1988 - DIE HARD. revisiting this 80's action thriller

Is it an action movie? Is it a Christmas movie? Does anyone still care about this silly argument that could only show up on social media?  It's been over 30 years since I saw this film in the theater. I was curious to see how it held up.  After viewing Die Hard again I would say it mostly still works but it's a little slow and creaky at times.  Present day audiences are pretty much conditioned to having their action movies kick into gear almost immediately after the credits.  Die Hard actually takes about 30 minutes before the big action scenes start.

 

 

The film is famous for the beginning of Bruce Willis's action hero character.  Willis was primarily a television actor but the producers had such a problem finding someone to portray John McClane, Willis  who was practically at the bottom of the list was hired.  He turned out to be a good choice to play the tough New York City cop taking on a bunch of European terrorists.  He was the every man who could shoot up a bunch of haughty bad guys out to mess with the American way of life.  It took a few movies before Willis descended into his snarky movie actor persona.  

 

Viewing Die Hard now I would have to say that I would give the real performing honors to British actor Alan Rickman. His very clever take on the lead terrorist Hans Gruber, the main bad guy taking on Willis is a real treat.  Rickman gives a very smooth and witty performance, the film really comes alive when he shows up.  Bonnie Bedelia was cast as Willis's wife and she wasn't a conventional Hollywood beauty.  She actually looks like she could be a wife and mother.  

 

As a movie Die Hard is rather overlong coming in at 132 minutes.  Towards the middle of the film the action and the story kind of slow down with lots of unnecessary personal issues among the main characters.  The story also gets very silly with the appearance of two FBI agents with the same last name, Johnson. 

For the most part Die Hard is still entertaining. The director John McTiernan  was at the top of his game staging the various action sequences and the whole film has that kind of superior professionalism that  Hollywood could bring to a big studio production.

The was written by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza.