- Die Hard belongs to that rare breed of macho action movie that mixes equal parts violence and whimsy. It's a tough balance to strike, and I can only think of two directors who have reliably crafted such films: Paul Verhoeven and the director of this film, John McTiernan. On the surface, the plot of Die Hard sounds like it could belong to a rather serious film. Basically, a bunch of robbers-turned-terrorists take control of an office building, and a vigilante cop must stop them. Of course, one could also describe the plot of a Wile E. Coyote cartoon but, in doing so, would miss the point entirely.
- Consider an early scene in which the hero, off-duty police officer John McClane (Bruce Willis), battles a badguy and, perhaps needless to say, kills him. Most movies would stop there, but Die Hard takes things just a bit further. McClane proceeds to prop up the corpse and to dress it in a Santa hat, delivering a rather unique Christmas greeting to the villainous Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and his band of evil henchmen. This sort of behavior would probably be grounds for expulsion from any real police force, but in this film it's just McClane striving to be "a fly in the ointment, the monkey in the wrench, the pain in the ass." In a later scene, McClane tries to ward off a police SWAT team by setting off an explosion powerful enough to knock out the building's lower floors ("it's gonna need a paint job and a shitload of screen doors"). Recklessness and one-liners are the twin ingredients for success in this film.
- Incredibly, the rest of Die Hard is peppered with characters nearly as cartoonish and memorable as McClane himself. The always excellent Alan Rickman plays Hans Gruber as the oiliest criminal mastermind imaginable in charge of the most formidable crew of thieves ever assembled. Standing up to them are Sergeant Al Powell (Reginald Vel Johnson), the most honest and stereotypically rotund cop in the world, and Dwayne T. Robinson (Paul Gleason), the most comically dense deputy police chief in the world. Even the minor players are extremes of caricature. Harry Ellis (Hart Bochner) is the most obnoxious cokehead businessman, Richard Thornburg (William Atherton) the most obnoxious reporter, and the two Johnsons (Robert Davi and Grand L. Bush) the most obnoxious FBI guys. The only normal person in the film is McClane's wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia), although she is quickly reduced from an independent career woman to a mere object of rescue. Still, the fact that she has more than one line probably makes her the most fully realized female character in any McTiernan film.
- Ultimately, Die Hard has to be regarded as one of the best and most enjoyable action films ever made. It is difficult to imagine a more grandiose set of special effects explosions than those of this film, even if the reasons for the explosions are uniformly ludicrous. More impressive, though, is the fact that the film never stops being witty. Whereas the average steroid fantasy picture is only original in finding new ways to kill people, Die Hard also finds new ways to make its characters funny, and that is a real accomplishment. Maybe the film's makers knew they were making a magnum opus when they selected Beethoven's Ninth as the centerpiece of the film's score, but I think the rest of us were surprised at the arrival of this particular Christmas miracle.
- I missed a couple of actors, like Al Leong and Clarence Gilyard Jr.
- This was Alan Rickman's first film.
- There are lots of references to cowboys and cowboy movies, including High Noon.
