Several actors who became popular on television shows have tried to turn that popularity into big screen success which hasn’t always worked. After Moonlighting made him famous, Bruce Willis starting looking for success in movies. After a few that weren’t huge hits, he was launched as an action movie star with Die Hard.
New York City Cop John McClane traveled to Los Angeles to see his estranged wife Holly and children for Christmas. She had taken a job there six months before and John hadn’t wanted to move. He went to the Nakatomi Building where Holly worked and found that the Christmas party was underway. A group of terrorists led by Hans Gruber arrived and proceeded to take control of the building, making the people inside hostages. John managed to evade capture and set out to stop Hans and his men on his own. John did eventually get the attention of police officer Al Powell and tons of police showed up. A local reporter, Richard Thornburg, also arrived at the scene determined to get a big story.
Die Hard started off a little slower as it introduced John and Holly and set up their situation. I didn’t think that was boring because it was necessary to set up the plot. It really didn’t take that long for the action to start since Hans and his men turned up not long after John arrived at the building. From that point on, the pace moved faster without being rushed. The plot was very straightforward even with the subplots related to John and Holly’s trouble and Thornburg going after his story. The movie worked very well and has spanned numerous copies over the years, some better than others.
Everything took place on Christmas Eve which did add a small amount of influence to the story. The biggest influence the holiday had was the fact that the building was empty except for the people there for the party when Hans arrived. A few Christmas songs were heard and every so often some kind of decoration was shown. For large portions of the movie, there wasn’t anything shown or heard to indicate the connection to the holiday. Other than that, the holiday really didn’t play a big part in the movie.
John ended up in several extremely dangerous situations throughout the movie. Realistically, a person probably wouldn’t survive everything that John did. That didn’t bother me because I generally don’t look for realism in action movies. John did end up using a bit of humor to help himself deal with what he was facing. He said some very funny things at times that make me laugh every time I watch the movie. The bits of humor did help to lighten the mood more than once.
The action and violence started off fairly early, shortly after John arrived at the building. There were a lot of shoot outs, usually involving John in some way. He also got into fights with some of the terrorists. Several people were injured or ended up dead. John was hurt many times and was covered in blood later in the movie. This not a movie for people who don’t like violence in movies. It definitely deserved the R rating. This isn’t a movie for children to see either. There was a lot of swearing throughout the movie by several characters. The special effects that were used in a few scenes were well done and have held up well.
John and Holly had been having marriage trouble ever since she had taken her new job and moved with the kids to Los Angeles. They both still had feelings for each other, but neither one seemed to know how to fix things. They could both be defensive, which made things worse. Once Holly was in danger, John realized several things. Their relationship was important to the plot without being the main focus. Things may not have worked the same if Holly hadn’t been in danger. Early in the movie, two people were briefly shown having sex in one of the offices. That was it for sex scenes and nudity.
John McClane was in most of the movie, so he was more developed than the other characters. He still loved his wife, but he had been stubborn about certain things. John was the only person inside the building who managed to evade the terrorists and since he was a police officer, he was somewhat equipped to deal with the situation he found himself in. He didn’t want to be there and would have preferred to leave it to someone else to handle. Bruce Willis was perfect and really fit the part. Bonnie Bedelia was fine as Holly even though she didn’t have as much to do. Her career and family were both very important to her. She did manage to stay calm.
Hans Gruber was ruthless and determined to get what he wanted. He had done a lot of planning and was prepared for everything except John. Hans wasn’t really sure how to deal with John. Hans wasn’t too concerned when one of his men was killed other than being annoyed if he caused him a delay. He wouldn’t hesitate to kill to get what he wanted. He was a very good villain, who was as smart as he was deadly, and Alan Rickman was absolutely wonderful in the part. Rickman was chilling in some of his scenes and I loved his performance. This movie, and his portrayal of Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies really show that.
Karl was one of the terrorists that stood out from any of the others. That didn’t mean he was well developed since he was basically just shown being intimidating and trying to kill John. Theo was the only other man working with Hans that stood out. Theo was doing things with the computers and had something very important to handle. Al was the police officer that John managed to alert. Al stayed at the building and had some conversations with John on walkie talkies. Reginald VelJohnson was fine in the part. Paul Gleason turned up as Al’s superior, Dwayne T. Robinson, an idiot that didn’t know what to do other than try to discredit John. Richard Thornton was the arrogant reporter who was determined to get a big story. He didn’t care who he hurt or what he had to do to get the story. William Atherton was believable in the part.
Main Cast
William Atherton - Richard Thornton Bonnie Bedelia - Holly Paul Gleason - Dwayne T. Robinson Alan Rickman - Hans Gruber Reginald VelJohnson - Al Powell Bruce Willis - John McClane
John McTiernan - Director
DVD Information
I first saw Die Hard on VHS and eventually bought a copy of the movie as well. Unfortunately the picture quality was very bad and the faces were very misshaped from making the picture fill a television screen. I picked up the two disc DVD a few years ago. It has the movie in anamorphic widescreen so everything looks much better. I don’t know if there is a full screen version available. The first disc has the movie as well as a commentary with the director. There is also the option to watch the movie with subtitle commentaries.
Most of the extra features are on the second disc. There were two extended scenes and a section that included some deleted lines and even a few bloopers. Interactive articles related to the movie from different movie magazines were also included. A section called The Cutting Room has options to reedit scenes of the movie. That section also included something that demonstrated how much of the picture is lost when a movie shot in widescreen is made to fill a television screen. There was a collection of the different newscasts filled for the movie, including some scenes that didn’t make it into the final movie. I did enjoy the extras that I watched.
Die Hard has held up well and is considered by many to be one of the better action movies ever made. It is definitely worth watching for people that enjoy good action movies. Fans of Bruce Willis should also give the movie a chance.
One of the greatest action movies of the late 1980s DIE HARD ushered in a new standard for the genre. With the dissolution of the Cold War both the st...More at Family Video
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.