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Saturday, December 26. 2020The Perennial QuestionIs Die Hard a Christmas movie? My son says no. I say yes. My brother says yes, the director John McTiernan says yes, and a host of others say no. Others play Solomon and split the baby. It's not a movie with a Christmas theme, but does include the element of Christmas. So, "no, but..." Another way of looking at this is to ask if there was a message regarding "the system" in Die Hard. It was based on a book which was clearly anti-capitalist in nature, and McTiernan states it was supposed to be anti-capitalist. Frankly, I think he lost on that score. The proletarian nods don't really add up well. Capitalism had been so successful in providing more for all that by the time the movie was made some of the items he felt delineated 'wealth and privilege' from 'working class' were no longer meaningful. They are even less so today (assuming our economy had not been locked down, which has only exacerbated some of the divisions of wealth which were barely noticeable before). That said, the most noticiable delineations of class today are not wealth-related, but power related as our "leaders" lock us down and lecture us on how to behave, only to go do the exact opposite things which they suggest we do. The real 'class warfare' today is power vs. the lack of it, not whether one has more money than someone else. Of course, that was always the nature of 'class warfare', but Leftists love to obscure that fact with a veneer of basic economic BS that only people with common sense can see through. McTiernan, therefore, fails miserably in his goal of making a legitimate anti-capitalist story. Mainly because there is no legitimate anti-capitalist story to be made. Unless you are a "trained Marxist" and know how to create one out of whole cloth. (For what it's worth, the term "trained Marxist" always made me laugh. I studied Economics at The New School, which tried very hard to push the Marxist agenda, and I read quite a bit of Marx, Hobsbawm, Gordon and a host of other Marxist garbage. So I'm a "trained Marxist" and one of the things every single Marxist professor said was "Marx left no blueprint, only an idea with no path forward and no clear goal except revolution." That's why Marxism and Leftist thought is such utter BS. Unlike Classical, Neo-Classical, Monetarist or even Austrian schools of thought, Marxism is just an idea and not a fully-formed one, but full of childish and misleading binary concepts. Though I will credit Marx with completely shifting the study of History in a very meaningful and useful fashion.) At any rate, to me Die Hard is very much a Christmas movie and very much a pro-capitalist one. After all, Hans Gruber himself, like so many Marxists before him, only cared about the power he was managing (his gang) and the money he was trying to collect, and was utilizing a facade to perpetrate his crime...you know, like BLM and Antifa today. These movements are cargo cults, full of images that seem to 'make sense' but cannot ever effectively achieve the goals they have set for themselves because they are inclined only toward one thing. Perpetual Revolution.
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I never thought of “Die Hard”, or any of its sequels, as a Christmas movie - even after reading your post. Sorry.
But since you brought up the subject, I thought I’d give two movies Mrs. Mudbug and I watch every Christmas: “Silent Night” - about German and American soldiers spending Christmas eve in a hunting cabin in the Ardennnes with a German woman and her son; and “The Santa Clause” - we all know what it’s about. They never fail to make us feel a little bit better at Christmas. Related, kind of...
I think we should redo the election. We should set the election for Jan 12 and have it be in person only with ID in all 50 states. Some would say it doesn't give us enough time to prepare with ballots to print etc. BUT I understand that China can print ballots and deliver them overnight so that problem is solved. There is no way the election in Nov was legal/honest/correct and it must be redone or we are indeed the biggest banana republic in the world. Let the people decide not the politicians and judges. By the definition from the linked to article, Task and Purpose, throw a Christmas tree on to the set, and every western ever made is a Christmas movie.
Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?
