1988
DIRECTOR: John McTiernan
May Contain Spoilers!
Based on the 1979 novel, Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp, Die Hard (undoubtedly the better title) has become one of the most iconic action films in cinema history. The script was originally conceived as a sequel to Commando, but instead was tailored for Bruce Willis, at the time known a comic actor, and I suspect primarily for his role in Moonlighting, to become Die Hard.
This is a good but lost example of a decent book to film adaptation, as this sticks remarkably close to the source, with a few character changes etc, but the bulk of the story remaining faithful, so I believe. But it has to be to the book’s credit that this film works so well, as it’s the fact that it has such a strong story, working on so many levels that the action extravaganza works so well.
This is a film were a man is subjected to a barrage of injuries with any one being fatal in its own right, let alone being shot, battered and having the soles of his feet cut to ribbons by broken glass! And then there’s Alan Rickman in the role that made him a household name and served as a springboard for a career that his never failed to live up to.
Clichés were born here; A style of relentless and violent action filmmaking began right here in 1988, were a seemingly relatable everyman striped down to his vest and single-handedly took town a building full of terrorist to save the woman he loved. This film appeals to everyone, men and women alike for various reasons and as I said before, this relates to the layers of the onion, to quote Shrek. There’s a so much going on and so little left to chance with this tight direction from McTiernan and his production team.
Simply put, if you haven’t seen Die Hard, then crawl out from under that rock and witness were the revolution in action film making began…
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