It's a Christmas movie

[DR Herbert West]

It's about time for a Die Hard 1&2 double feature.

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by Martoto

The flashbacks make up most of the movie. Don’t they? And the part where George is shown what life would be like if he had never been born is purposely unfestive.

Have you only watched the first half of the film or something? The purpose of showing him that is to actually affirm the positive impact he had on the people in his life, allowing him to reconsider his choice to take his own life and subsequently be able to celebrate Christmas with family and friends.

The reason why the film resonates as a Christmas movie it is reminds people to not worry about whatever petty shit happened to them over the past year and appreciate that all that is truly important in life is having people that care about you and spending time with them over the holidays.

[Martoto]

Originally Posted by Jonno2009

i seen a lot of online polls over the years of peoples favorite christmas movies and Die Hard often tops them all and sometimes by a big margin

That's not what quintessential means.

[levcore]

Wikipedia (which I'm aware can be edited by whoever) lists Home Alone as the second highest grossing Christmas movie (after the 2018 animated Grinch) of all time. Now if Home Alone's main qualifier for being a Christmas movie is the fact that it takes place in the run up to, and ends on Christmas day, along with featuring multiple references to Christmas, then Iron Man 3 is a Christmas movie, and Iron Man 3 grossed 1.3 Billion. That's way more than the 2018 Grinch movie, so Iron Man 3 is the highest grossing Christmas movie!

[Jigram Clickendale]

Any love for Rosemary's Baby as a Christmas film? There's an entire Christmas segment in the movie, and the story is basically a satanic take on the Nativity. I watch it every year on the Christmas build up!

[Martoto]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

Have you only watched the first half of the film or something? The purpose of showing him that is to actually affirm the positive impact he had on the people in his life, allowing him to reconsider his choice to take his own life and subsequently be able to celebrate Christmas with family and friends.

The reason why the film resonates as a Christmas movie it is reminds people to not worry about whatever petty shit happened to them over the past year and appreciate that all that is truly important in life is having people that care about you and spending time with them over the holidays.

I'm being facetious of course. But you're right about the audience remembering that Christmas should be a time of expressing good will. The setting of George's crisis and the way his friends respond ensures that the audience doesn't need to think twice. They think "Yes. This is what should happen. Has to happen." I'm not sure the audience would be so instinctively supportive of the plot if it was set at any other time. Not without some other inducement. Does the movie imply that it was just George's luck that he happened to find himself needing to conjure up 8 grand he doesn't have and thought about taking his own life on Christmas eve? Of course not. It spends half the movie not even making any connection between George's life and Christmas or the meaning of Christmas, unlike its cousin, A Christmas Carol. It's interesting that Scrooge pledged to keep Christmas all the year while It's A Wonderful Life, without explicitly telling us, shows George having already lived that life. We don't get a sense that the town's hearts collectively melt for George because it's Christmas. Nevertheless, it IS Christmas. Whether we like it or not.

In a sense, Die Hard pulls the exact same trick. Should McClane and his wife get back together? Sure, I guess. He is the hero of Nakatomi plaza after all and he didn't let her get dropped out a window. Don't know if that should fix their relationship though. What's that? It's Christmas eve? Well why didn't you say so? Of course they're getting back together. Duh. (Notice that Holly and John are and stay estranged in With A Vengeance. Why couldn't Simon say his heist was on Christmas eve? No fair.)

Even the villains get a piece. (lots of them in fact) When Gruber is trying to reassure his gang about the vaul. "It's Christmas Theo. It's the time of miracle. So be of good cheer and call me when you get to the final lock." And then when Hans gets the FBI to deliver that miracle, the vault opens and Beethoven's Ode To Joy swells....



(cue audience feeling the Christmas spirit)

All part of McTiernan's ploy to inject as much joy into the mayhem as he could tastefully get away with.

They're essentially the same film is what I'm trying to say.


In Die Hard 2 they achieve this by having Sipowicz tear up a parking ticket at the end because. "It's Christmas!"

[mwynn]

Originally Posted by Martoto

I'm being facetious of course. But you're right about the audience remembering that Christmas should be a time of expressing good will. The setting of George's crisis and the way his friends respond ensures that the audience doesn't need to think twice. They think "Yes. This is what should happen. Has to happen." I'm not sure the audience would be so instinctively supportive of the plot if it was set at any other time. Not without some other inducement. Does the movie imply that it was just George's luck that he happened to find himself needing to conjure up 8 grand he doesn't have and thought about taking his own life on Christmas eve? Of course not. It spends half the movie not even making any connection between George's life and Christmas or the meaning of Christmas, unlike its cousin, A Christmas Carol. It's interesting that Scrooge pledged to keep Christmas all the year while It's A Wonderful Life, without explicitly telling us, shows George having already lived that life. We don't get a sense that the town's hearts collectively melt for George because it's Christmas. Nevertheless, it IS Christmas. Whether we like it or not.

In a sense, Die Hard pulls the exact same trick. Should McClane and his wife get back together? Sure, I guess. He is the hero of Nakatomi plaza after all and he didn't let her get dropped out a window. Don't know if that should fix their relationship though. What's that? It's Christmas eve? Well why didn't you say so? Of course they're getting back together. Duh. (Notice that Holly and John are and stay estranged in With A Vengeance. Why couldn't Simon say his heist was on Christmas eve? No fair.)

Even the villains get a piece. (lots of them in fact) When Gruber is trying to reassure his gang about the vaul. "It's Christmas Theo. It's the time of miracle. So be of good cheer and call me when you get to the final lock." And then when Hans gets the FBI to deliver that miracle, the vault opens and Beethoven's Ode To Joy swells....



