Hero Monitor
  • Reviews
    • Movie/TV Reviews
    • Book Reviews
  • Hero Mythology
  • For Teachers
  • About
  • Contact

Die Hard: a Christmas Commentary

12/24/2016

Comments

 

By Travis Trombley

Picture
Photo via Entertainment Weekly
Let’s start with a little audience participation. Raise your hand if you watch Die Hard at least once a year? Keep that hand raised if at least one of those viewing traditionally occurs around this time of year, along with other seasonal classics like Scrooged and National Lampoon's: Christmas Vacation?

Now put your hand down - you look ridiculous.

If you’re like me, then every holiday season you have to justify Die Hard’s categorization as a Christmas movie. That the film takes place on Christmas Eve or that John McClane’s wife is named Holly doesn’t seem enough to convince the doubters. And, let’s be real, a coincidence of timing alone does not a Christmas movie make.

Fortunately for us believers, among the many cultural and genre critiques housed within this action film classic rests a subtle commentary on Christmas consumerism that can, once and for all, allow us to claim with certainty this proud holiday tradition. It’s a commentary embodied by the film’s chief antagonist, the delightfully swarmy Hans Gruber, played by the late Alan Rickman, aka Severus Snape.

To quickly recap, Hans and his band of German terrorists commandeer an office Christmas party at the Takegami cooperation under the auspices of teaching them “a lesson in the real use of power” as a consequence for their “legacy of greed around the globe.” In his introduction to his hostages and us, Hans presents himself as a radical - an international terrorists operating in the name of an ideology.

But of course, this is just a front. As Holly later points out, despite all his posturing and speeches, he’s nothing more than a “common thief” chasing a big score. The only offense Hans takes at this indictment is the word common: “I’m an exceptional thief,” he says. Hans adopts the extremist mask as a ruse to later fool the FBI. To buy time and sew confusion, he demands that certain “revolutionary brothers and sisters” from various extremist groups from around the world “be released from their captors.”
Picture
His rhetoric appears convincing, but Hans has no affiliation with the people he mentions. His duplicity is made clear when his colleague questions the identity of one of the groups listed, and Hans quietly responds, “I read about them in Time.” Unlike Gary Oldman’s similar take on the swarmy, extremist villain in Air Force One, Hans uses the terrorism schtick as a means to money. His goal is simple: to “sit on a beach earning 20%.”

In this deceit rests Die Hard’s Christmas commentary. One could read it as an indictment of the consumeristic culture that defines, for many, the holiday season. Beneath the altruistic wrapping paper is a gift materialistic in nature.

One could argue that, despite the pomp of charity, our consumerist culture has twisted the entire month of December into a frenzied celebration of “stuff.” Specifically, the giving and receiving of “stuff.” Or more specifically than that, the giving of stuff to merit the reception of stuff desired.

Few would be able to deny the hedonistic calculus that can go into Christmas shopping: “How much can I spend on each person with the hope of getting a return on that investment?” Or how about the feeling of disappointment you may feel upon opening an underwhelming gift, or not unwrapping something you wanted. That disappointment is the result of expectation, and that expectation betrays mindset.

Some might say that. I recognize that I’m stretching here, people. 

It's into this climate that Die Hard presents to us a villain who embraces his greed while recognizing the benefits of playing the game, and in so doing represents the dual nature of Christmas: charity and materialism, the former a facade for the latter.

But of course, we know how this ends for Hans, bested by a shoeless cop with the gall and wherewithal to put up with a night of Hans’ bullshit. It’s telling that he isn’t an altruistic superhero, but a cop in tough spot doing what he can to keep his wife safe.

Maybe there’s something there for us, too. The secret to Christmas isn’t nobility, but gritting your teeth, stepping on some glass, and talking to yourself a little bit until it’s all over.

Yippie ki yay and merry Christmas. ​
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

    Articles

    Thanos, Moral Ethic, and Fatherhood in INFINITY WAR
    Ready Player One's Best Reference is its Villain
    Superheros are White Blood Cells, Not Veggies
    The Use of Irony in 'It'
    The Real Evil of "It'
    'Wonder Woman' and the Philosophy of WWI
    ​
    The Witcher 3 vs Postmodernism
    The Feminism of Beast's Literacy
    MLK and Civil War: to be Labeled a Criminal
    Moral Psychology in 'Civil War'
    Why Die Hard is a Christmas Movie
    "Living" in the Age of Negan
    Dishonored 2 and the Superhero Experience
    Wonder Woman made UN ambassador
    Christianity in Agents of SHIELD  S.3 - Part 1
    Interview: Dan Buehrer and Superhero as Myth
    Kung Fu Panda 3 and Identity
    The Real Villain of Jaws
    Cap's Statue and Superhero Mythology
    Turning Conflict Management 'Inside Out'
    Monroe as Tyrant
    Social Heroism in Winter Soldier
    Father's Day: Pike and Kirk
    ​Psychoanalyses and Determinism in Arkham
    Female Hero on Ninja Warrior
    Uncharted 4 Opening
    Superheroes and             American History
    ​Hiccup the Scientist​
    A Note on Superman and the "American Way"
    Did Snyder Play Arkham?
    Force Awakens as Reboot
    Cold War Creations
    SUBSCRIBE
Subscribe To HeroMonitor

Home

About Us

Contact Us


© Travis Trombley and HeroMonitor, 2016. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Travis Trombley and HeroMonitor with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
  • Reviews
    • Movie/TV Reviews
    • Book Reviews
  • Hero Mythology
  • For Teachers
  • About
  • Contact