Well . . . . it depends on how you define "Christmas Movie". That definition is subjective. If your definition of "Christmas Movie" means the film must be about the birth of Jesus then this film clearly is not a Christmas movie. If writing the season of Christmas in as a backdrop makes the movie a "Christmas Movie", then it certainly must be. I would posit that in many instances, the Christmas season is written into the background of the picture because it was hoped this would increase the box office draw. Movies like It's a Wonderful Life and Love Actually could easily take place at a different time of year. Christmas just makes for an easy and climactic end date. So, whether a movie is a "Christmas Movie" or not rests solely in the mind of the viewer, and that's better than having 'an expert' decide for all of us. Power is distributed widely in America, It is not "the few" who hold it, but the many, because it comes in many forms. There is a class difference (elites, wealth, elected, connected, what have you) but it has limits.
That has changed in the face of a new threat that is going to kill at least a half-million of us and impair another half-million for some time to come (heart, lungs, neurology), yes. Most of that will be temporary, though I do fear the usual mission creep of government in this, as in all things. As Bulldog suggests but doesn't say out right, the key feature is not power but conflict. Marx even provides ways to provoke conflict when the interests of different classes, whether defined by wealth, power or race, are compatible.
That description of the distribution of power, outdated and nostalgic, is pitifully naive. Has been for nearly 50 years.
It's a blueprint for what was intended by the original builders, but centuries have passed and the remodeling crews have been working on it non-stop. This past year shows how clever they have been. They break the laws because of "emergency." Now they know all they need to do is create "emergencies" whenever they want to break the law. We've been in a non-stop "emergency" that triggers the herds fears non-stop for decades now. People keep predicting that, but it never turns out to be true, does it? The people in power 50 years ago - families, companies, movements, foundations - are no longer in power.
People who make insulting remarks and then mere assertions of how bad things are just about to get don't generally have a good track record for predictions. Selection bias and confirmation bias, usually. I rewatched it last night, just to be sure. “White Christmas” it ain’t, though entertaining in its own way. It does have Christmas trees and decorations, but on the downside, taking place in LA severely dilutes the seasonal atmosphere.
What I found fascinating was that the police brass, the FBI, and the press were all portrayed as worthless jerks. People had a better handle on the nature of government and the media thirty years ago. I didn't see this post until today, but it just so happens I watched "Die HARD" just last night.
I agree with "Feeblemind". The fact that it takes place during the Christmas season and has decorations strewn about doesn't necessarily make it a Christmas movie. Plus, the movie plot itself, is not about Christmas. However, it does end with a good rendition of the song "Let it Snow". In my book, that alone reinforces its Christmas bonafides. LedEdit 2014 Download Pixel Led Animations Led Edit Pixel Led Madrix DOWNLOAD
My extended family and friends watch it every Christmas. Love the Christmas music in as well as the action. Great Christmas movie.
Of course , it's a Christmas movie .
Who falls from the top of Nakatomi Plaza ? HANS Gruber . Who wrote the Christmas hymn , Silent Night ? FRANZ Gruber . Coincidence ? I think not ! Marxism has one idea: Power to US, and SCREW "everyone else.
(Prove me wrong.) I've never watched Die Hard. Not gonna. I never thought of Die Hard as a Christmas movie per se, even though the story occurs during a Christmas celebration, so whatever. It never occurred to me that it was supposed to be an anti-capitalist movie, and I don't see how anyone could see it as that. McTiernan clearly failed at his message, but he did make a heck of an action movie.
OK, so crawling through ventilation ducts to hunt down murderous terrorists may be the ne plus ultra of Bad Christmases, but I've had Christmases where I was (1) slinging burgers over a hot grill, (2) manning the NORAD command post in anticipation of the annual "in your face" Soviet missile tests, (3) getting sh*t-faced in the dining car with railroaders on the Alaskan Railway, somewhere between Anchorage and Fairbanks, and (4) helping Dad shovel out two feet of wet snow, with downed power lines, early in the morning. It isn't always hot chocolate and opening presents.
Of course, Die Hard is a Christmas movie! Strictly speaking I think it's an action movie that is set within the season of holiday festivities. It certainly isn't about the Christmas message or anything.
But just because it isn't strictly a Christmas movie doesn't mean it can't become a Christmas tradition. |