MOVIE REVIEW: DIE HARD (1988)

The internet has created a lot of interesting debates over the years- How do you pronounce GIF? Is that dress white and gold or black and blue? Is a hot dog a sandwich? Perhaps my favorite, though, is the debate over whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie. The answer is yes, but that’s another post for another time. For now, I’m going to discuss the merits of this film, of which there are several.

In the role that transformed him from a TV star into a movie star, Bruce Willis stars as John McClane- a New York City cop spending Christmas in Los Angeles to try to reconcile with his estranged wife. While attending her company’s Christmas party, a group of heavily-armed men led by a German criminal take the building hostage. All he wants is over half a billion dollars in bearer bonds locked up in the building’s vault, and he’ll kill anyone who slows him down. McClane, who was in the bathroom when the ordeal began, slips away and uses his NYC savvy to evade, outwit, and fight back against the foreign menace.

While the 80s produced no shortage of big and loud action movies, Die Hard remains one of the very best. The main character isn’t a steroid-fueled lunkhead and there’s no jingoistic subtext. You get a cat-and-mouse game between a book-smart villain and a street-smart everyman. Maybe the supporting cast fall into archetypes and stereotypes, but the main event provides the kind of battle of wits with guns that most lesser action films fail to become.

Because he is not a monosyllabic musclebound hero, Bruce Willis is instantly relatable with audiences. He looks, talks, and thinks like someone just about everyone knows. It gives the McClane character much more credibility because he doesn’t present a size mismatch with his adversaries. Because he is more ordinary looking, there’s a believable chance that he might fail, which makes viewers cheer for him even harder.

Setting the film inside an isolated skyscraper works in Die Hard’s favor. It provides an expansive space for McClane to sneak around in and it also conceals (for a while at least) the actions of the bad guys from the outside world. Because it’s a big space, it accommodates some inventive action set pieces. Much of said action sequences work pretty well, but the filmmakers do occasionally go overboard, holding the movie back from being a great film in general instead of just a great action film.

The writing is crisp as well, which is a pleasant surprise for an action flick. The combination of screenwriters, Bruce Willis, and Alan Rickman make for some iconic dialogue. Willis’s middle-class grit creates an unlikely but potent hero. Rickman is likewise perfect as the smug and conniving Hans Gruber. He’s so smart but he overlooks the power of McClane’s gumption and determination to see justice prevail. While I may not put Die Hard on my must-watch list for Christmas (despite it absolutely being a Christmas movie), this is a playful charmer of a film that is worth a repeat viewing once in a while.

FINAL RATING: 3.75 out of 5