Movie Review --- Die Hard
Die Hard’s story, while not entirely original even for the time when it was created, does have a creative spin on it, which as theskooch pointed out in his review, distinguished itself apart from all the other action movies being made. It also constantly puts our macho hero in which situations he is likely to lose and emphasizes his struggle to win instead of effortlessly taking down bad guys. Adding these special touches while still maintaining the intense action scenes and memorable one-liners make Die Hard one of the most celebrated action movies of all time, and rightfully so. Whereas we could watch any Rambo movie and be entertained with the action, we all know there is no way anybody is taking that guy down, but John McClane will admit that sometimes he just doesn’t know what he’s doing and hopes he can just be lucky enough to live.
The McClane character alone is almost enough to make this movie so memorable. He still does the crazy stunts like jumping off of buildings and climbing elevator shafts (and of course falling down them, too), but instead of these scenes showing off how much of a badass McClane is, which he inarguably is, they create tension for our hero who is trying anything to save the people he loves. So many action movies lack adequate tension and suspense because it’s not believable that the hero could lose, and of course now that everybody knows there’s sequels to this movie it’s easy to dismiss that idea for the first Die Hard, but I’m sure that when this was in theaters people were buying into the idea that this movie may not have a happy ending.
The illusion of who is on whose side is another excellent touch to this movie. Instead of a clear-cut good guy vs. bad guy battle, we get McClane stuck in the building with the terrorists, but at the same time battling the L.A.P.D. and the F.B.I. It really wouldn’t be much of a challenge of McClane all the good guys got a long and fought the terrorists, thus again eliminating the tension and also taking away the brilliantly annoying character of the Deputy Chief of Police (Paul Gleason).
The friendship between Powell and McClane, however, was not easy to buy into. Of course I’d be quick to make friends with a guy helping me out after my car gets shot up, I thought it would have been cooler if Powell became skeptical and cut off McClane, but in the end went back to supporting him. Their relationship in the movie was still a huge asset, since he is the only guy McClane can trust and their entire means of contact is via radio, but man if they had that swerve thrown in this movie would be perfect.
The first Die Hard outshines its two sequels by a long shot, especially Die Hard 2. The hero is portrayed like a real human being but still possessing the strong traits of the badass the audience wants to see. Alan Rickman’s Hans Brubeck is great as a calm yet grimly serious and deadly bad guy, going right after the people McClane knows best to get under his skin, and equally witty as McClane, as well. An almost perfect movie, thrilling, a rare occasion where an action movie can go beyond 2 hours without feeling stretched, it definitely would be a Top Five Action Movie, perhaps even number one, who knows. A.