The director of the 1988 thriller Die Hard has given a definitive answer on whether the film qualifies as a “Christmas movie”.
It has been debated for years whether or not the film, which is set at Christmas time but was released in the summer, can be rightly considered festive fare.
In a 12-minute-long video uploaded to YouTube by the American Film Institute, director John McTiernan addresses the “controversy” surrounding the film.
McTiernan mentions that he drew inspiration for the film from the moment in Frank Capra’s Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life when Bedford Falls becomes Pottersville.
“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,” says McTiernan.
In the video, the filmmaker then compares Die Hard to contemporary politics.
“There are genuinely evil people out there,” he says. “My hope at Christmas this year is that you will all remember that authoritarians are low-status, angry men who have gone to rich people and said, ‘If you give us power, we will make sure nobody takes your stuff.’” “And their obsessions with guns and boots and uniforms and squad cars and all that stuff. And all those things you amass with power meant to scare us, meant to shut us up so we don’t kick them to the side of the road and decent people of the world get on with building a future.”
Die Hard can be watched now on Now TV or Sky in the UK.
