Obviously this film is from another time altogether (gas cost 74 cents for instance) but post 9/11 it’s very hard to see this film as anything other than a curiosity from what may as well be an ancient civilization. Nowadays even the mention of the word ‘terrorist’ brings out the National Guard and sends people running for cover. The fact that no one treats this as a serious situation for quite a while is so out of synch with what would happen today that we might as well be watching a film from seventy years ago instead of one from twenty years ago.
Part and parcel with this disconnect from our current reality is the lack of cell phones. Since this is 1988, obviously no one has them, but try watching this film and imagine what it would be like with cell phones. The terrorists would have to round them all up first thing and even still it would be very unlikely that they’d get them all before someone got off a call to 911. Then, of course, McClane would have a phone (and even if he didn’t somewhere he was at would have some sort of wireless connection to the internet). The scene where the terrorists cut the phone lines is particularly amusing from this perspective.
But if you can get past all the outdated stuff in the film, it holds up as a pretty well-crafted action movie. There aren't many of the lapses in logic or absurd action heroics that were so common in the Schwarzenegger / Stallone / Willis glory years.
2 comments:
I was having a debate with someone the other day as to whether or not the first Die Hard could be considered a holiday film. Your thoughts?
depends on what the criteria for a holiday film is (obviously). if you mean that it takes place during christmas, then, of course, DIE HARD qualifies. if, on the other hand, you think that the film has to, besides taking place during the holidays, also embody the holiday spirit, then i don't think DIE HARD qualifies. everyone in DIE HARD mistrusts each other to the point of being outright hostile towards one another. not exactly how people who're feeling the holiday spirit would behave.
that said, of all other movies i can think of that are set around the holidays, DIE HARD is easily one of the best. so, personally, i would say that it does qualify as a holiday film just so that i could watch it instead of, say , THE SANTA CLAUSE or DECK THE HALLS.
Post a Comment