Die Hard DVD > Reviews > Could this be the best action film ever

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Outstanding
Soundtrack	Good

Advantages:	Genre - defining, palm - sweating, nerve - shredding, heart - pounding etc .  .  . etc .
Disadvantages:	Nothing

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Be honest, if you're reading this review, chances are you're not trying to decide whether or not to watch this film but are merely reading it to confirm how good you already think it is? Because if you're one of the 7 people in the universe who haven't seen Die Hard then you're highly unlikely to be a member of Ciao!

And you're right, Die Hard is an exceptional piece of film-making in every sense of the word. The other reviews on Ciao (and elsewhere) speak for themselves - Recommended by 100% of authors and if you care to check, I think you'll find that every single opinion on this site gives it the full 5 stars. (Please correct me if I'm wrong on that).
So why add another? Surely there's been enough said already? Well...no. You see a great many people rate Die Hard as one of, if not THE greatest action movie ever. I dare to take it one step further and say that Die Hard could well be the greatest FILM ever. Period.

Now that's a strong statement, and I fully expect to be bombarded with reasons as to why it isn't so, but let me explain. Die Hard succeeds brilliantly in everything that it was designed to do and that, above all else is being an Action-Thriller, with heavy emphasis on both the Action and the Thriller aspects of it's tag.
If it's done right, why shouldn't an action film be judged on the same level as, say a romantic comedy or a historical drama?

Although it's success can be put down to any number of factors, credit here simply has to be given to director John McTiernan. Having flexed his action muscles on the Schwarzenegger blood and bullet fest Predator, McTiernan had previously attracted the attention of producer Joel Silver with his first full-length feature as writer and director - "Nomads", (well worth checking out if you can find a copy) a little known, low-budget supernatural chiller starring Pierce Brosnan, with whom he recently re-united to make The Thomas Crown Affair.

Here McT' (as he's become known) completely redefined the concept of the cop-thriller and set a new standard which subsequent action pictures could only aspire to achieve. How many times since have you heard a film being described as "Die Hard on a ...something or other"? No-one ever said that Die Hard was "Lethal Weapon in a skyscraper" did they?

You all know the story - New York cop John McClane arrives in Los Angeles for his wife's office Christmas party, situated in the plush, 40 storey tower block of the Nakatomi Corporation. (In reality the headquarters of 20th Century Fox - the studio releasing the film). The party however is soon interrupted by the arrival of twelve terrorists intent on stealing the contents of the Corporations vault, a not insubstantial $640 million in negotiable bonds, and it's up to our hero to sneak off into the unused floors and thwart the plans of the group. Granted, that basic outline may sound a bit familiar but that is only because it has been ripped off and copied that many times in the last 12 years that the "siege movie" has now become a sub-genre in it's own right. But never forget that Die Hard was the original and is still the best.

Ditching the typical musclebound, indestructable hero that dominated this kind of film throughout the Eighties, McT instead presents us with a "normal" guy who doesn't really want to be in this awkward situation and certainly has no real interest in saving the day. Step in Bruce Willis, who had previously only worked on a couple of Blake Edwards' comedies (Sunset and Blind Date) and the TV series Moonlighting. The idea of casting Willis as an action hero was initially met with disapproval and even scorned upon. Indeed the original theatrical trailer was greeted with jeers and whoops of laughter, it wasn't until the film actually opened that the nay-sayers were silenced, for Willis not only coped superbly with the physical demands of the shoot but it also became clear that the "balding one" could actually act as well.

Under the watchful eye of McTiernan, the rest of the cast also put in sterling performances - Bonnie Bedelia as McClane's wife is given more to do than simply scream at the right moments, Reginald Veljohnson as Al Powell, McClanes only contact to the outside world, has some nice scenes too, as does Robert Davi as FBI agent Johnson and William Atherton as news reporter Dick Thornberg.
No review of Die Hard though would be complete without mentioning the wonderful Alan Rickman as the super-suave Euro villain Hans Gruber. Almost stealing the show from right under Willis' nose, Rickman's maniacal, dry-witted performance has to earn Hans Gruber the title of cinemas greatest ever bad guy (with the possible exception of Hannibal Lecter).

But wait, there's more. The screenplay by Jeb Stuart and Steven de Souza and based on the novel "Nothing Lasts Forever" by Roderick Thorp, does at least try to be credible. Yes, if this was totally realistic then McClane would have been rounded up and dealt with in the first 20 minutes, but the events that occur in the movie are written and filmed with a certain degree of believability that doesn't detract from the scale and escapism of it all. This is helped all the more by McClanes character, he is not a one-man army with the sole intention of killing all the bad guys and saving all the good guys, this is one man's increasingly desperate struggle for survival, and as such the audience becomes equally desperate to see him survive.

We also have great camera work and lighting - stylish but not overly so - by Dutch director of photography Jan De Bont, who has since graduated to directing and went on to helm Speed in 1994. Although after Speed 2 and The Haunting many people (myself included) think that De Bont should return to cinematography and never be allowed to direct another film again!

Michael Kamen's score is another example of consummate professionalism, adding to but never overpowering the atmosphere of the film. Despite the fact that a recognisable theme tune is never used, Die Hard's music is unmistakeable and it captures the mood of each scene perfectly.

All of the above is in addition to the ingredients that would traditionally make an action-adventure film worth watching, i.e Intense, visceral set-pieces, death-defying stunts, genuine white-knuckle suspense, huge explosions and just the right amount of humour. Unlike other films of this nature, the excitement doesn't come in sudden outbursts like it does in the Lethal Weapon movies or The Rock. No, Die Hard creeps up on you, slowly at first, menacing -like a gathering storm, quickening the pace and piling on the tension. This build up is sustained throughout the 2hr+ running time and as the action gets bigger and the situation becomes more out of control, the viewer is helplessly drawn along. Resistance is futile, to coin a phrase.

Despite all of this though, some people have found something bad to say about Die Hard (philistines!). It has been accused of being a bit too long, of having too many secondary characters and of overdoing the melodrama a touch but none of this holds any water for me. Everybody has "their" film which will always be number 1 and you've just read about mine.
I have fond memories of my first viewing of Die Hard all those years ago. It was a Saturday Midnight showing at my home town's brand new multiplex and I sat, a nervous 15 year old, on the edge of my seat waiting for the lights to go down (being underage only added to the excitement!). When I emerged I was a different person, I was now a movie-anorak and I spent the whole night lying awake literally buzzing with the excitement of what I had just seen. It is safe to say that I am here now, writing film reviews in my spare time because of that very night.

The greatest film ever made?

Absolutely.