Die Hard - Christmas Archive

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Die Hard is what it is: terrorists looking to secure $400 million, hidden in a vault in various ways (stocks, treasures from empires, paintings, etc), hold a partying white collar group of a corporation, celebrating in a long, tall, posh, under-construction, swank high rise in Los Angeles, hostage (including the wife of the heroic cop, John McClaine, from New York City) while a visiting cop, hidden in a bathroom (with no socks/shoes), escapes, becoming a real thorn up their ass, taking them out one by one as their leader (played by the coolly confident, reserved Alan Rickman, who never rattles even as it appears he's in deep trouble when law enforcement (including the FBI) surround the building). That's it. The plot is just enough to allow Bruce Willis to shoot a bunch of people while stacking the odds considerably against him.

You get explosions gutting the high rise, windows shattering into debris from gunfire, legs and bodies torn apart by bullets, and machine guns causing plenty of casualties and damage to walls. Willis makes nifty use of C-4 and uses the strap of a machine gun and a fire hose to get out of sticky situations. There's even a brutal scene as a worried Willis pulls glass from the bottom of his feet while telling police officer Al (played by Reginald VelJohnson of Family Matters fame) a message to give to his wife just in case he doesn't make it. This movie has the clichés, including the ridiculous return of a heavy who miraculously recovers from being lynched by heavy chained coiled three times around his throat only to be taken down by a cop who says he will never draw his gun from his holster after an unfortunate shooting of a thirteen year old hood.

If you enjoy movies where a heroic cop constantly evades certain death by eluding his adversaries through cunning and brilliant canny to think on his feet (although even he can be somewhat fooled as Rickman is able, for a moment, to trick Willis into thinking he's a hostage; not to mention, he walks into a gun pointing at his face (it's to Willis good fortune that he has made the thug so mad he wants to fight with fists instead of popping a couple rounds in his face), then Die Hard is the gold standard of such movies.

Sure, the movie's implausibilities are many, but I embrace these things in an action movie from the 80s…hell, it is to be expected. A good villain helps and this one's (Rickman) is a doozy. Willis has some great quips and one-liners, putting him in great company along with Arnold and Sly because he able to slide comfortably into such a tough-guy archetype seemingly easily—I found him wholly convincing and exciting to watch.

Bonnie Bedelia is expertly cast as an equally tough wife who has become so disenchanted with her husband that she has taken her maiden name back (I got a kick out of Willis' annoyance as he notices her maiden name throughout the building) because Willis wasn't so keen on moving away from The Big Apple to The City of Angels. She, like Willis, is able to buy herself some time, keep her calm when trouble looms, and faces danger without breaking a sweat.

Some fun casting for actions fans includes Paul Gleason as a surly asshole (what else but this time of character should one expect from Gleason, he's so reliable as someone who gets under your skin with his attitude) Chief of Police, Hart Bochner as a coke-snorting creep business salesman, and William Atherton as (what else?) a troublesome, success-seeking, self-absorbed news reporter who goes out of his way to get information on Willis, placing him and Bedelia in danger of being discovered. Even though they don't meet until the end, the film hinges on the great chemistry between Willis and Vel Johnson who communicate back and forth via walkie talkies during the whole movie. What is rather fascinating about this is the fact that Rickman can listen to their every word. How McClain gets Al's attention with the use of a terrorist's body is a cool action scene fans like me eat up with great joy.

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December 2011 \ **** / *****