Even on those awful, rainy, just-got-dumped, have-two-finals-tomorrow days, we all have favorite films we can turn to for comfort. But whereas most people opt for nostalgic classics such as The Wizard of Oz or The Muppet Movie, I need to see a movie with some explosions!
For that reason, and so many others, my favorite film of all time is Die Hard,which set a golden standard for action films yet to be surpassed, or even equaled. No other movie has come close to matching the bloody adrenaline rush which unfolds on the screen in this perfect piece of pop-filmmaking.
The plot can literally be summed up with one sentence: Bruce Willis kicks ass. For the sake of clarity I will elaborate. Willis plays John McClane, a tough New York cop who is visiting his estranged wife in Los Angeles. As soon as he arrives at her office party in the sinister Nakatomi Tower, a group of mysterious terrorists crashes the whole shindig led by the menacing Hans Gruber, who is played by the awesome Alan Rickman in his first movie role. McClane, who narrowly avoids being taken hostage himself, then proceeds to eliminate the terrorists, one by one.
What more could you ask for from action entertainment? What truly makes Die Hard a classic are the performances of Willis and Rickman. As McClane, Willis is the ultimate badass, spouting off cheesy one-liners as he takes out the trash. He also brings a frantic and fearful sensibility to the proceedings, grounding what could have been a cartoon caricature with genuine humanity.
But as everyone knows, you can’t have a great hero without an equally great villain, and Rickman delivers his antagonistic role with gusto. His Gruber is a cool and calculating businessman, who just so happens to have a disregard for human life.
As McClane racks up the body count Gruber begins to come apart at the seams, and you see panic creep into Rickman’s performance. No one would claim the stars deliver Oscar-level acting, but both Willis and Rickman create characters who are deeper than the typical action-movie archetypes.
Besides the acting, though, the other huge draw of Die Hard is its violent yet goofy screenplay. Acts of ultra-violence are followed by moments of silly humor. To get a cop’s attention during one scene, for instance, McClane throws a dead terrorist onto the policeman’s cruiser, while sardonically quipping, “Welcome to the party pal!”
In another classic moment, as a terrorist falls to his death, the deputy chief of police delivers an off-hand, “Oh, I hope that’s not a hostage.”
It is this morbid sense of humor which gives Die Hard its personality. The actors all seem to be having a blast during the film, and this sense of self-awareness, evident especially in the movie’s comed i c m o m e n t s , ke e p s D i e H a r d from being downright depressing.
With all of the violence, action and humor this film supplies, I have just one thing to say. Yippee ki-yay
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