Die Hard (Special Edition) (DVD)

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Die Hard is one of the most successful action movies of all time. It combines all the essential elements required in a good film - a great story, a hero, a "damsel in distress", great sound effect and big explosions !!
Many action films have learnt from this movie, with varying degrees of success.
The soundtrack is excellent, and fits in really well with the film. Of course, as the movie is set on ...
...what has become the unofficial Die Hard theme, "Let It Snow". Despite this, this is not essentially a Christmassy movie - you really can watch it at any time of the year and just enjoy all the action. Of course, viewing it at Christmas gives it that little bit extra !

Cast :

Casting the virtually unknown Bruce Willis as Lt. John McClane was a stroke of casting genius ! Bruce takes the role and blends it with ... more

Prior to 1987, very few people had heard of an actor called "Bruce Willis". Apart from a couple of uncredited film appearances, he was best known for his role as David Addison in the cult television detective series "Moonlighting" alongside Cybil Shepherd.
In 1987, he was cast as workaholic Walter Davis in the mediocre romantic comedy "Blind Date".

However, in 1988, Bruce was offered the role of "John McClane" - a New York Cop, based upon the book "Nothing Lasts Forever" by Roderick Thorp.
The adapted screenplay was originally written as a sequel to the movie "Commando", and Arnold Schwarzenegger had been offered the leading role, but rejected it.
Offering the role to Willis was a tough decision - after Schwarzenegger had rejected the role, the casting director then went on to offer it to Sylvester Stallone, Burt Reynolds and Richard Gere - all of whom also turned down the role.

As the movie opens, we see New York Cop John McClane flying to L.A. to spend Christmas with his wife and family. McClane travels directly from the airport to the Nakatomi Plaza - a forty-story office block, which is where his wife, Holly, is now working, following a promotion that involved the move to L.A.
Coincidentally, the Nakatomi Plaza is also the focus for a group of European "terrorists", headed by Hans Gruber (played by Alan Rickman), who intend on stealing $640,000,000 in negotiable bearer bonds from the buildings vaults.

The action begins very early into the film, when Hans Gruber, and his group, gatecrash the office Christmas Party. Fortunately for the guests of this party, John McClane is already in the building, and prepares to tackle the threat in the only way he knows how... with force !

As McClane takes out the terrorists one by one, the tension grows as Hans Gruber becomes more and more frustrated. You know that this film is building to a tremendous climax, and it doesn't disappoint in this area.

Die Hard is one of the most successful action movies of all time. It combines all the essential elements required in a good film - a great story, a hero, a "damsel in distress", great sound effect and big explosions !!
Many action films have learnt from this movie, with varying degrees of success.
The soundtrack is excellent, and fits in really well with the film. Of course, as the movie is set on Christmas Eve, there is a lot of Christmas music in there - climaxed by what has become the unofficial Die Hard theme, "Let It Snow". Despite this, this is not essentially a Christmassy movie - you really can watch it at any time of the year and just enjoy all the action. Of course, viewing it at Christmas gives it that little bit extra !

Cast :

Casting the virtually unknown Bruce Willis as Lt. John McClane was a stroke of casting genius ! Bruce takes the role and blends it with his unique style, as fans of the television series Moonlighting will recognize. His dry humor mixed with quick one liners really suits the character, as does the "down on his luck" look that is almost a trademark characteristic of John McClane throughout the Die Hard series.
Bruce Willis doesn't just compete with other "Action Hero" stars such as Swarzenegger and Stallone - he came onto the scene with gloves off and ready for all out war ! He has the fairly unique position in the genre to actually get hurt - both mentally and physically. The scene where he is pulling shards of glass out from the soles of his feet is genuinely stomach churning, and the dialogue in that scene is actually all improvised yet could have been written by the most gifted scriptwriter.

Alan Rickman plays "Hans Gruber", the mastermind behind the heist. English actors are commonly typecast as the "baddies" in action and adventure movies - so it was perhaps a clever move to cast an Englishman in the role as a German. Incidentally, when the movie was released in Germany, the terrorists were described as "Europeans", and Hans Gruber became Jack Gruber !
Rickman is the perfect baddie ! In this movie, we see him play both the evil mastermind, Hans Gruber, but also the panicky nice guy when he first meets McClane.

Another excellent performance comes from Reginald VelJohnson, who portrays Sgt Al Powell - (usually referred to as "Al" in the movie). He plays the typical cop who has had an experience in the past that makes him scared of guns. He becomes McClane's buddy on the outside, and often defends him and his actions.
Al also provides some comedy relief, for example when we first meet Al, he is buying loads of "Twinkies". The store assistant says "I thought you guys only ate donughts", to which Al replies... "They're for the wife".

