As the Festive season approaches many share their favourite Christmas films, we are no exception but one that seems to cause more controversy than most is Die Hard
Many class this film as a Christmas movie but many say that it’s not, we questioned a while ago what makes it non-festive when we saw another film which is clearly set around the period so we agree slightly with the controversy!
Yet what it is that makes a Christmas film then? Home Alone is always considered one, yet take away the holiday season setting and it is about forgetful parents!
Some are clearly Christmas movies, the likes of Arthur Christmas; Elf; The Muppets Christmas Carol all feature items that we associate with Christmas, turkey, gift giving and for most of those Santa!
Others are more about the family coming together or love finding way etc, Love Actually probably being the most notable.
But for us Die Hard is definitely a Christmas movie, for starters its set on Christmas Eve; John McClane (Bruce Willis) is meeting his wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) at an Office Christmas Party, decorations are up in the Nakotomi Plaza.
It doesn’t stop there, the soundtrack features festive songs from Run DMC ‘Christmas in Hollis’ during John’s Limo ride with Argyle (De’voreaux White) and even ends with the classic Let it Snow.
We also see a Santa hat on McClane’s first victim (Andreas Wisniewski); A Santa in Holly’s office and that final showdown with Alan Rickman‘s epic performance as Hans Gruber even features festive wrapping tape!
We also get festive dialogue, Theo (Clarence Gilyard jr) when the terrorists take out the SWAT team gives their location whilst telling the story, Twas the night before Christmas; Argyle states that if this is John’s idea of Christmas, he wants to see their New Year’s and of course the famous quote written by John on a dead terrorist’s shirt, wearing the Santa hat ‘Now I have a Machine Gun Ho-Ho-Ho’
For us it’s a solid case, Die Hard is definitely a Christmas Film so we disagree with a recent YouGov pol that said it wasn’t.
Now the only reason we would argue that it is not a Christmas film is within the context of when to watch it, which we may have contradicted ourselves with!
Films like The Grinch or Muppets Christmas Carol, we do tend to watch only during the festive period, but quite frankly for us Die Hard remains one of the greatest 5 Star action films of all time and we could watch it any time of the year!
As always, the answer to the question to ‘Is Die Hard a Christmas film’ is your choice alone and we have no problem if you disagree with us.
Now is Die Hard 2 a Christmas film? =)
You can watch the Die Hard trailer here:
You can buy or watch Die Hard at Amazon here:
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