Source: Archive Photos / Getty
Every year, there is always a debate over anything and everything, with all the major topics of 2020 being a big one this year.
Yet, there is that is one of the most passionate of all debates in all walks of life from the internet to in person. It’s that one question that has everyone on both sides speaking out passionately without any hesitation.
Is ‘Die Hard’ really a Christmas movie?
That question has taken a life on its own in recent years, yet it’s something that seems be a never-ending debate.
So is the 1988 action film one that is also seasonal? Its star Bruce Willis may not think so, but director John McTiernan says it is.
McTiernan took some time out of his schedule to make a video with the American Film Institute on how the show should be categorized as a Christmas movie and even uses another Holiday classic to help make his case.
From Complex:
“Die Hard was a terrorist movie … It was really about the stern face of authority stepping in to put things right again,” McTiernan said while explaining how he and producer Joel Silver ultimately snuck in a narrative that he likened to the famous Pottersville sequence from the 1946 drama It’s a Wonderful Life.
McTiernan says that one of the memorable sequences from ‘Life’ shows “the clearest demonstration and criticism of runaway unregulated war capitalism.”
While McTiernan was intent of making an action classic with John McClane, as played by Willis, as a “working class hero,” the Holiday label started to gain more traction over the years.
Something had fascinated the director, despite the festive theme not being the original goal of how to categorize ‘Hard’:
“We hadn’t intended it to be a Christmas movie but the joy that came from it is what turned it into a Christmas movie,” McTiernan said.
Here is the full 12-minute video with McTiernan and the newfound Christmas appreciation of the late 1980’s classic:
Click here to read more.
Article Courtesy of Complex
First and Second Picture Courtesy of Archive Photos and Getty Images
First and Second Video Courtesy of YouTube and Complex
