COME OUT TO THE COAST, WE’LL GET TOGETHER, HAVE A FEW LAUGHS
In 1988, director John McTiernan directed Die Hard, and action cinema was never the same again. Gone were the impossibly buff, muscled Greek gods that had dominated 1980s punchy kicky shooty movies - your Arnold Schwarzeneggers, your Sylvester Stallones and your Jean Claude van Dammes. Here was a more vulnerable hero, a man who could lose, who could be hurt - and who was losing his hair. That man was Bruce Willis, and up against a team of unforgettable bad guys - including the villainous and iconic Alan Rickman in his first cinema role - he showed that all you needed was a dirty vest and some determination to really do the damage.
But this movie isn’t just, and never has been just, an actioner. Sure, it’s full of explosions and guns and bombs and bad language and blood. But it also happens to be set during the holiday season. It’s full of festive cheer. And ever since it came out, a debate has raged - an intractable dilemma, a conversation that gets more and more fraught with each passing year. A philosophical quandary that would make Socrates himself need to have a drink and a sit down.
Is it a Christmas movie?
For many, it has joined the pantheon of festive classics, along with Home Alone, The Santa Clause, Jingle All The Way, The Holiday and Elf. For others, no. It’s just an action movie that happens to be set at Christmas, are you kidding?
Well, we ain’t afraid of no debates. Screen Rant is here, with its learned friend Screenrant, to settle this question forever.
Yippy-ky-yay motherflippers.
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Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
0:20 - The Case for the Defence
3:28 - The Case for the Prosecution
7:47 - The Case for the Defence 2: Defence Harder
9:25 - The Verdict
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Written by: S Mohamed
Narrated by: Max Lichtig
Edited by: Gullivar Du Katt
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