Until today, I'd never seen Die Hard. Why? I'm not really sure. I wasn't put off by the concept or anything; I just never got around to it. And yes: I know this means I've been celebrating Christmas incorrectly for the past thirty years. Hopefully I've escaped the latest purge of the heretics by correcting my oversight.
So what did I think? Well, as it turns out, Die Hard is way less ridiculous than I was expecting based on the memes. Amongst the famous one-liners, there's actually some genuine humanity and character growth. And the action isn't mindless either; McClane actually spends the entire time relying more on his brains than on his brawn or his weaponry, and to me, that's quite satisfying. I've always preferred heroes who get by on their wits alone.
In short: I get it now. I get why this movie has wormed itself so deeply into our popular culture -- and why it's become a fixture of many folks' holiday festivities. "It's not Christmas until Hans Gruber falls from Nakatomi Plaza" indeed!
This, by the way, will be my last post until the new year. Merry Christmas, everyone!
Welcome, sister!
ReplyDeleteFlashing back to 1988 (it was a summer movie, if you can believe it), Bruce Willis was still only known as David Addison on the TV detective/comedy show "Moonlighting". He and co-star Cybill Shepard would frequently banter and argue with overlapping dialogue. When John and Holly started doing this in the first act, people in the theater started tittering, until Holly shut it down with "I know EXACTLY what YOUR idea of a marriage is!" I don't know about my fellow moviegoers, but I fell in love with her at that moment.
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