Die Hard (1988)

Directed by: John McTiernan | 131 minutes | action, crime, thriller | Actors: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson, Alexander Godunov, Paul Gleason, William Atherton, Hart Bochner, Dennis Hayden, Clarence Gilyard Jr., Bruno Doyon, Robert Davi

It is 1988 and director John McTierman surprises friend and foe with the film ‘Die Hard’. A true blockbuster was born and many action films would imitate the structure of this masterpiece – not to mention ‘Die Harder’, ‘Die Hard with a Vengeance’ and ‘Die Hard 4′.

The role of action hero and protagonist John McClane is fulfilled by Bruce Willis, who made his definitive breakthrough in Hollywood. Brilliant as Willis is as the cop who dislikes authorities and suddenly finds himself in the middle of a hostage drama, Willis wasn’t the first choice. Not even the second; he got the part only after Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Burt Reynolds and Richard Gere fitted. Nevertheless, he seems quite out of place and this ranks as one of his best acting performances of all time. Still, he can’t resist being outplayed at times by hostage taker and enemy Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman). Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber keeps getting mentioned in every top-so much about the best (read: worst) Movie Villains for a reason. Hans Gruber belongs to a completely different caliber than the bad guys until then. He is not only downright evil, but also super intelligent; he knows how to constantly surprise McClane by being just one step ahead of him and is not easy to catch. Bonnie Bedelia as Holly Genero McClane as a hostage, almost ex-wife of McClane, knows how to keep herself standing between her male opponents. She is also not a stereotypical woman who needs to be rescued, but knows how to bite the bullet. All these performances added together means that ‘Die Hard’ does not consist of the standard action roles and that makes the film just that little bit better than many of its predecessors and followers.

Some fun facts about making ‘Die Hard’; Rickman has a habit of blinking uncontrollably when firing a weapon. Because of this, McTierman saw no option but to cut precisely into the film after shots took place. However, you can still see Rickman blink when he shoots Takagi. Also in the fall scene Rickman was released by the stuntman on the second instead of the third beat, to get the most believable overwhelmed reaction possible. Furthermore, many choices for certain scenes and dialogues have been changed or invented on the spot. So is the meeting scene between Hans Gruber and John McClane. This was conceived after the director found out that Rickman was a star at imitating the American accent. To give the scene even more spontaneity, it had not been practiced beforehand. In addition to good actors, an exciting story and entertaining action scenes, ‘Die Hard’ is also full of sharp dialogues and memorable one-liners. In short, ‘Die Hard’ still ranks among the top in action films decades later. “Yippee-ki-yay.”