Since it's still Christmas-time in my house with all the trees and decorations still up that means it's still fair game to watch Christmas movies. And what better wholesome Christmas movie is there than Die Hard? The answer is there is none! Die Hard is not only a classic movie, it is a perfect movie that I make sure to watch every Christmas. Or whenever I remember.
My dad always made sure that I watched all kinds of good movies growing up, and Die Hard was one of my favorites. Maybe it was the fact that around 13 years old I was watching a movie with the famous line of "Yipee-ki-yay, motherfucker" and other such stimulating lines.
Watching it almost 23 years later (yikes!) it's really quite amusing to see all the lovely 80s hairstyles, and how cops were allowed to bring guns on to airplanes. But enough of the things that have changed in almost 23 years and on to some of what makes Die Hard classic.
First of all, John McClane is a badass. He spends 98% of the movie running around with no shoes despite the building still being under construction, and he still runs around with glass in his foot, an undershirt and covered in blood and sweat in order to save everyone in the building. He starts out with only a handgun and slowly starts taking out the 'terrorists' in order to acquire more weapons. And he's witty. "Now I have a machine gun. Ho-ho-ho." As written on the t-shirt of the first dead bad guy.
There's nothing like a good guy who can, during the course of a two-hour movie, not only save hundreds of people, kill all the bad guys and also fix his marriage with his estranged wife. It shows that he's inventive, courageous, and even has a sensitive side. It's the perfect combination in a super-hero. Or at least a super badass cop guy. He encounters just enough resistance from the dumbass LAPD and FBI to make him look that much smarter than the other guys who kept getting in his way. It's the mark of an 80s movie, to have the cops and feds look like idiots and suck-ups who have no clue what's going on. While that might normally bother me, it's part of Die Hard's charm. Especially since there's McClane's buddy Al who is a helpful cop that you can't help but feel bad for when he tells the story about how he accidentally shot a kid while on duty.
Plus, there are just so many classic scenes in this movie. Like when McClane jumps off the building to avoid the explosion while strapped to the fire hose, or when McClane tapes his gun to his back and only has two shots to take out the last two bad guys, or when he is on the roof trying to get the attention of the cops and has to shoot out the window to get Al to notice him.
This movie never gets old, and 23 years later it's still going strong. I don't know how it'll be in the next 10 years, much less another 23, but that's ok. It's still a great movie. Now 2, 3 and 4, on the other hand...
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