In a cinema world dominated by the action genre, let’s take a look back on the film which is regarded as one of best action films ever made along with being one of the most rewatchable film of all time.
Film – Die Hard (1988)
Duration – 2h 12m
Director – John McTiernan
Main Cast – Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson, William Atherton and Alexander Godunov
Rating – 4.5/5
Trust me, when somebody says Die Hard is their favorite action movie, they are not kidding and it would be best to stay out of any further conversation unless you have seen it. Die Hard marked the beginning of an era where every action film director tried to replicate the concept of Die Hard in different environments ranging from a public Bus (Speed 1994) to the freaking White House (Olympus Has Fallen 2013)! But what makes Die Hard so great?
Have you ever dreamt about being trapped in hostage crisis in the school whenever you got bored and planning about how you’d kill all the terrorists and save everyone all alone? Well, I did! (Still do sometimes) That is what Die Hard is about, one badass cop doing everything in his power to save the people in a high-rise building taken over by terrorists. (Or so it seems) Now this may not seem like a new concept to the modern audience but it was when it came out and the brilliant execution of Die Hard is what makes it amazing.
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| (Image: © 20th Century Fox) |
Director John McTiernan unknowingly created an iconic character very close to his own name “Lieutenant John McLane” portrayed by the ever charming Bruce Willis (with hair). John McClane isn’t your regular righteous cop, on the contrary he is an anti-hero who is just in the wrong place at the wrong time but does the right thing his way! That way involves killing as many bad guys as possible, fighting dirty and a good deal of cursing. John isn’t exactly a man with a plan but he somehow manages to get out of tricky situations using his quick wit and general badassery. Bruce Willis portrayed McClane in such a fascinating way that we can’t ever imagine anybody else in his character.
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| (Image: © 20th Century Fox) |
Well, Bruce Willis was as good in the fifth part as he was in the original one but what made Die Hard Die Hard was an amazing villian! Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber is most definitely the best action film villian of all time and is widely considered to be one of the best antagonist ever. What makes this even more interesting is the fact that this was our beloved Professor Snape’s debut performance! Hans Gruber is the perfect nemesis for John McClane as he is equally witty and unlike McClane, he is a man with a plan. At one point in the film everybody including McClane was playing his game and that’s what makes him an antagonist worth remembering.
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| Avada Kedavra Mr. Gruber! (Image: © 20th Century Fox) |
The supporting cast also delivered solid performances including Bedelia’s Holly Genero (McClane’s wife) who is one of the hostages, Reginald VelJohnson’s Al who provides John all the emotional support he needs and Alexander Godunov’s Karl who wants to kill McClane and avenge his brother. So yeah, the film is not short on story-line as well and there are many more twists and turns than you’ll expect.
The script of the film is another highlight packed with interesting dialogues and iconic lines like “Welcome to the Party, pal“, “HoHoHo, Now I Have a Machine Gun“, and “Yippie-Ki-Yay, M#**##*#*#r” (Basically, Willis’ I’ll Be Back) which instantly became a pop culture phenomenon. Apart from awesome heroes, great villains, solid supporting cast and a smart script, Die Hard is an action giant with realistic and well executed stunt-work. Unlike modern action where the hero is an unstoppable force of nature, John is not Superman and just a normal human who is doing normal human stuff but his cop training and sheer luck help him a lot.
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| (Image: © 20th Century Fox) |
The cinematography, color grading and sound designing of the film is also quite good considering the time at which it was released. From 90’s sitcoms like Friends to contemporary sitcoms like The Office or Brooklyn Nine-Nine, we can find multiple Die Hard references and this conveys how crucial it has been for pop culture and as I mentioned above it has inspired many film-makers who created their own Die Hards. So if you haven’t seen it, all I’d say is WHYYYYY?????
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| Jake Peralta – The Biggest Die Hard Fan (Image: © B99 / NBC) |
Unfortunately, none of the sequels have the same magic of Die Hard 1 and here’s how I rank them all:
1. Die Hard (1988)
2. Die Harder (1990)
It’s basically Die Hard in an airport so why not! Its bigger, has better action but lack of as good a villain as Hans Gruber is its major shortcoming.
Rating – 4/5
3. Die Hard With A Vengeance (1995)
I know people who have seen all Die Hards may not agree with me on this one but even after having Willis paired with Samuel L. Jackson and Jeremy Irons as Hans Gruber’s brother, this film just isn’t as good as the first two. Although Simon Gruber is the second best villain in the franchise and literally plays with John McClane, this third film is pretty much on similar level as 4th one, just a little better.
Rating – 3.5/5
4. Live Free or Die Hard (2007)
It has a clever script, a pretty fine antagonist and much much larger stakes involved than the previous 3 installments. It has contemporary action and Bruce Willis goes full fledged superhero in this one but that’s not why we loved Die Hard. We loved it because it made us believe that yeah, what McClane is doing is doable but this one has pretty unrealistic action very close to the Fast and Furious series and though it looks better, it just doesn’t have the same vibe as previous ones.
Rating – 3.5/5
5. A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)
Its bad… No no no no no, it’s very very bad! Impractical, illogical and absolutely the worst, I wasn’t even willing to mention its name within the same post as Die Hard!
Rating – 1.5/5 (that too because of Bruce Willis)
