"DIE HARD is the all time best Christmas movie" is one of those things relatives like to quip at Christmas dinner to seem a little smarter than the rest of us softies. I'm not fooled by your Old Man Angels and Santa Clauses, they imply. I see beyond that. To which I respond:
But it is a great, great movie. If you haven't seen it lately, take the time to check it out. It does so many things right that other action movies of its time do not even conceive of. For instance, where the standard action movie takes the time to give interesting details or motivation to the bad guy and his main henchperson, DIE HARD very quickly lays out a bunch of different characters, some in terms of role, like the hacker who doesn't care about their human casualties, some in terms of dress. There's a moment where a truck rolls up and a ton of baddies get out. It should be the definition of "faceless mob," but instead their varied costumes both tell us they're each individuals and make us curious to get to know them all. That choice alone is genius. It's so simple and yet has such impact in terms of how we relate to these characters, how much room we're willing to give them in our imaginations.
The part that struck me the most, though, is the way in which DIE HARD sets up so many pieces at the very beginning, before we really even know what the story is, and then is so patient in playing them. We've got John and Holly's relationship, of course. But also Holly's boss, and her pregnant assistant, and the cocaine guy, each of whom will eventually prove really important in moving the story forward, but at different points.
We've got John's driver, who will get forgotten for long periods of time, but will end up stopping the getaway in the end (and is kept in the loop enough along the way so that that doesn't seem like a cheat).
Likewise, we've got the fact that John has no shoes on--which is actually set up in the opening scene on the plane, and doesn't end up playing an important role until close to the film's low point, when Hans sees it for himself.
In retrospect, it really is like a magic trick. Writers Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza start the film by literally showing us all the cards they're going to play, literally daring us to understand what they mean. And of course we don't, such that when they're actually used it not only works in story, because they've set it all up, it's a source of great delight, specifically because it was right there in front of us and we didn't see it coming.
Truly, there are lots of lessons to be learned from DIE HARD. Maybe because it's two days before Christmas, the one that grabs the most today is the power of place setting. If you set things up well, showing enough to justify later moves without giving it all away, when you make those moves your audience will love you forever (so much so they'll show up at Christmas year after year insisting you're the best Christmas movie of all).
