‘Tis the season. The season for the debate as to whether Die Hard is a “Christmas movie.”
At the end of a Comedy Central roast of Bruce Willis, the movie’s star, Willis adamantly declared that “Die Hard is not a Christmas movie!” Well, Bruno ain’t the final arbiter, either.
Giving some more credence to the argument on behalf of the anti-Christmas people:
The movie was released in the summer. As was Die Hard II a few years later.
After its tremendous success, the film became the standard by which all action films are judged. Not so with Christmas films. It flipped the genre in many ways. Willis said of his John McClane character, “He’s an ordinary guy who’s been thrown into extraordinary circumstances.”
It is an action film where the events merely take place at Christmastime. Probably could have been at any other time of the year, they say.
As for the football-related anachronism, Notre Dame and USC play either in October in Indiana or in November in southern California. Move Die Hard to Thanksgiving-time and it rivals Planes, Trains, and Automobiles or The Last Waltz as the best (“non-Thanksgiving”) Thanksgiving movie.
But let’s be serious for a moment: it’s a Christmas movie, if for no other reason that the 1988 action classic takes place on Christmas Eve. Yet, also consider:
For the film's 30th anniversary in 2018, 20th Century Fox said it was, “the greatest Christmas story ever told,” and released a re-edited Die Hard trailer portraying it as a traditional Christmas film. Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? “Yippee Ki Yes,” read the ad copy.
Screenwriter Steven E. de Souza tweeted in 2017, “Plus a woman about to give birth features prominently” and then included the heart emoji.
McClane’s wife is named “Holly.”
Christmas decorations are part of the setting.
As for music, the movie wouldn’t really work without the classic rap number Christmas in Hollis by Run DMC or the Vaughan Monroe number Let it Snow! To end the film.
Hans Gruber says to his tech guy: “It’s Christmas, Theo. It’s a time for miracles.”
One of the dead terrorists stands in for Santa (a bit gruesome, but he does have the hat).
The time-honored Christmas movie trope that jobs or money aren’t as important as your loved ones resonates quite loudly by movie’s end.
It is now a December tradition.
In the words of Edward R. Rooney, “Suck it up, buttercup.”
Another lesson applies, however.
McClane is a crack shot. He can think and react on the fly, perhaps his greatest talent.
The “helping class” of do-gooders out there is no help to the “cowboy” up there in Nakatomi, but one guy on the outside, Sergeant Al Powell of the LAPD, believes in McClane.
Spoiler alert: McClane thwarts the terrorist attack and saves the day.
Sgt. Powell loved the AM/PM convenience store. To say he was a fan of Hostess Twinkies would be an understatement.
A helper and a hero, that Al Powell. Getting the Twinkies for a pregnant wife 😂 and looking out for an anonymous hero who he knew shared his values.
Well, convenience stores are helpful insofar as they are convenient. You can get all sorts of goodies at a decent price very quickly. Sometimes a good stop on the way home.
During the coronamania that started in 2020, Tom Woods was a John McClane of sorts. Fighting the baddies at every step of the way.
I was kind of like Al Powell, conveniently reading Tom’s emails, knowing something out there was messed up, even though the public health establishment and their minions out there, not unlike Die Hard’s Deputy Chief Dwayne T. Robinson, told you how dumb you were...and said not to worry.
I sorted through the data as Al Powell did with the backs of his Hostess wrappers.
But, Woods, our modern-day McClane of sorts, didn’t shoot anyone. He didn’t throw dead bodies down 30 stories to make a point. He certainly didn’t thwart the terrorists full-stop.
Tom proved his mettle as a voice of sanity in that insane world we were living in.
Tom’s new book, Diary of a Psychosis: How Public Health Disgraced Itself During COVID Mania, goes through the story of those days with clarity and detail.
It’s easy to forget how senseless the whole time was.
Al Powell was afraid to shoot his gun because of an incident that happened in his past.
Was there something I should have done that I didn’t? Was I doing enough to stop the insanity?
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Every so often, I get a little depressed thinking that I should have done more.
But I knew there was a hero in my little Nakatomi of life and this time it was Tom Woods.
For, without Powell, there is no John McClane beating the terrorists, and without McClane beating the terrorists, Christmas sucks.
Christmas will be better with a copy of the new Woods book in the hands of your family and friends. Plus you can get a bunch of bonuses.
Go to Tom’s site for more.
As always,
Brian
P.S. – In the movie, Sgt. Al Powell fired the last shot.
