Nathan's Movie Collection: Die Hard (1988)
I’m not putting the famous line here, my parents are reading.
Note: Most of these movies have been around for a considerable amount of time, so assume there will be spoilers all throughout.
Here at Nathan’s Movie Collection, we try to cover films that might have flown under your radar. Small gems that get overshadowed by the bigger hits. Today’s film is a 1988 action thriller with a dash of comedy that might have flown under your radar. We’re talking about Die Hard, starring Bruce Willis.
Bringing up Die Hard in a conversation means someone’s inevitably going to beg the question: is Die Hard a Christmas movie? Some experts in the field argue that it is, since it is set on Christmas Eve and full of Christmas references, not to mention there being Christmas music on the soundtrack. There are detractors however who argue that the strong violence and lack of Santa Claus as a character in the story1 precludes it from being considered a proper Christmas film. Having spent a considerable amount of time studying and doing work in this field, I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t care. The movie Die Hard absolutely rips no matter what time of year you’re watching it.
My introduction to Die Hard happened several summers ago when I was living in St. Louis working at a lawn care company during the day and doing valet parking at night. When school was out of session, I lived in my aunt and uncle’s basement the whole summer. I was usually getting home at midnight or later, sleeping until I had to leave around noon for my first job. Because I was 19, I didn’t require any sleep, so this was sustainable.
Getting home late and watching a movie on the basement TV until I fell asleep became a routine. After a while, I was staying up to finish the movie before falling asleep. Then I started paying more attention to filmmakers, so these late nights were how I got familiar with guys like Christopher Nolan and Guy Ritchie, the kind of directors you love when you’re a young male cinephile2. During one of these nights, I came across Die Hard playing on TCM just at the beginning. At that point, I knew it was a famous action movie and that’s about it. Bruce Willis was also a name I recognized but hadn’t really watched any of his movies.
I don’t want to oversell the memory but watching the film Die Hard, playing on the Turner Classic Movies network during the wee hours of the night in its full uncensored glory, was a transformative experience. It’s also entirely possible that contrary to what I said earlier, 19-year-old Nathan was probably in desperate need of sleep and having visions. Whatever the case, I remember after the movie was over opening my Dell laptop, waiting two hours for it to boot up, waiting another two hours for iTunes to launch, and after two hours of navigating the Home Screen and search function I purchased and downloaded the film Die Hard. After waiting a week for it to finish downloading, I watched the whole movie again and confirmed I wasn’t just sleep deprived; it was in fact one of the greatest movies ever made.
The movie doesn’t work if John McClane is The Ultimate Badass that knows the right thing to do at every turn. Starting the movie with him scared out of his mind on an airplane is a brilliant move. When action starts, he’s barefoot in a tank top and slacks. And as he runs through the building, he gets cuts, scrapes, and all the other injuries you would get in that situation. When you see Hans Gruber and suave pack of henchmen, they look like they could wipe him out in two seconds. Watching today, you know McClane’s gonna be fine because it’s 2023 and the movie has become an indelible piece of American pop culture in the 35 years since its release. The joy comes from watching a protagonist in over his head defeat the antagonists by taking them on a wild goose chase.
The Bruce Willis performance holds up insanely well. He’s quippy in a way that doesn’t grate on me like it does in the Marvel movies. I think it helps that John McClane has an actual personality and the dialogue is written by adults3. Die Hard’s obviously full of one-liners—everyone knows the one line even if they haven’t it—but they’re spread out and deployed appropriately. It also helps having someone like Bruce Willis who can sell a line like “No f—king s—t, lady, do I sound like I’m ordering a pizza!?” Let me tell you, Dear Reader, he does not and that is great acting.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the late great Alan Rickman in his first film performance. Just like Bruce Willis being the perfection action hero for this story, he’s the perfect villain. I’m not a Harry Potter guy so this is movie is the one I connect him to4. He was still incredible up until the end; it’s sad we won’t see more performances from the man.
To date, this is the only Die Hard film I have seen and I’m tempted to keep it that way. I’ve heard good things about the first two sequels and I’ve floated the idea of marathoning them but haven’t pulled the trigger. Maybe, just for the bit, I don’t watch them at all and keep this one as a special memory.
At one point, there is a man in a Santa hat and while the phrase “ho ho ho” is printed on his sweatshirt, that he’s riddled with bullets cancels this out.
I’m sure this will totally be taken in good fun. I still enjoy (some of) the work of both of these directors. I’ve just watched more movies since then.
I don’t hate MCU movies so this isn’t me getting on my Scorsese soapbox. But when your characters start to speak almost exclusively in one-liners, it can be grating. I blame all of this on Joss Whedon.
This and Galaxy Quest.