December Film Club

Hey everyone!

A big thank you to everyone who came out last month for All Quiet on the Western Front, we had a great conversation afterwards (and as always, great food!)

For December I've decided to continue my trend of non-traditional Christmas movies and show one of my absolute favorite Christmas films, John McTiernan's Die Hard

Die Hard is a 1988 American action thriller film.  It was directed by John McTiernan, and written by Steven E. de Souza and Jeb Stuart.  The film follows off-duty New York City Police officer John McClane (Bruce Willis) who is caught in a Los Angeles skyscraper during a heist led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman).   It is based on Roderick Throp’s 1979 novel Nothing Lasts Forever.  Arnold Schwarzenegger declined to shoot the film as a sequel to his 1985 action film Commando, and Fox reluctantly gave the role to Willis, then known as a comedic television actor.  Made for $28 million, Die Hard grossed over $140 million worldwide, with the film turning Willis into an action star, and became a metonym for an action film in which a lone hero fights overwhelming odds.  The Film’s success created the Die Hard franchise, which includes four sequels, a number of video games, and a comic book, and in 2017 it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.  Die Hard has been named on of the best action and Christmas-themed films ever made.  It currently holds a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and David Kehr, writing for the Chicago Tribune the year the film was released, said this in his review, “Though Willis is still a bit pale and TV-tentative, the slack is more than taken up by Alan Rickman, a British stage actor who, in his movie debut as the chief terrorist, creates a classic villain.  Small, slinky and well-spoken, Rickman’s Hans Gruber has the silkiness of Claude Rains and the smiling dementia of “Gilda’s” George Macready.  As directed by John McTiernan, it turns out to be something more-the archetypical action movie of the ‘80s, the perfection of the form.  Sleekly engineered, impeccably staged and shrewdly dosed with humor and sentiment."

We will be meeting next Thursday, the 20th at 6:15pm.  Hope to see you there!

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TQ-pOvI6Xo