For years, Die Hard was considered the bar by which most
action films were judged. Any film that can spawn four sequels and become the
go to reference for writers when pitching (“This film is Die Hard on a…”) has
got to be an impressive piece of filmmaking. But how impressive is John McClane,
the character around whom all these films revolve? Certainly the definitive
action film would have the definitive action star? After five films, not so
much.
First of all, John McClane is just a cop. A cop who gets
caught up in impossible situations. Nothing he does shows that he is the man to
handle these types of situations. This is not the case of Rambo who is a
trained killing machine that the government needs to go into a bad situation
and clean up. John McClane literally stumbles into these massive
criminal/terrorist plots. Now one such scenario where someone is dragged into
an elaborate crime caper is believeable. Crazy shit happens in life. But for
the same cop to get roped into these situations FIVE times, it gets to be a
little tough to swallow.
Though you can forgive one sequel of this type happening,
because in the second film they at least joke about what the odds are of the
same thing happening to the same guy twice. But in reality it just seems like a
case of really bad luck. And luck is an important factor in the Die Hard films
because it seems the only thing that helps John McClane survive these
situations is luck. Bad luck gets him into these situations and good luck helps
him survive as Bruce Willis is bounced around like a pinball on the screen in
front of us. In reality, John McClane is the action star equivalent of Kenny
from South Park except he doesn't die. He just bounces back even though he almost died. Hence the
title “Die Hard”. 
But what makes John McClane different from the plethora of
other action stars out there. While Stallone and Schwarzenegger are still out
there making flicks, they have moved on from the franchises that made them
action stars. Stallone is no longer Rambo or Rocky (though both film franchises
tried to make one final go of it, failing) and Arnold is no longer a Terminator
(though they did digitally insert him into the last film). But Bruce Willis
still is John McClane. Why?
Well as I already stated, John McClane is just a cop. He’s
not some super hero, he’s very much an everyman. And that is a lot of the
appeal of the character. An ordinary guy who gets swept up into an
extraordinary situation. It’s the simplest version of the Hero’s Journey. And
that is the problem with the franchise. John McClane cannot continue to be
considered an “everyman” if his entire life is a series of amazing events. And
based on the number of sequels that is a very easy thing to believe. John
McClane is a crazy magnet and every moment of his life from when he wakes up to
when he goes to bed is spent in some bizarre and crazy caper. He’s not just
some beat cop. He’s the beat-to-shit cop.
Rumor has it that a sixth Die Hard movie is in the works. At
this point short of resurrecting himself from the dead, there is not an injury
that could be inflicted on Bruce Willis’s character. John McClane has
officially entered the realm of super human. And as a super human he has lost
all that originally made the character appealing. There is no sense of
suspense. No “will he survive?” worrying from the audience. John McClane
winning the day is a forgone conclusion. Of course the hero is traditionally
supposed to win but if there is no doubt the story just isn’t interesting. Bruce Willis has taken the role that made him famous and jumped the proverbial shark.
No comments:
Post a Comment