Posted on 07/12/2018 7:12:04 AM PDT by Bigtigermike
All of this is mundane stuff. It’s also a prime example of why Die Hard remains the greatest American action movie since it was released 30 years ago this week.
Consider everything that the director, John McTiernan, and his screenwriters, Jeb Stuart and Steven E de Souza, set up in this brief little scene. Though Bruce Willis plays McClane as the modern American cowboy, Roy Rogers with an attitude, the film-makers choose to emphasize his vulnerability first. His fear of flying gets us primed for the bumps and bruises he will sustain all night long, when a phalanx of terrorists take over a Christmas party at Nakatomi Plaza.
McClane’s most important quality isn’t his toughness, but his flesh-and-blood humanity, which is what most of the film’s sequels get wrong. The advice he gets from his seatmate gives him a reason to be barefoot during the entire ordeal, including a sequence where henchmen deliberately shoot out the glass to shred his flat soles. The gun establishes him as one of New York’s finest, and the ring suggests a commitment to his marriage that his wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia), we soon learn, doesn’t share.
(Excerpt) Read more at amp.theguardian.com ...
I’m assuming you’ve seen Rome the miniseries
Those two are the main protagonists
Kindle has it. Good read!
I liked Die Hard II also. I liked all 3 of those films.
Bruce’s character is greatness.
He is sooo pissed that he has to be the hero. He doesn’t want to be the hero. He wants to be at home, having a beer, but all these a-holes keep on forcing him to be the Hero.
The best thing about Die Hard is that it has become a Christmas tradition. I can’t believe it’s 30 years old.
He also stole Harry Potter.
Me, too. Loved the "Hostage Terrorist/Terrorist Hostage: A Study in Duality" giveaway line for getting 20/20...
I refuse to see the new knock off.
Everything in that quote is Die Hard, not Die Hard 2. Die Hard took place at Nakatomi Plaza on Christmas Eve. McClane's fear of flying is noted at the very beginning of the film. Die Hard 2 was the airport in DC, where McClane took on Colonel Stuart and his cronies.
Same here, she was quite lovely in Salem’s Lot.
I miss Alan Rickman. He was an excellent actor.
One of the best miniseries ever made.
IIRC Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus are actually mentioned once by name by Julius Caesar in his Conquest Of Gaul, which inspired the writers to base the series from their point of view.
Also Galaxy Quest.
They use it as the setting for Spencer Tower on “The Bold and the Beautiful” soap.
How on earth did Channing Tatum ever become a movie star ? He’s got the charisma of a moist towelette.
When I looked it up, I found that it has been used in four motion picture or TV settings.
Die Hard is not my favorite movie of all time, but it is probably my favorite movie-going experience. I was in a bad mood and a couple of friends persuaded me to go. I went in thinking it would stink and didn’t expect “that guy from Moonlighting” to be able to pull off an action hero role. It blew away my expectations, and I saw it in a theater that was rocking — never heard such cheering before or since in a movie.
Yes, absolutely. I understand there was supposed to be a sequel to Galaxy Quest, until Rickman passed.
I kept trying to hit “like” on your post two or three times until I realized that I had forgotten which platform I’m on and that’s not an option.
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