Die Hard

What is it about Die Hard? Why do people watch these movies? Is it a vest fetish? Some movie riff on the old Sylvia Plath trope (“Every woman adores a Fascist/ The boot in the face, the brute/ Brute heart of a brute like you”)? Did the audience of the 1980’s never quite get over its David Addison crush? I’m a fan. I’ll admit it. But watching the movies again at the weekend I couldn’t help but feel these films are slightly guilty pleasures.

In plot terms they’re hardly mould-shattering: a blue-collar cop who breaks all the rules takes on various snide, supercilious bad-guys in an orgy of bullets and colourful language. In Die Hard 1 it’s Alan Rickman doing the sneering; in Die Hard 2 it’s Death from Bill & Ted; in Die Hard 3they bring in Jeremy Irons in a leotard. Lord knows which jobbing thesp/angry nobody they’ll rope in for the next instalment. But regardless of the villain, audiences know this much: that Bruce will lose his shirt, that he will swear vociferously… his marriage tenuous, his city under threat, a big finale (that makes little sense) resolving everything in a fireball.

The John McClane-persona and the Bruce Willis we know from talk-shows have become so synonymous by this point that it’s hard to imagine anyone else in the role. It’s mind-bending to think that originally he was fifth choice for the part, subordinate to Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Burt Reynolds, and Richard Gere. Though what he does with the role in hardly Oscar-worthy, Bruce does succeed in making McClane into a blueprint for modern action heroes: Bond by way of the New Jersey Turnpike – grubby, funny, average joe-tough. If it had been Arnie trapped in Nakatomi Plaza, McClane would have been invincible; Sly would have had the same problem; Burt would’ve been funny but you’d never have believed him as a cop; Richard Gere…no, because McClane might be psychotic (strike “might” – he is), but he isn’t smug the way Gere is smug. No. He’s smug like Bruce Willis.

I know as I write this that – yes – there are a lot of people out there who hate Bruce Willis: the smirk, the spray-on hair, the fact he was inHudson Hawk and Striking Distance. Ok, so he’s an asshole. But isn’t the secret of his success that he’s the asshole in us? Isn’t that whatDie Hard is about in its naked contempt for anyone even remotely resembling an authority figure? You only know who’s in charge in these movies because McClane is swearing at them. Is it wrong to see Bruce as some kind of iconoclastic avatar for all our pent-up modern-day frustrations? Look at the evidence: he hates bureaucracy, air-travel and international terrorism – exchange his gun for a dirty look and he’s simply the man we all want to be when our flight gets delayed at the airport.

Die Hard doesn’t have anything new to say to viewers (it didn’t in 1988, and it still doesn’t in 2007) but it does know something about explosions and how small boys’ imagine being a cop. It exists in a world where there are no consequences to insulting one’s superiors, where John McClane can blow-up what and who he wants and where smoking is allowed in Los Angeles…a world equal-parts nostalgia and million-dollar game of dress-up. Narrative is propelled in these movies more by what-would-be-cool than what-would-be-credible. Bruce Willis exists to vent our spleen at all those pencil-pushers and apparachiks who have ever thrown verbal obstacles in the path of our righteous cause, our need to McClane. It’s all there in the title; Die Hard, as noun, as throw-back. These movies offer catharsis both for cops who break all the rules and audiences who (as a guilty pleasure) like to watch.

BACK COVER SYNOPSIS: High above the city of LA a team of terrorists has seized a building, taken hostages, and declared war. But one man has managed to escape detection... an off-duty cop. He's alone... tired... and the only chance anyone has. Bruce Willis stars as New York City Detective John McClane, newly arrived in Los Angeles to spend the Christmas holiday with his estranged wife (Bonnie Bedelia). But as McClane waits for his wife's office party to break-up, terrorists seize control of the building. While the terrorist leader, Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and his savage henchman (Alexander Godunov) round up hostages, McClane slips away unnoticed. Armed with only a service revolver and his cunning, McClane launches his own one-man war. A crackling thriller from beginning to end, DIE HARD explodes with heartstopping suspense.

