By Jamil Weeks

With Christmas around the corner, Americans across the country are beginning to partake in the annual holiday traditions. Christmas parties with ugly sweaters, family and friend gatherings, shopping, Christmas jingles, and, yes, holiday movies. I grew up on classic Christmas films like A Christmas Story, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Scrooged. Watching films like these with family members is what gets most people in the Christmas spirit. Over the past decade or so, I have witnessed another timeless movie from my childhood mistakenly being categorized as a Christmas movie. The film in question is the John McTiernan directed action tour de force, Die Hard. I have often found it puzzling how each year this movie is increasingly becoming the centerpiece of Christmas festivities for many households. Die Hard is the new Miracle On 34th Street. As for myself, I have often clashed with people over the notion that Die Hard is a holiday film. Hundreds of heated debates later, I am here to set the record straight once and for all on why Die Hard is NOT a Christmas movie.

A true Christmas flick has a story that centers directly around the Christmas season. The holiday drives the narrative of the story, rather it’s about dysfunctional or estranged family members coming together through the Christmas spirit or some sort of redemption for the protagonist directly linked to Christmas. In Die Hard, the movie happens to take place during Christmas. Die Hard is a movie that could have taken place during any holiday, whether it is July 4th or Thanksgiving. If you strip away all Christmas elements from the film and place it during another holiday, it is still essentially the same movie. A high octane action thriller about survival against insurmountable odds. Die Hard is a story about a cop who finds himself taking on an international terrorist organization single-handedly. The central story literally has nothing to do with Christmas. Christmas is merely window dressing in Die Hard. Yes, Christmas give the lead character, John McClane, a reason to visit his estranged wife, who is living on the opposite side of the country. Yes, there is a redemption for McClane as he ends up winning the love of his wife back in the end. However, the holiday spirit is not the focal point for McClane’s redemption. Instead, McClane’s vindication is the extreme lengths he is put through in his quest to save his wife from the terrorists. Die Hard is a movie about heroism in a high stakes game of durability and endurance, not involving themes revolving around a disillusioned, grumpy individual who finds the Christmas spirit.

Most holiday films are marketed as such. Movie studios usually release these films around the time of year Thanksgiving and Christmas comes around. Makes sense to release a movie about Christmas DURING Christmas, right? You would think moviegoers would not flock to a holiday film in droves during the middle of the summer. Yet, Die Hard is a film that was released during the summer of 1988 on July 22, making it more of a summer blockbuster than a holiday film. Maybe the readers of the blog will consider this point splitting hairs, but what time of year a film is released says a lot of the initial intentions of the filmmakers to me. Christmas is the ultimate spending holiday. A true Christmas movie would most likely be timed to be released around the holidays to entice money-hungry advertisers for strategic product placement. Money is what drives Hollywood. The summer releases are usually big for comedy and action films. Die Hard may be a movie that has been adopted as a Christmas film, especially amongst younger audiences, but that does not necessarily mean it is a traditional Christmas film.

A key aspect to most Christmas films is branding. Holiday films are typically family-oriented and wholesome. Die Hard is far from from that, depicting scenes of graphic and bloody violence, obscene language throughout, and drug use. McClane’s bloody, dirty, ripped up wife-beater has become iconic. By the end of the film in the climatic face off with the sleek villain, Hans Gruber, McClane is so bloody it almost looks like he was bathed in his own blood. I would imagine 20th Century Fox studio executives probably did not think this level of gore would be suitable for most families and, thus, why it was not marketed as a Christmas film. Every household is different, but I imagine there are many families with younger children who are not roasting marshmallows and drinking hot chocolate while watching Die Hard with their five-year-olds on Christmas Eve. Christmas films are meant to bring family members together to watch stories centered around tales of morality and absolution. They are not meant for watching movies with high death body counts where there are scenes showing people getting their brains blown out of the back of their skull. Generally, Christmas films are lighthearted, comforting, and, yes, cheesy. Die Hard is a no holds barred, intense cinematic experience that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

In closing, I do acknowledge Die Hard does contain elements of a typical Christmas film. A holiday inspired original score by Michael Kamen in moments of the film, Christmas decorations in Nakatomi Plaza, and Christmas songs in the soundtrack. I get why people think of Die Hard as a holiday film. I stand with the people who, rightfully so, look at Die Hard as a film that happens to take place during Christmas instead of a traditional Christmas motion picture. Die Hard is a film where the story could take place during literally any time of the year and that would not change the essence of what this film truly is. McClane’s story arc literally has nothing to do with the Christmas spirit. Die Hard is more of a love story than a Christmas story. The lengths a man will go through to protect the woman he loves from danger. A summer action extravaganza whose legacy is measured in how it changed the way 80’s action film heroes looked and how movie villains in action films were treated. A film that should be regarded as a genre-defining all time great action film as opposed to a great holiday movie. I will maintain this position until my last day on this earth, and I suspect I will ultimately find myself on the winning side of that argument. So to all the people who agree with this sentiment, in the words of the great John McClane, "welcome to the party, pal!"