This looks ill
Film Is Die Hard really a Christmas film...
- Thread starter padzilla
- Start date
Still not a Christmas film, can confirm
How does it feel being so wrong?
I watched Rocky IV the other day, very surprised they were showing what is just as much as a Christmas film as Die Hard, so early in the year.
Not gonna lie, that looks awesome.
It may not be a film about Christmas but it is set visibly at Christmas and has many Christmas references, therefore it only really makes sense when watched at Christmas meaning it is a Christmas film.
It's a film at Christmas time, not a Christmas film
So if you watch it in summer it doesn't feel right, it's hard to connect. Christmas film chap, Christmas.
You can watch Die Hard all year round and it’s still awesome!
I need this advent calendar in my life.
No.
Yes.
Agreed, although many people associate it closely with Christmas. So it is basically a Christmas film for all intents and purposes.
Absolutely is.
Yes
The real question should be is die hard a good film and the answer is clearly a strong no.
Go back to posting tweets about conference teams
Wasn't it released in June or July? Odd time to release a Christmas film.
Die Hard is 100% a Christmas film. It's, at its heart, a story of a man trying to reunite/reconnect with his wife and family on Christmas Eve, at his estranged wife's office Christmas Party. Just like Home Alone is a film about a boy struggling to atone for all of his misdeeds and find his place within his family, John McClane is trying to reclaim his place in his family. Hans Gruber is essentially the Grinch in this film, only after money and greed, and he's willing to commit mass murder to get his own way. You've also got the wonderful redemption arc of Sergeant Al Powell, who is making up for his own tragic failings and mistakes on Christmas Eve, with his redemption coming right at the end of the film. The film's ending song 'Let It Snow' appears earlier in the film when Al hums it in a store, when we're introduced to the character. The timing of it being Christmas is featured massively in the plot at several key moments (Now I have a machine gun, ho-ho-ho), so it wouldn't be the same film if it were set in, say, April. The film has all of the classical themes that you'd expect from a Christmas film.
Now I have a machine gun, Ho Ho Ho
If they didn't want it to be a Christmas film, they would never have added the hoes.
If they didn't want it to be a Christmas film, they would never have added the hoes.
There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who acknowledge Die Hard is a Christmas movie, and those who are wrong.
That's you on the naughty list no pressies for you.
His wife is called Holly so ......
Perfect time you mean, everyone can buy it on VHS/DVD in time for Christmas.
So was Miracle on 34th Street.
May to be pedantic
A very odd decision in that this is a film not just set at Christmas, but it is about Christmas from beginning to end. Die Hard has a few throwaway Christmas references but could have been set just as well at any other time of year. Christmas doesn't play any real part in the plot. Even Home Alone is far more of a Christmas film.
Not that I care. Just amusing that people do.
Well VHS anyway. A decade or more too early for DVD.
What's the case for it NOT to be a Christmas film though? Far more arguments for, and that seals it.
+1
1) It could have been set at any other time and made zero difference to the film
2) More guns and graphic violence than you expect from a Christmas film e.g. Love Actually
3) No dramatic or funny Christmas meal scene
4) Insufficient annoyingly precocious/cute children stealing scenes
5) The only person wearing a Santa hat is very dead
6) Alan Rickman is not wearing an artfully draped scarf
7) Yipee Ay Eh Motherfecker is not the most Christmassy of catchphrases
8) Released as far away from Christmas as is possible (or very nearly)
Barring your last point, I'm not seeing it.
No features of a Christmas film, just a film that happens near Christmas. Could just as well have been Thanksgiving or the 4th of July.
The dead terrorist would just have had a turkey on his head and not a Santa hat.
Saw could have been set at Christmas and it wouldn't really have been a Christmas film.
On the other hand reasons that it should be considered a Christmas film.
1) It is set around Christmas
2) Being set around Christmas there are some Christmassy things involved like Christmas music and Santa hats (on dead terrorists)
3) His wife is called Holly
4) That it
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It’s clearly a Christmas movie, baffles me anyone attempts to argue otherwise.
I mean within the first couple of scenes we’re already well aware that this movie is gonna be about saving the day in time for Christmas day as the CEO wishes everyone a happy Christmas, the entire office shouts “Happy Christmas” and Holly’s very first lines in the movie are:
“Harry, it’s Christmas Eve, families, stockings, Chestnuts, Rudolf & Frosty”. She tells her assistant to join the party as she’s making her feel like Ebenezer Scrooge.
The entire office is decorated for Christmas, as is the McClane residence and when their kid asks “is Daddy coming home too” she replies “We’ll see what Santa & Mommy can do”.
The stage is set that fecking early, and then throughout the movie we have Christmas songs, Santa hats and multiple references to it being fecking Christmas.
I mean within the first couple of scenes we’re already well aware that this movie is gonna be about saving the day in time for Christmas day as the CEO wishes everyone a happy Christmas, the entire office shouts “Happy Christmas” and Holly’s very first lines in the movie are:
“Harry, it’s Christmas Eve, families, stockings, Chestnuts, Rudolf & Frosty”. She tells her assistant to join the party as she’s making her feel like Ebenezer Scrooge.
The entire office is decorated for Christmas, as is the McClane residence and when their kid asks “is Daddy coming home too” she replies “We’ll see what Santa & Mommy can do”.
The stage is set that fecking early, and then throughout the movie we have Christmas songs, Santa hats and multiple references to it being fecking Christmas.
Does that not just mean it's an action movie set at Christmas time?
For what it's worth, I'm a firm believer it is a Christmas film, but I'm just asking the question here.
For me it's a Christmas film due to it's message (good vs evil) triumph over adversity, a savior is born etc etc, the fact it's set at Christmas does obviously assist.
Love Actually is a romantic comedy set at Christmas Time.
Home alone is a comedy/sadistic thriller set at Christmas Time.
Is it only a Christmas movie if it’s about an Elf or Santa?
Home alone is a Christmas movie because the entire premise is it being set at Christmas time for the ultimate ending to be saved/parents & Kevin reunited in time to celebrate Christmas together. Die Hard is exactly the same for John & his family.
Absolutely.
Unless you're going to say that a Christmas movie has to explicitly and only be about the nativity, Santa or elves, any attempts to argue that genre has anything to do with whether a film is a Christmas movie or not are totally spurious.
It's a Wonderful Life is the greatest Christmas film of all time, and it's a drama that could just as easily have played out at a different time of year. But it happens at Christmas, everything about the setting and the message are Christmassy, so it's a Christmas movie.
Love, Actually is regarded as a Christmas movie with little debate. Why? It's a bog-standard rom-com. But it happens at Christmas and its storyline is focused on the fact that Christmas is coming. It only affects the plot in so far as Christmas is a temporal focal point. Could have been anything. But it's Christmas, so it's obviously a Christmas movie.
Die Hard is obviously a Christmas movie.
A better debate would be about Lethal Weapon. I see that as a Christmas film too, but at least in LW, there are big parts of the movie when you can forget that it's set at Christmas, so I can see how some might think it doesn't hit their 'it's-a-Christmas-movie' threshold.