Is 'Die Hard' A Christmas Movie?
Image Source: CultureSlate
It’s that time of year. Lights on trees in town plazas. Peppermint mochas at Starbucks. An impossible library of holiday movies to keep up with and binge on the ever-cooling nights. It really is the most wonderful time of the year.
My question to you is: should Die Hard be included on your watch list for holiday movies? The answer, dear reader, is yes because Die Hard is absolutely a Christmas movie. The logic is solid. Let me show you why.
Let’s first consider this thought experiment: what makes something a Christmas movie? To understand this, take a commonly accepted Christmas movie, like, say, Jingle All the Way or Home Alone, for example. Got one? Good. Now, take the Christmas element out of it. In Jingle All the Way, if we remove the fact that it’s Christmas soon makes Arnold’s mad scramble to find his kid a toy just odd. The same thing happens in Home Alone. Why are the Wet Bandits scoping out the neighborhood? Everyone’s leaving for the holidays, making it less likely they will be seen, and there are a lot of expensive gifts lying around. Why was Kevin left home? The McCallisters missed their alarm due to a power outage and scrambled to get to the airport. Why? Because they were taking a family vacation…for the holidays! Removing Christmas from the movie completely changes the meaning and plot of the movie.
RELATED:
Image Source: Digital Spy
Now do the same for Die Hard. Why is John flying to California? If you remove Christmas from the equation, it is just a visit to see his estranged family. With the Christmas element to it, he is spending time with his family for the holidays. It absolutely changes the impact of his trip. Let’s go further. If it wasn’t Christmas, why would Nakatomi Plaza be devoid of all people aside from skeleton crew security and the party guests? It is literally the reason why Gruber and his crew are targeting the building. There is no one around. It is a more serious version of the Wet Bandits.
A major sticking point is when the movie was released. Die Hard was released in the heat of summer on July 15, 1988, melting expectations and reaching a scorching $140 million dollars on just a $28 million dollar budget. Summer movies are not Christmas movies, right? Well, at one point, it seemed to be pretty common in Hollywood. In fact, one of the all-time classic Christmas movies, Miracle on 34th Street, was released in June! Sure, it is commonplace to release a Christmas movie during the holiday season, but Die Hard is in good company with historical precedent of a non-holiday release time.
Image Source: YouTube
This brings up another important question: does the movie have to be about Christmas to be a Christmas movie? If the answer is yes, then a follow-up question would be: why? If it is necessary for a movie to be about Christmas, then why would any movie outside of that classification bother including Christmas elements in it? What purpose would that serve? While those elements matter, they’re not the only thing that matters. When people watch the movie matters.
Take Love Actually, for example. Each storyline is not expressly about Christmas, but rather about the different understandings of what love is. It is set at Christmas time, and it is a favorite to watch during the holiday season. There’s also The Holiday, which takes place at Christmas but isn’t overtly about the holiday. Instead, it is about two women trying to move on from their past. However, like Love Actually, it is frequently watched or streamed during the holidays. Additionally, Die Hard, and Love Actually are scheduled to air on TV during the season. Those are deliberate choices made by networks.
There is no denying the popularity of Die Hard as a Christmas movie, either. Holiday gifts have entirely incorporated the movie and its cult-like popularity as a Christmas movie into its product lines. There is even a Hans-Gruber-falling-from-Nakatomi-Tower advent calendar. It would not make much sense to have so many holiday gifts centered around a movie that was not considered a Christmas movie.
Image Source: eBay
A movie does not have to be blatantly about Christmas, like The Santa Clause or Jingle All the Way, to be considered a Christmas movie. If, like Die Hard, the movie takes place during the holidays, the holidays are important to the story, and people watch it during the holiday season, then there can be no denying its place among the classic holiday movies.
READ NEXT:
Source(s): IMDb
Latest News
Featured
