Die Another Time.

Rating: 9/10 (4 July 2007)

Can not even John McClane, in his fictional universe, escape the impact of 9/11? Bad enough that the tragedy is used as an excuse for cracking down on civil liberties in every country with a so-called-democracy, the term crops up in loads of films as some kind of premise  further proof that we live in a "post nine eleven" world. In a culture where blockbusters are so worshipped, it's amazing we don't look back more often to the terrorists in the first three Die Hard films and see that they, like in the new film, are not Muslims. The string of oppressive laws that have come in across the Western world have all but made people like Live Free or Die Hard baddie Thomas Gabriel invisible. Of course there's still a glimmer of bad Germans present.
Then there's the title, which is taken from New Hampshire's state motto (sans Hard). In the past 6 years the term freedom has, more than ever before, become a meaningless arrow in the quiver of politicians, and many people have followed them. We increasingly believe in the freedom to act, and not the freedom of others from the consequences of those actions. Our freedom to drive, our freedom to constantly upgrade computers made in sweatshops from rare materials then ship them to "e-dumps" back in China. But as the film shows, our reliance makes us vulnerable. It leads to spectacular action sequences inside tunnels when traffic lights are fiddled with and it might involve crashing into a helicopter but it makes us vulnerable. This is beyond oil.
The film doesn't overtly make these points, you'll be happy to know. John McClane isn't the one doing the techno-talk. It's evident his knowledge of computers is limited to strapping explosives to them and throwing them down lift shafts. To help him fight the keyboard-killers he has Matt Farrell, played by Justin Long, and the hacker-genius-in-his-mothers-basement is wheeled out again in Warlock, played by Kevin Smith (doing a dream role, no doubt). What's great about the plot of Live Free or Die Hard though, is that the technicalities are understandable without being unimpressive. In other words, we aren't made to feel stupid, in a genre notorious for being stupid. Further indicating that McClane has aged is the inclusion of his daughter, who's the same age as his teenage partner. Luckily, the film is so exciting by the time the daughter saving storyline eventually begins that it isn't too cliché - we just want to see Willis do his thing.
That said, it's hard to explain the lowered rating as anything other than the ugly face of cinema capitalism. There was so much swearing in Die Hard With a Vengeance that for McClane to have now eliminated the word 'f***' from his vocabulary (even after 12 years) he would have to have calmed his life down so much that he certainly wouldn't still be a cop. When he utters the franchise line "Yippee Ki Yay Motherf*****" and the curse is shielded, it's as much because the line has become a throwback to the original Die Hard era - rather than the original throwback to Cowboy America - as it is because of the hypocritical US-rating system. Without the other films it's gibberish, which never would have sold the original as it has done in the advertising for this new outing. Are we really to believe its full inclusion would have made for a better film?
There are a couple of fair strikes against the film that could be overshadowed by the bickering over the rating. Whilst avoiding the option of Islamic terrorists, the script errs on racism with a more than necessary number of lines where McClane calls Mai Lihn (Maggie Q) an "Asian hooker bitch" when she just happens to be an Asian terrorist. So McClane might not want to hear about globalization politics and corporate-owned media, fair enough, but if the action film is typified by anything, it's a clear good guy. Such remarks are pointless (although they eventually bite the character in the ass). Also, when compared to the previous three installments, John McClane's motivation to save the day isn't as forced on him (it's only after he becomes a thorn in Gabriel's side that it becomes personal). The FBI & co() contains some well-rounded characters (much like the series' fourth villain), but they don't really do much. But the one-man action show is all right when a third sequel featuring a popular protagonist is this great, avoiding cheese and reliance on legacy with smart-aleck lines and original stunts in all the right proportions. Perhaps a fifth film is not out of the question, although thankfully, in terms of waiting for it, in another dozen years McClane will really be past it.
9/10