What arguments are made for the film being considered a Christmas one? I'm still don't totally sure. There's a few Christmas songs in there, and the characters mention the word Christmas about six or so times in the first twenty minutes (before the heist starts). But it seems to me that with that shaky reasoning, you might as well consider Goodfellas a Christmas movie. "Holly!" they shout. "His wife's name is Holly! Like the Christmas trees!" Not sure that would hold up in court.
If Christmas stories revolve around themes of love, family, generosity, and the spirit of giving, it's a bit of a stretch to say that the content of Die Hard relates to any of those. Christmas movies are to me about the redemptive and rebirth quality of the holiday season; at the very least, the protagonist learns some sort of lesson, one in which they are made better because of it. This is true of A Christmas Carol and How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story; it is also true of the newest Christmas classic: this year's wonderful film, The Holdovers. None of that exists in Die Hard. It is true that the first twenty minutes or so of the movie (again, before the actual heist starts) flirt with these notions. There is the estranged marriage of John McClane, a New York cop played by Willis, and his wife (Bonnie Bedelia); a quarrel between the two at a Christmas party held by her employer, Joseph Yoshinobu Takagi (James Shigeta), the head of Nakatomi, takes places just before the action starts.
Once the film really becomes the Die Hard we know and love—the jump from the building, the cat-and-mouse games, "yippie-ki-yay, mother fucker" and all that—it more or less stops tip-toeing its way to holiday themes. McClane kills one of the thieves and taunts the others with a cryptic message ("Now I have a machine gun—ho ho ho"), he uses Christmas tape to hide a gun on his body, and the film concludes with "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow" I'm still not totally sold on these scenes qualifying the movie as a holiday film.
Thanks to the debate over this, some concerns of Die Hard tend to be glossed over or forgotten, like the film being sort of peak-cop worship and its almost excessive violence, not to mention its arbitrary, gazy (yet brief) nudity. Lots of the film is praiseworthy, though, particularly the exceptional talent of McTiernan and his team for creating such a tense, fun action flick. And Willis is especially worthy of praise as McClane, the bare-footed, cigarette-chomping, muscular rogue cop molded like a cowboy who is also vulnerable and often on death's door but usually one step ahead of the bad guys. Willis' charm and energy on the screen is incredible, and it's impossible to envision any other actor in the role.
Could someone other than Willis have found their way into the film? It nearly came to be that way. It may come as a surprise to many (including me), but Die Hard is technically a sequel (in the way that The Silence of the Lambs is technically a sequel to Manhunter). Thorp had written a novel called The Detective in 1966, which was released as a motion picture two years later by 20th Century Fox with Frank Sinatra in the lead role as Joe Leland (the protagonist's name in both The Detective and Nothing Lasts Forever). The studio was contractually obligated to offer the role in its adaptation of Nothing Lasts Forever to Sinatra, who felt he was too old at the time. The role (eventually changed to John McClane) was then offered to just about every major Hollywood star at the time one would think of for a project like this: Clint Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone, Harrison Ford, Richard Gere, Mel Gibson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Al Pacino, and others. A major chance was then taken with the hiring of Bruce Willis, who at that point was known more as a comedic actor in television, and he had only been in six previous films.
The filmmakers found quite an equal for Willis to play the villain Hans Gruber: Alan Rickman, who made his film debut here after about a decade of theatrical work. I would guess that Ricman's German accent isn't the most accurate in the world, but what he delivers as Gruber has become renowned for being an exceptional movie villain. Hans Gruber is on virtually every list of the best movie villains of all time, including Collider's, Business Insider's, Empire's, the AFI's, Watch Mojo's, and USA Today's. "I'm going to count to three," he warns Mr. Takagi after he and his group of thieves have stormed the plaza and demanded the code for the vault. "There will not be a four." These are some cinema's most chilling threats. As John and Hans participate in this cat-and-mouse game in the skyscraper, they take turns with who has the advantage over the other. John rings the fire alarm, and the criminals override it. He calls the police, and the criminals impersonate security guards and convince the officer that everything is fine. The variety of thrills felt during these scenes (the loud ones and the quiet ones) are terrifically augmented by Michael Kamen's almost operatic score.
Willis and Rickman lead a mostly competent cast, with a whole host of characters showing up along the way: There's Reginald VelJohnson in a very VelJohnson role as Sergeant Al Powell (a role he would reprise in Die Hard 2), a beat cop assigned to investigate the disturbance at the plaza, only to get roped into the mess and be basically the only man McClane can trust; Paul Gleason in a very Gleason role as the argumentative LAPD deputy chief who tussles with Powell and often makes the mess messier; and Robert Davi in a very, very Davi role as one of the FBI agents ("the other one," he deadpans into the radio because both FBI agents are named Johnson). Other effective performances include William Atherton as a reprobate TV reporter and Alexander Godunov as Gruber's menacing second-in-command. Two performances that are noticeably obnoxious, however, are Clarence Gilyard as the tech specialist in Gruber's crew (who literally chews up the scenery) and Hart Bochner as a sleazy Nakatomi exec who thinks he can schmooze his way out of trouble with the bad guys. Both performances are distracting.
Released in July (which I guess is Christmas season to some people), the film performed better than expected, ultimately becoming the seventh-highest grossing film of 1988. Who could blame audiences for being attracted to such a motion picture? In a year dominated by comedies (Coming to America, Big, Twins), Die Hard was able to fill the vacuum of lackluster action flicks like Rambo III with Sylvester Stallone and Red Heat with Arnold Schwarzenegger (Willis' co-stars in The Expendables) with a funnier brand of action. The blend of action, comedy, and drama in the initial script and rewrite by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza, respectively, mesh such genres in a way that few films have been able to do since, despite all the copycats. Notable instances of such combination include McClane and Gruber (disguising himself as a hostage named Bill Clay) finally coming face to face and McClane jumping from the building with only a firehose strapped around him while slowly being dragged towards the ledge.
You know, in the course of writing this article, the more I think of it, the more I can tolerate it being considered a holiday film. The Nutcracker is an important tradition for many during the holiday season, and it too takes place during a Christmas party and features far fewer Christmas tropes than Die Hard does. If watching Die Hard during the Christmas season brings people happiness, then who am I to tell say they're wrong? One rationalization for considering it Christmas canon that does make sense to me (and one that is hardly ever mentioned) is the film's frequent use of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, particularly when the final (4th) movement ("Ode to Joy") is beautifully played as Hans (Alan Rickman) and the other thieves finally break into the vault. Fans may or may not know that in Japan, for example, this music is considered an important Christmas tradition. This is perfectly fitting, given the film's setting at the Nakatomi Plaza. Christmas movie or not, Die Hard has stood the test of time all these years later and has spawned four sequels (with some being better than others). At this point, I'm a little exhausted of the odd debate over its status as a Christmas movie. Call it a Christmas film if you want or don't. I just hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
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