Die Hard: With A Vengeance (1995)
Dir: John McTiernan
A New York Minute
From a Very Special Time
By Jay Maronde
While Die Hard 3 may be on network television
somewhat regularly, it’s unlikely anyone will ever see the full version of the
movie ever again, even if it's shown on cable. The reason for this is not the
language but the fact that the world has changed and we as Americans no longer
wish to see the movie’s biggest star in her full glory. Wait you say, Die Hard
is a guy movie, who is this ultra-famous lady star—a star bigger than Bruce or
Samuel L.? This Grande Dame of Stars I reference is none other than pre-9-11
New York City herself, and peaking in her Clinton/Giuliani era glory!
In this film, just like real
estate, location is everything, and rarely has any movie highlighted so many of
NYC’s glorious locations as Die Hard 3,
and the grandest /saddest NYC site of all is featured heavily from beginning to
end: The World Trade Center. As I’ve already mentioned, this is the part(s) of
the movie that requires so much editing for American audiences today, and it’s
tragic because the film highlights the towers so beautifully and epically that
they really should be appreciated in their once towering glory. This isn’t to
say that the movie doesn’t have very, very big movie stars, a great director,
fantastic action sequences or one of the cleverest plots ever—because surely it
does—but in the end, this movie is just as much a wonderful NYC movie as it is
a classic of the action genre.
DH3
opens with a fantastic panorama of NYC perfectly set to the classic “Summer in
The City.” As the song ends, a building explodes, and the terrorism has begun.
Soon we are transported to a busy police station where the emergency response
is being coordinated. Suddenly a secretary has a phone call that the boss needs
to answer. On the line is the lead terrorist, played exquisitely by the robust
Jeremy Irons in one of his greatest roles ever. As the audience, we only learn
much later that the Irons character, Simon, is really the brother of the original
Die Hard villain Hans Gruber. Not only is Simon intent on mayhem, but he
demands that a suspended (and terribly hung-over) Lt. John McClane be part of
the fun.
As the movie progresses the viewer
learns the just like his brother, Simon isn’t as much of a terrorist as a thief
with a very clever ruse. Simon’s first task is for John McClane to go to Harlem
and walk the street naked except for a sandwich board that reads: “I HATE NIGGERS.”
This bit here is regularly edited for television. In fact the director had the forethought to
film the scene twice—once using another sandwich board that read: “I HATE
PEOPLE”—and while this early scene is just a shot across the bow in McTiernan’s
masterpiece of an everyman questioning 1990’s American racial issues, it serves
to perfectly introduce the films other co-star: the always compelling Samuel L.
Jackson as the helpful racist, Zeus Carver. Carver leaves his shop to help
McClane (whom he believes to be an escaped mental patient) and is quickly drawn
into Simon’s games. The movie progresses all the way across Manhattan from top
to bottom and then back to the top, through the Bronx, parts of Westchester,
and ultimately ends with in epic helicopter battle in which John McClane once
again gets to declare “yippe-ki-yay motherfucker” while sending the villain to
an ugly demise.
DH3’s
lead actors are beyond reproach. All three of these gentlemen (Willis, Jackson,
and Irons) are remarkably good in their roles. Irons could easily be one of the
best villains all time in this role. His acting talent shines so remarkably
because at several points he is playing Simon Gruber acting like someone else, be it the mentally unstable terrorist
personality he feigns during his phone calls with the NYPD, his acting as a
Dutch flower company CEO, or even his feigned Elvis Duran fan/radio
caller. (That is really the real Elvis
Duran, playing himself, by the way.) Irons shines throughout the whole movie as
he torments McClane and Carver.
Willis and Jackson for their parts
are no less amazing. Samuel L. Jackson is probably the pre-eminent casting
choice for a disaffected angry Harlem resident whose hatred for white people is
so great, it’s “uber-racism.” Bruce Willis, in his third appearance as John
McClane, perfected his role as the loose cannon everyman cop kicking ass
through a “very bad day.” To be honest, Willis is so amazingly spot-on good at
being John McClane that I’m always completely shocked that he ever gets cast
for any other roles. (Nothing against Bruce at all, it would just be really
cool if they were about to release Die Hard 42, because apparently I’m the only
one who never gets tired of these movies, ever.)
My one and only complaint about
this film, is that by having removed John McClane’s family from the situation,
the movie seems to lose some of its tension being caused by McClane’s desperation.
This is no one’s fault, as a crux of the plot is McClane’s status as “one step
away from being a full blown alcoholic” due to his estrangement from his wife.
