Year of Release: 1988
Director: John McTiernan
Starring: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Alexander Godunov, Reginald VelJohnson, Paul Gleason, De'voreaux White, William Atherton, Hart Bochner, James Shigeta, Andreas Wisniewski, Clarence Gilyard Jr., Al Leong, Dennis Hayden
Genre: Action, Thriller
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 8
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Synopsis and Review
After the success of "Predator" director John McTiernan directed what has since become one of the most iconic films of the 80s. Based on the book by Roderick Thorp ("Nothing Lasts Forever" novel) and with a script by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza (this was the first credited script by Jeb Stuart, while de Souza had already to his credit films such as Walter Hill's "48 Hours", Mark L. Lester's "Commando" and Paul Michael Glaser's "The Running Man"), the narrative focuses on the story of John McLane who is traveling to LA to visit his wife Holly and his two kids. The family is divided, as Holly has taken a rewarding job opportunity in LA and John decided to stay with the police department in NY. John is dropped at the impressive Nakatomi plaza building, where his wife's company corporate Christmas party is taking place. While initially friendly, their get together soon becomes rife with friction. However before they can resolve their issues, a group of individuals, claiming to be terrorists take over the party and want to have access to the vault that exists within the main office. As the workers of the Organization, including Holly, John's wife are rounded out and ordered to stay put, John manages to escape to an area of the building that is unfinished, and slowly starts sabotaging the plans of the so-called terrorist group. However and the more John battles them out, the more he discovers they're not exactly who they claim to be. The police is soon also brought in to the situation, as John wanting to catch their attention attacks Al Powell, a mild mannered Sergeant doing nightly rounds.
The best features hailing from John McTiernan have always focused on central heroes who manage to overturn dire situations, even though they're typically sole survivors against forces that are invariably much more powerful than themselves (at least at first glance). His best features are also essentially polished and remarkably taut B-movies, where characters are briefly defined, all with the intent of letting the narrative comprised of action set pieces and exchanges between characters to occur, and propel what is being illustrated on the screen. And that is the case of "Die Hard", quite possibly one of McTiernan's best features, where John McLane the central character, is defined as a caring but rough NY detective, with a constant smirk and sense of humor about everything in his life, including the rough odds he finds himself in. What is also very intelligent about this film is the fact that it takes a scenario that is a bit reminiscent of a disaster film (danger in a Tower Building), and keeps adding different layers to it, additional challenges for the character to contend with, all with the sole intent of saving his wife and himself. The director is also very smart about creating a sense of claustrophobia to the action set pieces, by essentially making everything take place in a locked up environment (and this is something that many action films have since tried to replicate without this amount of charisma and success). The cast is uniformly great, with Bruce Willis bringing to life a character that became like a second skin for him during his entire career, with fantastic support from the iconic Alan Rickman as his ruthless nemesis, Bonnie Bedelia as his no-nonsense wife and Reginald VelJohnson as the lovable sergeant who is brought in to the nightmarish situation. The production team is equally solid, featuring the cinematography from Jan de Bont (who would turn into directing in just a few years), score by Michael Kamen and production design by Jackson De Govia. A modern classic always worth revisiting.
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