FILM REVIEW: Like Lethal Weapon the year before, Die Hard is one of the seminal action films of the 1980's if not ever. It helped establish a type of action film that was mimicked several times in subsequent years, but those inferior imitations don't detract from this spectacular original film which sees a street-wise, smart ass police man in John McClane (Bruce Willis) declare a one-man war against a group of East European terrorists headed by the ruthless Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) as they break in to the Nakatomi Corporation's high rise headquarters to steal their money, valuables and priceless collectibles from their lockdown vault. Director John McTiernan is a great action director, providing several sequences of thrills, establishes a number of conventions that have now become cliches in the action genre, and even embeds suspense and tension as McClane and Gruber engage in a bloody chess game through the various floors of the high-rise tower.
The movie starts off relatively quickly, only taking about ten to fifteen minutes to introduce McClane, his wife, the workers at the Nakatomi corporation, and the villains before Hans and his team get to work taking over the building. Right from the start there is a professional aura to the terrorist group who clearly believe they are so smart and have covered all bases that the thought of a smart-ass cop actually dismantling their operation piece by piece is the furthest from their mind. Action films from the 80's didn't pull any punches and Hans is shown to be the brutal man that he is when he guns down the head of the Nakatomi corporation when he refuses to hand over the code to the lockdown vault. Blood is spilt and this film has no problem with showing it to you. However, there is a certain cartoon quality to it all; the violence seems a little detached and desensitised which makes it quite watchable, especially when McClane starts doing it to the bad guys.
Where this film is quite innovative is introducing a running by-play between McClane and Hans. This culminates in a particularly tense scene where the two men meet face to face for the first time, but McClane doesn't realise he's talking to Hans as Hans pretends to be someone else. At one point, McClane gives Hans a gun to protect himself and in the audience you're screaming, "No!" But as it turns out, McClane was on to him the whole time by not loading the gun. They also have some great lines between them, mostly spoken over two-way radios. McClane also dispatches of each of Hans' team in style, and given the ruthless nature of each of the bad guys there's a certain guilty pleasure in watching McClane knock each one off in a unique way each time.
McClane's fight is made all the more entertaining when it becomes clear that he's the only one who can brings the terrorists down. This idea is enforced by the inept policeman trying to gain control of the situation on the ground outside but failing miserably. Only Sgt Al Powell (Reginald Vel Johnson) is of any use to McClane who effectively is not helped by LA policemen who don't have any good plans, and later two FBI agents who run things by the book but it all goes to hell as Hans and his team have also read the book and have a severe counterattack planned for the FBI when they try to take him down.
Bruce Willis is perfect for the role of John McClane. He achieves that nice balance of being your everyday Joe who can transform in to action man at the drop of the hat. He also carries with him a lot of arrogant charm that he uses to great effect when dealing with the bad guys. Alan Rickman does a spectacular turn as Hans Gruber; the cold, calculating nature of the man is perfectly rendered in Rickman's performance although we do enjoy seeing his frustration as McClane keeps at him.
"Die Hard" is one of the best action films ever made.

TECHNICAL REVIEW: The video transfer is for the most part quite decent, although the picture does seem a bit soft and muted at times. The colour is quite good, and the picture is clear. The audio soundtrack is reasonable as well, although the transfer of what is obviously a stereo soundtrack to a 5.1 surround sound track doesn't always work and isn't a crisp and clear as we would like. This DVD also offers a 5.1 DTS soundtrack. Overall, a decent transfer.

EXTRAS REVIEW: The extras on this DVD are an odd bunch, with only a handful actually covering the making of the film while others are either not appropriate for an audio-visual format or work more as a novelty rather than a genuine extra. On the plus, we get two audio commentaries, one with the director and production designer which is informative but dry to listen to, and a scene specifc commentary with the special effects supervisor which again is informative but there are two many gaps in the commentary. There's also a text-based commentary (which appears as subtitles) from many of the crew, but this is a little annoying as you have to sit through the film and read the subtitles while the film is playing. There is an additional sequence which can be played separately or as part of the film if selected which doesn't add much to the proceedings. On the second disc, there are deleted scenes and outtakes, trailers, production stills, subtitles (Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Hungarian, Hebrew, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, English for the hearing impaired) and a promotional featurette. Then we get some odd extras; two 39-page articles about the film that are quite frankly not the type of extra you want to sit around reading on your television screen. Likewise, the entire script is available to read. Maybe it's just me but reading material on a DVD doesn't work. Then we get some gimmicky extras which serve as filmmaking workshops on editing, sound design and multi-camera shooting where you can play around with some of the material from the film and make your own version. It's nifty but I would have preferred a documentary about the film rather than these interactive elements which don't really add much to the package. Overall, it's a good package but should have been better.

BOTTOM LINE: Worth having in the collection.

FILM RATING: 9/10 -- EXTRAS RATING: 6.5/10 -- OVERALL DVD RATING: 8/10 

Todd Murphy <br />
http://www.allaboutmovies.net