This changes the movie slightly from a man trying to save his family to a buddy
action flick. Here again is time to sing the praises of Willis and Jackson as
two better “buddies” cannot be found in all of American cinema.
Everyone knows that you can have
all the greatest actors in the world but without a director you still won’t get
a good movie at all. In Die Hard 3,
John McTiernan has returned to the classic franchise he helped begin two films
earlier and is more outstanding than ever. This movie is excellently planned.
From the editing, to the foreshadowing, to the tie-in with previous films in
the series, everything about this film fits perfectly together in just such a
clever way that it always brings a smile to my face. McTiernan continues to
explore the character of the everyman super hero in John McClane this time not
only taking on a whole city instead of just a building or an airport, but also
through questioning many social mores of the time period. For a movie filmed in
the time of race riots, DH3 tackles the race issue head on and has John McClane
saying what many average Caucasian folk at that time were thinking: “You’re a racist,
you don’t like me because I’m white!” McTiernan, with his “down under” Aussie-approach
to American culture didn’t hesitate for a moment in tackling the biggest issues
of the time, and he did it with two of the biggest stars at the time. These are
the moments in history that drastically alter everyone’s perceptions of race
and culture by holding up a mirror to reality and showing us all what we’ve
become. By forcing the racist Carver to deal with the stodgy McClane because
“This guy (the terrorist) doesn’t care about race” McTiernan was holding up a
torch for the people of the world to unite in their shared humanity and hatred
of terrorism.
These racial “semi-tones,” while
shockingly predictive of a post 9-11 world, aren’t the only triumph of
McTiernan in this film—his foreshadowing is exquisite. Please note the scene
early on while McClane is in the police van, which is possibly some of the best
foreshadowing in Hollywood history. This
one scene sets up so many of the plot points utterly essential for later in the
movie, I won’t spoil it, but pay careful attention to what could have been a
completely throw away scene. McTiernan’s
directorial genius doesn’t stop there: he twice very covertly alludes to the
original Die Hard. First, just
outside of Tompkins Square Park when McClane stops the shoplifting youths and
is told: “Look around, man! It’s Christmas. You could steal City Hall.” The “it’s Christmas” is a very careful word
choice to help remind the viewers and McClane that not only was the original
movie also a heist but also happened on Christmas. My other favorite indirect
allusion to the original film occurs when McClane is investigating the Federal
Reserve Bank and just as in the original Die
Hard a covert terrorist gives himself away with un-American speech patterns.
As I mentioned in the introduction
to this piece the real star of this entire movie is the grand city of New York
in all of its stunning pre 9-11 glory. First and foremost, I want to say again
that we as a people cannot let the terrorists win and happily strike the image
of one of the modern wonders of the world from our collective social conscious
in some lame apologist attempt to preserve “feelings.” Everyone has very strong
feelings about the WTC and 9-11 and I as a writer am no different; I can tell
you for a fact that I considered this review long and hard because of The
Towers and the fact that I was there and saw it all go down in mind-scarring
reality. Personally I will always choose to remember the resilient carefree
pre-9-11 NYC that McClane ferociously and triumphantly fights to save before I
will concede the horrible realities that terrorism and the police surveillance
state have brought upon us all.
All of this being said, NYC is in
her finest glory in this film. The movie features not only the WTC, but Wall
Street, Harlem, Yankee Stadium, Central Park, Columbus Circle, the real Tompkins
Square park (always one of my favorites being some of my old stomping grounds)
the real 72nd Street subway station, but also the streets and avenues and
traffic, and the real “summer in the city” feel that only NYC can provide. The
movie plays it real too: 72nd Street to Wall Street in less than half an hour is a miracle, and just for reference:
the aqueduct is real too, even though tunnel 3 is now completely finished and
functioning.
Die
Hard 3 is a great movie about 2 great heroes fighting their way through
what could easily be history’s greatest city (come at me Rome and London). The
acting, directing, and locations are epic and this movie should be recognized
as one of the finest action movies ever made, and McTiernan hereby cements his
place as one of the greatest action directors with this piece. Jackson and
Willis, reunited for the first time since their gripping performances in
Pulp Fiction,
continue to carve out their places in Hollywood history. Jeremy Irons raises
the bar for all action movie villains to an incredibly high place with his
multifaceted and grimly sardonic performance. All and all not just a movie to
see for cinema’s sake, but a film to enjoy because movies are great in the way
that they can take us back to times and places that no longer exist all while
having a great experience.