(cue audience feeling the Christmas spirit)

All part of McTiernan's ploy to inject as much joy into the mayhem as he could tastefully get away with.

They're essentially the same film is what I'm trying to say.


In Die Hard 2 they achieve this by having Sipowicz tear up a parking ticket at the end because. "It's Christmas!"

The Christmas theme in part 2, also leads to more planes and more people in the airport. Just to give them leverage and more carnage as needed.

[Reignman35]

I've always felt there is definitely a difference between a "Christmas Movie", and a movie that takes place at Christmas. A movie that centers around Christmas and has that as one if its main themes (A Christmas Story, Miracle on 34th Street, and 1,734 others), are "Christmas Movies" in my opinion.

A movie that happens to take place around Christmas, is just that. Die Hard is probably the most well known example. Place it around any other holiday, and it doesn't change the main theme that it's about terrorists taking over a building, and one man's quest to stop it from happening. Lethal Weapon is another one. If you polled 1000 people, probably 950 of them wouldn't even remember the movie took place at Christmas, let alone call it a "Christmas Movie".

[hungrywives]

Maybe it's just me but I don't really think about Lethal Weapon as a Christmas movie. But I do think about Die Hard as a Christmas movie. Why is that? Lethal Weapon is as much about Christmas as Die Hard is, maybe even more so, but when someone says "Christmas movie" one of the first that comes to mind is Die Hard. Not Lethal Weapon. Is it because Die Hard actually takes place on Christmas Eve over the course of just one night while Lethal Weapon is spread out over like a week? Doesn't make sense. Like I said, maybe it's just me.

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by Reignman35

I've always felt there is definitely a difference between a "Christmas Movie", and a movie that takes place at Christmas. A movie that centers around Christmas and has that as one if its main themes (A Christmas Story, Miracle on 34th Street, and 1,734 others), are "Christmas Movies" in my opinion.

A movie that happens to take place around Christmas, is just that. Die Hard is probably the most well known example. Place it around any other holiday, and it doesn't change the main theme that it's about terrorists taking over a building, and one man's quest to stop it from happening. Lethal Weapon is another one. If you polled 1000 people, probably 950 of them wouldn't even remember the movie took place at Christmas, let alone call it a "Christmas Movie".

No offense, but this same tired old cyclical argument has been going on and on and on for at least the past ten years, if not more.

It's become such a thing in mainstream pop culture now where Die Hard is embraced as a Christmas movie that who even cares at this point if it's about Christmas or just set at Christmas?

It has Christmas elements in the movie, people like watching it at that time of year and get a sense of the joy of season from doing so, so why split hairs trying to pick it apart if it's just become an accepted thing?

[Torgon]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

No offense, but this same tired old cyclical argument has been going on and on and on for at least the past ten years, if not more.

It's become such a thing in mainstream pop culture now where Die Hard is embraced as a Christmas movie that who even cares at this point if it's about Christmas or just set at Christmas?

It has Christmas elements in the movie, people like watching it at that time of year and get a sense of the joy of season from doing so, so why split hairs trying to pick it apart if it's just become an accepted thing?

I’d say it’s about 50/50. I wouldn't call it an ‘accepted thing.’ It’s an accepted thing by a certain group of people; not everybody. You can make the same argument about almost anything.

Poll 1

Poll 2

I’m sure you could probably find similar ones in support of the opposite view.

[MassiveMovieBuff]

I've never understood why a film set during Christmas time and makes it VERY apparent (Die Hard 1&2 for example) can't be considered a Christmas film. It seems like a knee jerk reaction that a Christmas film needs to be appropriate for the entire family and/or have a Christmas message.

I remember arguing with my dad back in the day whether Scrooged was a "Christmas film" or not. I argued for it while he argued against it. He called it a "Christmas themed film." Seems like such a bizarre film to have that argument over since it's a modernized version of the Charles Dickens story. Sure it's a comedy with some adult humor and has a modernized cynical edge but that doesn't matter whatsoever AFAIC.

[AKORIS]

Originally Posted by Jonno2009

Really bugs me how Die Hard is apparently the quintessential Christmas movie.

To ME a Christmas movie needs to be ABOUT Christmas. Not just be SET around Christmas time

Originally Posted by Martoto

I don’t believe anyone’s made that claim.

Oh yes they have,,,, numerous times on this site…..

[Martoto]

Originally Posted by AKORIS

Oh yes they have,,,, numerous times on this site…..

No.

Saying that Die Hard is a great movie (it is) and that it's essential viewing (it is), and that it's common to watch it at Christmas which causes some people to also consider it a Christmas film (debatable, subjective, academic) is not the same as proclaiming that Die Hard is the prime example of the recognisable features, character and qualities of a Christmas film.

[Atomic Salad]

Originally Posted by kevin87

Eyes Wide Shut is a Christmas movie too then, right?:P

[HipsterTrash]

I think people just want alternative Christmas film choices as oppose to the usual suspects (Grinch, Christmas Story, Elf). So that's why people pick Die Hard cause it's a damn fine film.

But I do feel like changing it up this year. Gotta rewatch Kiss Kiss Bang Bang for like the 100th time.

[Guydowood]

The Silent Night, Deadly Night series
Violent Night
Trading Places

Or for your consideration the Elm Street series, I mean after all Freddy must have some Christmas spirit since he wears a green and red sweater ��

[The Sovereign]

Originally Posted by HipsterTrash

I think people just want alternative Christmas film choices as opposed to the usual suspects

Exactly - that’s it.

[Member-866753]

Any love for Frankenheimer’s Reindeer Games? Never seen it and almost fired it up last night.

[mwynn]

Originally Posted by AspiringMinimalist

Any love for Frankenheimer’s Reindeer Games? Never seen it and almost fired it up last night.

Posted on previous page.

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