Released to critical acclaim, Die Hard was applauded as being one of the best action films of its time. It also launched now action superstar Bruce Willis to stardom.
The film opens with foul-mouthed, tough New York cop John McClane (Willis), who I think today is somewhat of an iconic film figure, including his nasty catch phrase that he says when he vanquishes the main villain (I won’t include that phrase in here), arrives in LA to see his estranged wife, Holly Gennero, and to visit his kids. European terrorists lead by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman, a very talented though overlooked actor), overtake the building and take the hostages captive, their intentions unknown…so far. McClane stays hidden among the shadows, taking out the terrorist one by one with his only help being from a single cop, Al Powell (Reginald VelJohnson), with whom he communicates via a radio, even though there’s an army of cops, FBI agents and swat teams outside!
For better or worse, the plotline to Die Hard and its elements have been copied, overused and parodied to the day, even including its sequels.
Die Hard is a hard-hitting action movie, though I think that overall, it has been over acclaimed. I think it’s fairly obvious that most of the police and even the FBI characters portrayed in the film are stupid and can’t seem to even use their brains right. After all, it is a movie, and so we have to depend on the rough n tumble McClane to get the job done. An example of the police’s peer foolishness is when they send in a SWAT team right into the open of the terrorist’s fire. They also send a tank right into the sights of a terrorists’ rocket launcher. That’s just a couple of examples I’ll give as I don’t want to spend my review explaining those inconsistencies.
The director, John McTiernan, is not a natural born storyteller. As a director of pure action, he’s pretty darn good and captures the excitement and the thrills.
Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber was splendid. In addition, the actual character of Gruber makes for a very good villain.
For better or worse, Die Hard catapulted itself into a new franchise that also gave way to other action flicks in the tradition of Die Hard.
I think that even today, Die Hard has been remembered as more than being simply the movie that launched Willis to super stardom. Of course, it was all simply action entertainment from beginning to end.
*** ½/5
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