Is ‘Die Hard’ actually a Christmas movie or not?

Is ‘Die Hard’ actually a Christmas movie or not? – The discussion flares up every year. Both online and offline for Christmas dinner. Entire tribes of people have an opinion about it under the Christmas tree.

By Megan Sauer

You would almost get into a fight. Now director John McTiernan himself is also contributing to the Christmas stocking to answer the question that has been around for years: Is Die Hard a real Christmas film or not?

HO HO HO

Now you really don’t need the holidays as an excuse to revisit the action classic Die Hard (1988). But still, the Christmas atmosphere is immediately present: already in the opening Bruce Willis walks around with a gigantic Christmas teddy bear (a gift for his children).

The fact that he then ruins the Christmas decorations and the mood of a group of terrorists who take him and his wife and her colleagues hostage in a skyscraper on Christmas Eve is a bonus. Throughout the film we hear one Christmas hit after another (including a nice 80’s adaptation of Christmas in Hollis by RUN-DMC ) and John McClane mows down one bad guy”).

On the other hand, the fact that Die Hard is set during Christmas does not necessarily make it a Christmas movie. The ingredients may be clear: the holidays are of course always central.

Whether that is in a typical candy-candy, tacky romantic Hallmark movie, in which the protagonists always find each other during the holidays (and of course they learn what is really important), or the Christmas horror of, for example, Krampus (2016). Without that plot element we cannot speak of a Christmas film.

Could Die Hard do without the Christmas theme? Could the movie take place on a different holiday?

Yes, of course. It definitely doesn’t need that element. The film could just as easily be set on Halloween, for example. Also, don’t forget, Die Hard was released in the United States in the summer of 1988.

McClane as Christ figure

And yet, the film’s Christmas themes are as clear as blood on a white shirt; the rekindling of family ties, Powell ‘s yet unborn child (McClane’s sidekick in the outside world), the hunt for the lone savior (McClane) and are we going too far when we label McClane as a Christ-like figure?

One who undergoes one trial after another to deliver us from evil? At the end of the film, we are even treated to the first (paper) snowflakes under the familiar tones of Let it Snow. At least, as good as you can get it. At that time, it had not snowed in Los Angeles for 30 years.

John McTiernan, action specialist and director of Die Hard , has his own ideas about it and is now making his own contribution.

In an interview with The American Film Institute, he says: “For starters, Die Hard was originally a film about ultra-left terrorists attacking the Valhalla of capitalism. It was much more about the stern face of authority (John McClane) intervening to put matters back in order and put them right.”

Authority figure as fool

But McTiernan didn’t want to make such a film. Under his leadership, Die Hard changed focus from the original script. It’s not just the December setting that makes the 1988 action classic a Christmas movie.

For example, McTiernan was inspired by the classic Christmas film It’s a Wonderful Life from 1946. The scene in which hero George Bailey (James Stewart) discovers that his town of Bedford Falls has been relegated to the squalid Pottersville is especially important and influential on Die Hard.

“I wanted to make a film where the hero was a real person, and the ‘authority figures’ – all the important people – were portrayed as a bit foolish.”

Additionally, McTiernan says, ” Die Hard may never have been intended to be a Christmas movie, but the fun it brought eventually turned it into a Christmas movie.”

Once again, Die Hard came out during the warm summer of 1988. Not really the season for a Christmas movie. On the other hand, the classic Christmas movie Miracle on 34th Street also appeared in mid-summer in 1947. In the month of June, Santa’s reindeer are clearly at rest…

You see, even now that the director has voiced his opinion, the debate is far from over.

Lead actor Bruce Willis has his own ideas about it. During his 2018 Comedy Central Roast, Willis is quite clear: “Die Hard is not a Christmas movie,” he declared. “It’s a fucking Bruce Willis movie!”