Sam Hallanger ’18, Student Life/Sports Editor
Die Hard, the Christmas-spirit-filled and bullet-riddled holiday classic has been put on the chopping block regarding its place during the holidays. It has long been debated whether the Bruce Willis starring movie is truly a Christmas movie or just another action thriller. It’s about time that people begin to realize that Die Hard is, without a doubt, a Christmas movie, for families to watch together just as much as the nostalgic obvious choice of A Christmas Story.
The movie is set during Christmas Eve and has cheesy Christmas sayings during the whole duration of the film. The core of the story is about a man trying to get home to see his family during Christmas. When asked whether or not Die hard is a Christmas movie, senior Sam Sitar said, “Yes, it is because it during Christmas time”. Every holiday film is about family and coming together for the most part. Bruce Willis, portraying John McClane, the bad-to-the-bone cop encounters a dead guy in a Santa hat. John McClane writes on the dead guy’s body whom also is wearing a Santa hat “I have a machine gun. Ho ho ho”, which is another indicator that Die Hard is a Christmas or holiday time movie.
John McClane, the hero of the movie, has situations that connect him to Santa in the movie that are quite obvious to viewers. He attempts to crawl through an air vent to bring pain to the villain Hans Gruber, which can be seen as a symbol of Santa going down the chimney to bring presents to children. The story has a good, warm family reunion feeling in the end when McClane finally gets to see his family and spends Christmas with them. Other than the hardcore fight scenes full of guns blazing terrorists and dead bad guys slain by hero cop McClane, the movie represents Christmas as a whole with its core family values and Christmas setting. Hans Gruber, the main villain, is the perfect Grinch as he steals Christmas away from many by ruining their party, but he can’t get away with truly and permanently stealing their Christmas spirit.
According to a poll conducted by Public Policy Polling, “Die Hard is an action movie at its very core, and has no place in even being mentioned a Christmas movie to many Americans.” The firm found that 62 percent of registered voters found that Die Hard is not a Christmas movie, these people have clearly not paid enough attention to the story and its theme. That is a big factor when considering how many Americans will be watching the movie around holiday time. Senior Brett Wilson said, “No, it doesn’t seem like a Christmas movie” when he was asked if Die Hard was a Christmas movie. The original release date was July 15th 1988, a whole five months prior to the Christmas season, so there is no room to say it was made for the holidays is an argument filled with holes. It does not take in the factor of the actual time setting the movie takes place in. The people who say it isn’t a Christmas movie only see the movies action scenes and not its wholesome family and holiday values.
Either by a cozy fireplace with that special someone or wrapped up in a blanket with family, Die Hard starring Bruce Willis will get your blood pumping with some holiday action and cheer like bullet riddled dead guys wearing santa hats. It has all of the spirit that Christmas entails like family togetherness and delivers it to every household that watches this holiday classic. I hope all who read this a merry Christmas that is filled with the cheesy Christmas lines, spirit of family, but not the intense volley of gunfire that Die Hard has to offer
Lyon Life 