Die Hard ***** (1988, Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Alexander Godunov, Reginald VelJohnson, Paul Gleason, William Atherton, Hart Bochner, James Shigeta) – Classic Movie Review 281

The monster 1988 blockbuster hit Die Hard is sometimes named as the greatest action thriller of all time. Based on Roderick Thorp’s novel Nothing Lasts Forever, it finely balances funny laconic humour with thrilling wholesale death and destruction, and delivers it all with the utmost style and excitement.

An amazingly fit and fine Bruce Willis (then only 33, and still with much of his own hair!) eagerly grabs his role of a lifetime as John McClane, a fearless New York City police detective. With only an increasingly dirty vest and no shoes to his name, he single-handedly takes on the ruthless gang of a dirty dozen terrorist thieves who are besieging a Los Angeles skyscraper, the Nakatomi Plaza that he just happens to be visiting at Christmas-time. Its seasonal setting includes it in the top ten Christmas crackers movie list.

Inspired director John McTiernan keeps up a stonking pace and a thrilling, relentless momentum for more than two hours, deploying a marvellous arsenal of big hardware, elaborate, thrilling stunts and convincing, Oscar-nominated special effects (by Richard Edlund).

A highly impressive and commanding Alan Rickman is a memorably frightening villain as German terrorist Hans Gruber, enjoying himself hugely in a deadly game of predator and prey with Willis. These were the days when the Brits were always being hired to play the villains in American movies. Good for the actors, not so good for the UK image and morale maybe.

Bonnie Bedelia tries to spice up an ungrateful role as Willis’s estranged wife Holly Gennaro McClane, who is also caught up in the fray when the terrorists take hostages. It is Willis’s mission, of course, to try to save her as he brings down the terrorists.

Among an exuberant, quirky cast, Alexander Godunov is entertainingly way over the top as Rickman’s evil chief henchman Karl, and Reginald VelJohnson adds a warm human touch as Sergeant Al Powell, the car-patrol cop on the ground who keeps Willis grounded. Other key members of the cast are Paul Gleason, William Atherton, Hart Bochner, James Shigeta, De’voreaux White, Lorenzo Caccialanza, Robert Davi, Rick Ducommun and Rebecca Broussard.

With some truly scary moments interspersing the high tension throughout, it was a well-deserved mega-hit for action fans. As the villains are all supposed to be German, and Beethoven’s Song of Joy is playing merrily along the soundtrack, alas there is a hint of racism, but then, hey, Willis was born to a German mother in Idar-Oberstein, West Germany.

Die Hard is directed by John McTiernan, runs 132 minutes, is made by Twentieth Century Fox, Gordon Company and Silver Pictures, released by 20th Century Fox, is written by Jeb Stuart and Steven E De Souza, based on Roderick Thorp’s novel Nothing Lasts Forever, shot by Jan De Bont, produced by Lawrence Gordon and Joel Silver, scored by Michael Kamen, and designed by Jackson DeGovia, with special effects by Richard Edlund.

The censored TV version is edited for its strong language but not for its 18-certificate violence!

In July 2007, Willis donated his dirty vest to the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution. McClane’s line ‘Yippie-ki-yay’ is one of the AFI’s top 100 movie quotes.

Four sequels so far: Die Hard 2 (1990), Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), Live Free or Die Hard (2007) and A Good Day to Die Hard (2013).

Alan Rickman, famous for his roles in the Harry Potter films as Professor Snape, starting with Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, and Love Actually, died on 14 January 2016 at the age of 69. He shot to stardom in 1988 as Hans Gruber in Die Hard and won BAFTA, Golden Globe, Emmy and Screen Actors Guild awards in a glittering career that began in the late 1970s.

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 281

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