Every year when we enter the holiday season, for some reason, the Die Hard Christmas movie debate is brought up. People have very strong opinions about this, but the strongest opinion comes from Bruce Willis himself.
The John McClane actor once made it very clear that Die Hard is not a Christmas movie. During his Comedy Central roast in 2018, he strongly said: “Die Hard is not a Christmas movie! It’s a Bruce Willis movie! So, yippee-ki-yay to all you motherf –kers and good night!”
When you watch him say it, you can see that he makes a really good point. At the same time, yeah… Die Hard is a Christmas movie… a Bruce Willis action Christmas movie. I’ve been watching it every year during the holidays for years!
Die Hard director John McTiernan, previously talked about the movie becoming a Christmas classic, and he explained that he actually based some of the film’s themes on the Christmas movie It’s a Wonderful Life:
Specifically, the Pottersville sequence. Which is what happens when the evil banker gets to do what he wants in the community without George getting in the way to stop it. And it’s the clearest demonstration and criticism of runaway, unregulated cowboy capitalism that’s ever been done in an American movie. It was imagination then, but now, if you go out in most of the country, it’s the life people live.
So McClane is the George Bailey of Die Hard. He went on to say that when first discussing making the movie, the most important aspect to him was to make McClane a relatable, working-class hero. He added:
Everybody, as they came to work on the movie, began to get, as I said, this idea of this movie as an escapee. And there was a joy in it. Because we were all the scratchers on the side of the king’s tomb. We had changed the content. And that is how Die Hard became… we hadn’t intended it to be a Christmas movie. But the joy that came from it is what turned it into a Christmas movie. And that’s really the best I can tell you about it.
Watch the video of Bruce Willis talking about Die Hard below and let the debate continue in the comment section below!
