I may be in the minority, but this is something I am sick of. I am tired of people classifying Die Hard as a Christmas movie. So for my annual Christmas blog post, I will explain why all of you are wrong–Die Hard is NOT a Christmas movie.
OK, yes, the movie takes place at Christmas. But time for the setting doesn’t always determine type. If that were the case, then we could say the movie version of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe is a WWII movie (note: the movie actually does have the London blitz in it, despite that not being in the actual book). In fact, if you took out all the Christmas trappings and made it take place at, I don’t know, Halloween–you’d still have the same story. In fact, of the Die Hard movies, only the first one takes place at Christmas. Even Home Alone’s lesser sequel, Lost in New York, still took place at Christmas.
I don’t know if this matters, but Die Hard (the first one anyway) is based on a book called Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp. According to my research, the book did not take place at Christmas. This is probably irrelevant because, like all adaptations, Die Hard has many differences from its source material. But I think it’s still worth noting.
Die Hard also doesn’t feel like a Christmas movie. Your average Christmas movie has themes of peace, love, togetherness, or family. (I think I’ve only heard of one or two movies that are actually about Jesus) Yes there are carols. The movie ends with “Let It Snow”, and it even snows in the movie. But do we even see Santa or at least a mention of Jesus? No. It’s just your run-of-the-mill action movie that just happens to have Christmas stuff in it. You know what else takes place at Christmas? The Silent Night, Deadly Night series, which is about a serial killer dressing up as Santa and killing everyone (and you thought the Grinch hated Christmas!). We could call that a Christmas movie. But most of the people I mention that to have either never heard of the series (To be honest, I’ve never watched them myself) or don’t think the movies count. But those take place at Christmas and even have Santa! Granted, he’s a murdering psychopath, but he’s still Santa! If we’re going to apply that logic to Die Hard or Gremlins (yes, people call Gremlins a Christmas movie too), then why not the Santa slasher series? Keep it consistent!
Whatever, if you folks want to call it a Christmas movie, go ahead. But I won’t share in your lie. Do I like Die Hard? Yes! I’ve even seen some of the sequels. But let me have my opinion.
Aspie Catholic 