Die Hard

Ok, so everyone has seen Die Hard. I know that, but how many of you have seen it recently? If you have then you will know what Im on about here, if you haven't it might just cause you to go check it out again.

This is a 10/10 movie, lets start right there. And there are a million reviews and everyone has seen it a million times so Im just going to pick 3 things I love about the movie and focus on why they make it such an iconic, lasting, amazing moment in cinema history.

1. John McLane is such an awesome 'Hero'

John McClane, oh how I love you and your machoism, your arrogance, your disregard for authority and for your ability to just stay alive. At first glance it looks like you should really dislike John. He seems to be a self centred, macho, divorcee who abhors excess and success and likes to dwell in the simple life of catching bad guys and feeling like shit.

By the end of Die Hard he is a full blown hero. He has successfully navigated throughout an incredible building, constructing a picture of who the bad guys are, how to handle them, contacted the police to get involved, actually killed most of the bad guys himself and saved all but one hostage from the terrorists. Meanwhile the completely inept police force have been outside trying to get in and in doing so made decisions that kills many of their team members.

While John is running around manipulating and protecting everyone he acts as a brutish, manly man and you as the viewer completely belive he is capable of doing what he does. The movie is actually an amazing character piece all around this complex, rich, clever character of John McClane being tested in the most extreme of circumstances. Its just dressed up in machine guns, bloody feet, hostages and dead bodies saying 'Ho Ho Ho' to make you think otherwise, and thats what makes it so good. Its a thrill ride with a master at the helm.

2. Mainstream appeal didnt mean you had to dumb down a movie in the 80's

A little tidbit I had not picked up on before is about two thirds through the movie. John McClane runs out of an air-conditioning duct and into a little room obviously occupied by the engineers and builders at work on construction. On the wall are the 80's obligatory Playboy centrefolds posters on full display (could you even do this on a 2013 construction site?!?) and even though John is fleeing for his life he still takes the time to check out the boobies as he runs past.

Cut to 15 minutes later in the film and dead bodies litter the roof of the building, thanks to John's rapid fire machine gun bullets slashing through the bad guys and he finds himself, battered, bloody, but alive and back in that same engineers office. So, this is 15 minuts later in the movie. He is still running for his life but now the bad guys are only a few metres away with their own machine guns. I ask you now, Dear Readers, what would you do when confronted with those same set of boobies back in that room after nearly being blasted into the next life? Thats right. I would kiss my hand too and touch those wonderful life saving 80's fun bags and thank God I am still alive - just like John does.

It's such a small character moment that has transcended to depict such a different time and place than that which we live in today. Which can kind of be said for the movie as a whole. Watch the opening scene with people smoking on a plane and John carrying a gun under his jacket!

3. Hans. Gruber.

Goddamn. And you thought John McClane was a badass. Screenwriters have wet dreams about being able to create a villain as cool as Hans Gruber. Its all they wish for in their lives. A great villain is everything to a movie, and is far more powerful and hard to conjur than a perfect hero. Think about it: Darth Vader, The Joker, The Fratelli's, Kronk. You need the perfect villain to make the story work. Creating a Luke Skywalker, a Batman, a Chunk or a Pacha is easy, but putting them up against the perfect villain is hard.

But writing and creating the villain is only half the game, then you need an actor who can pull it off. Enter: Alan Rickman. How the casting agents saw through his boring everyday British appearance to see this evil genius, German terrorist is beyond me. But can you imagine anyone else playing him? No. Its impossible. Hans Gruber is Alan Rickman. Snape: eat your heart out.

I hope you have enjoyed this trip down memory lane, and if you haven't seen the movie recently go and get it and watch it. Its brilliant. Its brilliantly simple, its brilliantly executed and all the characters are brilliant. As I said at the beginning its a 10/10 movie.

SCORE: 10/10

IMDB Info for Die Hard

1 comments:

  1. The first 3 Die Hard's are on my 'watch every few years' list. Number 1 is still the best but 2 and 3 still have a LOT to offer. Yippy Ki Yay mother fucker!

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