Day 9 is upon us with
only one day left of our 10 Days Of Mayhem series, It's been a long
hard journey, a lot of action films good and Bad have been watched, a
lot of words have been typed and to be honest this is the most amount
of reviews I have written in such a short period of time and thanks
to everyone who has read them. Anyway what awaits Day 9....JOHN
McCLANE!!!!, that's right Day nine is all about Die Hard....
Die Hard is one of the
films that defines action and was one of the Key 3 action movies of
the 1980s along with First Blood and Commando. It was these three
films that took action to a completely new level of manliness. But
the best thing about Die Hard was the fact that it took an average
Joe and turned him into an icon. By that I mean look at Rambo, He's a
trained killer, recruited to mame and murder for his country by the
Military, He's muscular and straight talking, then you have someone
like John Matrix crom Commando or Dutch Schaffer from Predator, both
military trained and hard as nails, both built like brick shit houses
but McClane was an average NYPD cop, he was troubled, had marital
problems and was a bit of a dick, he wasn't like the former
characters that I mentioned, he was an ordinary guy thrust into an
extraordinary situation and I think in a time of muscle bound heroes,
McClane was something fresh.
The plot follows NY detective John McClane as he arrives at LAX to surprise his wife who
is working in the Nakatomi Plaza at Christmas. While in the building,
the place is taken over by some terrorists led by the evil Hans
Gruber as he and his team attempt to steal $600million in bonds.
McClane has to save the hostages and kill the terrorists to save the
day helped only by a beat cop who he speaks to on a radio....he does
most of this minus shoes....as you do.
It's the basic plot of
countless other action films that followed and this one does it
better than any of them.
The cast of Die Hard is
equally as good as the plot, Bruce Willis became a mega star thanks
to his role as put upon copper John McClane. Willis was already
familiar to some viewers as one of half of TV's Moonlighting duo
along with Sybil Shepperd and from mediocre comic films like Blind
Date and the Blake Edwards misfire, Sunset, but it wasn't until he
was cast in John McTiernan's 3rd film after Nomads and
Predator did Willis really hit the big time and he's pretty much
stayed on top since then. Sure Willis has had some misfires such as
Hudson Hawk and Colour OF Night but he made up for those with
cracking roles in Last Boy Scout as the laconic P.I Joe Hallenbeck
and as Korben Dallas in Luc Besson's high concept sci-fi flick The
Fifth Element. Willis has always been a box office draw but for most
and for me, John McClane is the character that he'll most be
associated with, the dry whit and one liners and the constant pursuit
of survival in the face of evil.
But not all the praise
should go to Willis for Die Hard because he's equally matched if not
bettered by Alan Rickman as terrorist leader Hans Gruber. Rickman
made his feature debut with Die Hard and turned in on of the greatest
screen villain roles since Gene Hackman played Lex Luthor, he's evil
but has a whit about him. Rickman has some brilliant lines which he
delivers faultless and he almost kind of carries the same role over
to his performance as the Sheriff Of Nottingham from Prince Of
Thieves. Rickman give Gruber a likable persona the kind you get with
a panto villain and revels in the role. For some reason Brits always
seem to player good German villains.
The supporting cast
includes Reginald VelJohnson as the beat on the street, Officer Al,
Willis' only contact to the outside world, Bonnie Bedelia plays
Holly, McClane's wife, Hart Bochner plays suck up weasle Ellis and
then you have the likes of William Atherton as a TV news reporter,
Paul Gleeson as the police chief, Alexander Godunov as a blond haired
terrorists and finally Robert Davi as on half of FBI agents Smith and
Smith. It's a wonderful cast everyone does their part equally.
McTiernan proved to be
an excellent action director with Predator and raises his profile
immensely with Die Hard, the film is almost nonstop action from start
to finish with buildings exploding, gun battles in conference rooms,
rooftops and maintenance rooms but the most memorable stunt includes
a jump off the top of the building with a fire hose tied around the
waist. McTiernan continued making action movies through the 90s with
The Hunt For Red October, The Last Action Hero and 13th
Warrior and returning in 1995 for threequel, Die Hard With A
Vengeance witch reuinted Willis with his Pulp Fiction co-star Samuel
L.Jackson. The two made a great double act and McTiernan again shows
his strength as action movie director this time however the action
wasn't confined to one location as was with the first and Renny
Harlin's Die Hard 2, This time the action took place across New York
City as McClane is targeted by Hans' equally evil brother Simon.
McTiernan took a sorry
nose dive in the early 21st century with the slow but
interesting remake of The Thomas Crown Affair and the confusing but
entertaining Basic, but his biggest misfire was a remake of 70s
sci-fi classic Rollerball which lost all of the grit and social
commentary of the first and instead became a shallow Hollywood
popcorn movie that had no substance and failed to make much money.
Unfortunately McTiernan's career is on hold as he continues to fight
a legal battle with FBI over a wiretapping case.
Die Hard is one of the
pinacle films to define modern action cinema, if it wasn't for it we
wouldn't have films like The Rock, Long Kiss Good Night or even The
Raid. It's influential in it's violence and gave us Bruce Willis as
an action star. I love all three original Die Hard Movies but found
the fourth one to be missing something and that it went way over the
top with action such as McClane vs an F-16 fighter jet on an L.A
freeway. But there is no denying Die Hard is a game changing action
film. It's fast, funny, Violent and action packed and I think film in
general would be a sadder place without it. Die Hard gets the full
five star treatment here....
I've only heard reviews of the movie but never really watched it because I tend to forget about movies easily. I don't seem to be good at remembering those good movies and I tend to only see the trailers and say "I'm definitely going to watch that" and then forget afterwards.
ReplyDeleteHey Coco, It's a definite watch, one of the defining action movies of the genre. Check it out if you can
ReplyDelete