More comic relief in the movie comes from Special Agent Johnson and Agent Johnson of the F.B.I. (no relation !), played by Robert Davi and Grand L. Bush. They have several great lines that lighten the tension, but do not detract from it.

William Atherton plays slimy news reported Richard Thornburg - often aptly referred to as "Dick" ! He's the type of reporter who will do anything for a story - no matter who gets hurt in the process.

There are many other notable performances, but every other member of the cast plays their roles perfectly, and to the best of their abilities.

The Director, John McTiernan also deserves a well earnt mention. Prior to Die Hard, McTiernan had previously worked on the movie "Predator", although this was only his second major movie. His vision and adaptation of the movie from storyboards to celluloid is what really made this movie the success that it was.

Special Features :

The Special Edition 2-disk of Die Hard comes crammed packed with special features.
One Disk 1, as well as having the digitally remastered version of the film (which really does improve the sound and visual quality !), you also have several commentaries from the Director, the Production Manager, and the cast and crew. This is done in either a spoken commentary over the original soundtrack or, in the case of the cast & crew commentary, in the form of text boxes.
There is also an option to view the entire movie with the addition of a deleted scene, called "Turning Off The Power".

Disk 2 is where the bulk of the special features are located. To start with, there is the "Cutting Room Floor". This unique little feature enables you to choose scene footage from different angles, which you can arrange to recreate the scene in a number of ways. Whilst the options are somewhat limited, it's a great idea and gives you an insight into what goes into editing a movie.
On similar tracks, there is also an "Audio Mixing" utility, in which you can view scenes, and change the dialogue, music and sound effects.
Next up is a featurette explaining why the "letterbox" ratio was used when converting the movie to video format. In brief, it clearly demonstrates the differences between the letterbox format and full screen by talking you through a scene in both formats. It's short... but interesting !
Then there is a short feature which allows you to view scenes and shots from different camera angles.
An essential part of any "Special Features" section on DVD's is the outtakes and deleted scenes section.
You can also view the entire deleted scene which has been inserted into the branched version on disk 1.
Throughout the movie, there are numerous news broadcasts. These can be viewed in full on the special features, along with alternative versions and some errors that were made during shooting.
A major part to the success of "Die Hard" is down to the publicity. The production took a huge gamble in casting Bruce Willis in the leading role, and paying him an unheard of (in 1988) $5,000,000 ! They had to ensure that this risk was minimized by pulling in the audience, through a large scale publicity campaign. This is covered in two features - a featurette detailing the publicity campaign, and a section looking at how major magazines covered Die Hard.
Another part of the campaign was, of course, the trailers. These are the short clips and adverts shown in cinemas and on television, where the film makers have between thirty and sixty seconds to catch the viewer’s attention. There are three trailers on this DVD, and it's interesting viewing them to see the slight changes made in each version.
There is also a still picture slideshow, consisting of many photos from the movie. I find these slightly pointless, as if you really wanted to look at stills, you can use the "Pause" button on your DVD player, and they you have tens of thousands of possibilities !
Finally, you have the entire script to view ! This is a very lengthy section, but very interesting. You can see how the original script it translated from paper to the big screen.
This sums up the "Special Features" disk, but what else could you really want ?!? Everything that a die-hard movie fan (excuse the pun !). The only thing that I would have wanted would have been an audio commentary by the man himself... Bruce Willis. This is quite a big exclusion, and there is no explanation for it. As John McClane himself might say, "Just a fly in the ointment, Hans. The monkey in the wrench. The pain in the ass." It's a shame, but does not detract from the value of this DVD.

You might be wondering why I'm reviewing this movie - after all, it is now nearly sixteen years old ! However, this film hasn't aged at all. Apart from Bruce Willis having more hair back then, it could have been made in the past couple of years and have been just as successful. Also, as one of my favorite films of all time (currently ranked at number three !), I feel as though I need to add this film review to my list of reviews written. It has the essential element of being an excellent film - one you can watch over and over again, and still enjoy it just as much as the first time that you saw it !
It goes without saying that I would urge any fans of Die Hard to go out and buy this DVD - even if you have the original DVD release.
The picture and sound quality is amazing, the story is one of the most action packed films ever and the features really do add to your interest and appreciation of the movie.
The Special Edition is available in the two disk "Die Hard" version, or as part of a four disk version which also includes the sequel, "Die Hard 2 - Die Harder".

The DVD is certificate 18, with a main feature running time of 126 minutes.
 

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