to play it off as if he were a hostage. The scene is a tour de force by Rickman, who changes his accent and body language in which to fool Willis’ hero.
The leads don’t carry this film alone. There are some great supporting performances for Willis and Rickman to play off of. Reginald Vel Johnson may be know as the dad from Family Matters for the rest of his life, but his role as Sgt. Al Powell is his best character. His tortured cop comes up big in the late stages of the movie and gives the film one more hero to root for when the chips are down. Bonnie Bedelia is very natural as John’s wife Holly. She seems to have an inner strength that looms large just under the surface. Paul Gleason’s Deputy Police Chief Dwayne T. Robinson is the stereotype hard-ass jerk in charge. I imagine this character failing his way up through the ranks of the Police Department before dealing with this crisis.
As for villains, only Alexander Godunov’s Karl even comes close to being memorable. Karl is in the “Bond Henchmen” mold, but doesn’t reach the level of an Oddjob or Jaws. He exudes a reasonable amount of menace, but really isn’t anything special.
John McTiernan really hasn’t reached this level of excitement in his Action films at any other point in his career. Predator and The Hunt for Red October are both fine films, but neither come close to this first installment of the McClane saga. Maybe Under Siege (Die Hard on a boat) and Executive Decision (Die Hard on a plane) weren’t the best movies, but they were nice entries in the legacy of this movie. Die Hard practically started its own sub-genre with the Die Hard on a … type of movie with a bad ass stuck in a situation were he must face off against dozens of villains. That’s not even mentioning Die Hard 2: Die Harder (which is my favorite movie subtitle ever) and Die Hard With a Vengeance.
Making the film seasonal just adds an odd warmth to the proceedings. When Theo and Hans finally get the Nakatomi vault open, a rendition of Hallelujah fills the soundtrack. Giving Die Hard its Christmas setting also gives the film a sense of urgency, as cheesy as it sounds, subconsciously, you really want John to wrap this up and get to spend some time with his family on Christmas.
In the realm of 1980’s Action spectaculars, Die Hard is right there with every other great Thriller of the decade. It made Bruce Willis a star and gave us one of the greatest villains of all time. Die Hard also sets the standard for the Christmas Action film as well as its own sub-genre. Die Hard 4 is in the early stages of pre-production at the moment. I hope it takes place at Christmas as well somehow. It would just be the right thing to do.
