Last night, I headed to a theater in Santa Monica, California, for a special Christmas-season showing of the 1988 action classic Die Hard, starring Bruce Willis. It was a packed house of appreciative fans, who knew all the film’s signature lines and story beats (and booms).
Last year, I did a post taking on the hot debate about whether Die Hard — in which a N.Y. cop (Willis) fends off Eurotrash terrorists at his estranged wife’s (Bonnie Bedelia) L.A. office party on Christmas Eve — is actually a Christmas movie.
Click here for the whole thing, but this is the guts of my argument:
- Die Hard takes place on Christmas Eve, with many of the trappings thereto — Christmas trees, Christmas music, Santa Claus hats, lights, etc. Of course, there are a few not normally associated with Christmas, like gunfire and explosions and dead terrorists/thieves (not to mention profanities, if you watch versions not edited for broadcast TV), but there’s a definite snowfall of white paper at the end.
- The central figure is a good man whose wife’s life has taken a very different turn than he expected, causing him to wind up in a kind of marriage he hadn’t anticipated. Under different circumstances, St. Joseph knew something about that.
- It’s about self-sacrifice. NYPD Detective John McClane (Willis) suffers pain and injury, risks his very life, to save the innocent and those he loves. Christ knew a thing or two about that.
- The enemies of the good are the base human impulses of greed, pride and indifference to the value of human life. Christ knew a thing or two about those, too.
- It’s about bringing a family — specifically a Catholic family — back together, with husband and wife both showing guts and fortitude in the face of threats to that family (Holly McClane delivers a powerful right hook on a callous TV reporter at the end).
- It’s about redemption. LAPD Sgt. Al Powell made a terrible mistake — shooting a kid with a fake gun that looked real at the time — and he’s suffered for it ever since. As a man with his first child on the way, he needs to regain his courage and be forgiven. In overcoming his fear to kill the last terrorist and save John and Holly McClane, he is redeemed. And isn’t that why Christ came into the world on Christmas?
Getting into the holiday spirit, today 20th Century Fox released a recut trailer that showcases the movie (originally released in the summer) as a Yuletide staple. OK, there are some Gospels that beg to differ on the claim of “The Greatest Christmas Story Ever Told,” but for those who love it, Die Hard is certainly on the list of Christmas MOVIES:
And if you’re ever in Los Angeles, turn east on Olympic Blvd. from Sepulveda Blvd., and there, in front of you, big as life, will be One Fox Plaza, a k a Nakatomi Plaza (and the Ralph’s supermarket where the firetrucks do a U-turn is still there, too).
The film has also spawned some memes…
Ho-ho-ho!
Image: 20th Century Fox
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