Is Die Hard a Christmas Film? Why Does This Matter So Much To Us?
I don’t need to go into the age old argument of whether or not the action classic Die Hard is a Christmas film or not. That’s been discussed before many times, and it’s easy to Google this and see how (if you did look this up via search engine and wind up here and care more about that side of the discussion, you can continue to find the results you’re looking for here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, amongst countless other articles). But before I continue, I know you want to know. You really want to know. I’ve been asked this already. So has everybody else. Do I think Die Hard is a Christmas film?
Well, duh. Here’s the Cliffnotes version, because we don’t have time for this:
-There’s holiday music in the score
-This film takes place at a Christmas party
-There are themes of a father trying to reconnect with his family during the holidays
-All of the Christmas decorations
-Dammit, the main thing that matters is if Home Alone is a Christmas film, then Die Hard easily is one too, and that’s all I need to say in this argument, really.
Now that we can move on, my real emphasis is on why so many people care about this in the first place. They must know whether or not they can celebrate John McClane and Sgt. Al Powell (as they defend the civilians inside the Nakatomi Plaza during a terrorist lockdown) as Christmas heroes. I’ll cut to the chase with this as well. To me, the answer is simple: people want to celebrate the holidays in their own ways. Not everyone subscribes to the happy cheer of typical holiday features, but they still want to get festive. For thrill junkies, Die Hard is that calling. They can watch this film every year, and enjoy what they are watching. So, it only makes sense that it is a Christmas film to them, but that extra validation from others can confirm that they are celebrating the holidays the right way.
Someone forgot to leave milk and cookies out for Santa McClaus.
Granted, anyone can make any film a holiday one in their own minds. For example, I don’t watch Fargo at Christmas or anything, but I do make it a tradition to watch it on the first major snowfall of every year; it just feels thematically relevant. It has nothing to do with the holidays, but deep down, knowing it’s Fargo time means Christmas is around the corner, and that makes the loosest subliminal connection for me. I wouldn’t dare call it a holiday film for me, but it’s my slight way of understanding the necessity a lot of cinephiles have with attributing films to major occasions. Die Hard is no different, and it’s clearly a tradition people hold dear to them. Of course, it also just feels awesome to have a shoot-em-up test of survival as your favourite holiday film; it’s like a whodunnit Easter, or a monster picture St. Patrick’s Day. it seems so against the grain, but oh so right in that respect.
Again, I already think that Die Hard is a Christmas film, and the main reason why anyone would say it isn’t is because the Die Hard franchise has expanded to being so much more than a hostage situation around the holidays. The series is very much the John McClane variety hour (well, hardly a variety hour, I guess), but the initial Die Hard is most certainly a holiday film. Not every film that features Christmas is a Christmas film, but I do think that films that feature the holiday enough (Edward Scissorhands, for instance) can be discussed as such. This includes Die Hard. At the end of the day, cinephiles and action junkies are just trying to share the ways they celebrate their own way, and this kind of a debate results in the passing around of an action film favourite for many. In the age of the internet, I don’t think this discussion will die down (or hard, huck yuck yuck) any time soon. So, here are my two cents. It is a Christmas film, and it’s debated a lot because people want to prove they don’t have to adhere to the norm (although considering Die Hard a holiday classic has become the norm, but that’s another discussion for another day).
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.