40 Stories Of Sheer Adventure

Rating: 8/10 (6 March 2001)

When you talk about action movies, no movie is better to watch than the brutal action of Die hard. When I watched it for the first time, I was literally 'blown away' by the non-stop action that was presented for me. This film also showed me that Bruce Willis has plenty of talent and is a superstar.
High above the city of L.A. a team of terrorists have seized a building, taken hostages and declared war. But one man has managed to escape detection...an off-duty cop. He's alone...tired...and the only chance anyone has. New York City Detective John McClane, newly arrived in Los Angeles to spend Christmas holidays with his estranged wife and family. But as McClane waits for his wife's office party to break-up, terrorists seize control of the building. While the terrorist leader, Hans Gruber and his savage henchman round up hostages, McClane slips away unnoticed. Armed with only a service revolver and his cunning attack, McClane launches his own one-man war.
When scripting the role of McClane in this movie it wouldn't have been hard to choose Bruce Willis. It was as if he was made for this role. Many parts of his character standout for me. His actions to stop the terrorist was gutsy, whether by gun or by fist. Then there is the way he was saving the hostages. It all makes for a pretty courageous sort of man and cop. Willis has had some career, yet I feel if he was a real cop he would act like the McClane character. Watching an interview with Willis he said he could relate to parts of the McClane character. Willis is famous for many movie roles (including Pulp Fiction and The Sixth Sense), which have been big movies for Willis. I also remember Willis in one of his early TV roles, Moonlighting, with the delightful Cybil Shepherd, which I must admit was quite enjoyable to watch.
The bad guys were very effectively bought to the bigscreen in this movie. The terrorists leader Hans Gruber, was played by English stage actor Alan Rickman. With that incredible English accent he was castled just right for his role. The other bad guy thug was Alexander Godunov, who also impressed me. Then there are some likeable good guys in this movie. McClane's wife, played by Bonnie Bedella, was a good character. Like her husband, she tries to remain strong in a very volatile situation. Then we have L.A cop Al Powell, acted by Reginald VelJohson. Reginald starred in the TV sitcom Family Matters', which was at times very annoying to watch. But his role was pretty good in Die Hard, the calm cop in the middle of a major crisis.

The story in the first Die Hard was quite clever and well written. I must say that it is an original idea to have one cop try and stop a gang of terrorist in a high rise building, which in my view was terrific. Something else that was interesting was the day that this all took place, Christmas Eve. I must say that it was an original idea and one I liked. The other part of the script which I enjoyed was the sarcasm between McClane and the bad guys. It was cleverly written into the script and perfectly portrayed by the cast.
I also enjoyed the special effects in the first Die Hard movie. Using a real 40 story building was quite risky and done just right. A lot of the credit for this needs to go to special effects man Richard Edlands. One other man who needs credit for making this movie as enjoyable as it was, is director John McTiernan. He really did have a great cast and would have had a good time just seeing all this movie unfold in front of him. In my view he didn't interfere too much, yet would have also wanted the movie to come out just the way he wanted. He has directed some impressive films such as Predator and The Hunt For Red October.
One part of Die Hard I didn't appreciate was the foul language which was spoken. I'm not talking about swearing in our culture today, but something much worse in my view - Blasphemy. The McClane character was taking the lord's name in vain almost every time he opened his mouth. Now the blame has to land with the script writers here. I was offended by this bad language. God's name is sacred and it baffles me why we hear so much profanity in movies when it is so unnecessary. The language in movies in my view needs to be looked at more closely.
This movie was made 13 years ago and like all the big blockbusters in today's video stores, I wished I had seen this Hollywood classic in the cinema. The only saving grace for me is that I own Die Hard on DVD. I don't recommend Die Hard, the original, if you are claustrophobic, as this movie remains in one place, yet this made the film even more interesting for me. A cracking thriller from beginning to end, Die Hard explodes with heart-stopping suspense. If you haven't seen Die Hard watch it and get captivated by one of the great action flicks of our time.

Rating: 4 Stars or 8/10