Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? Director John McTiernan has thoughts

Die Hard, the 1988 action flick starring Bruce Willis, isn’t about Santa Claus or the elves, but it still appears on many lists of the best Christmas movies. Of course, the movie is set over Christmas – and you can even buy unofficial goods shirts and masks touting the 1988 Nakatomi Plaza Christmas party. But is it really a Christmas movie? The director of the film, John McTiernan, gave an interview to the American Film Institute about what he and producer Joel Silver had in mind, and got attached, as McTiernan has a complex thought process on it all.

McTiernan’s interview is difficult to summarize. He discusses everything from fast food to how art helped bring down the King of France to his strong feelings over the past four years of American politics. But his thoughts on Die Hard reveal that the film has changed focus from its original screenplay.

To begin with, “Die Hard was a terrorist movie, and it was about these horrible left-wing terrorists entering … the Valhalla of capitalism,” McTiernan said. “And it was really about the stern face of authority stepping in to put things back in order.”

But McTiernan didn’t want to make this movie, he told Silver. It took inspiration from the classic 1946 Christmas movie It’s a Wonderful Life, specifically the scene in which hero George Bailey discovers his hometown of Bedford Falls has become the sleazy Pottersville. He wanted, he said, “a movie where the hero was a real human being, and people in authority – all important people – were portrayed as a little bit stupid.”

Changing that lens made all the difference, McTiernan said, giving him the sly feeling that the filmmakers were getting away with something.

“We didn’t want it to be a Christmas movie, but the joy that came from it is what turned it into a Christmas movie,” he said.

And he goes on to make a connection between the terrorists in the film and current events in the United States.

“My hope at Christmas this year is that you will all remember the bosses are low status and angry men who went to the rich and said, ‘If you give us the power, we will make sure that no one take your things. told me. “All those things that you power up [are] intended to scare us, to silence us so as not to put them on the side of the road and (let) the decent people of the world continue to build a future. Merry Christmas and I hope we have a better year. “