Die Hard
To begin with, Die Hard is a mix of action and crime film. However, it includes comedy and romance in the movie. Die Hard narrates John McClane, a NYPD detective who went to Los Angles to visit his wife and unintentionally breakdown a crew of terrorist taking over Los Angeles skyscraper. The main turning point in the movie is when John McClane killed the first terrorist, Tony that raised Han Gruber’s attention by letting him know that someone in the building against him and his team. The plot of the film is extremely tense and impressive. John McTiernan, the director of Die Heart has alternated the scenes between the hostage, Argyle, the driver, LAPD and the action scene, which let the audiences understand different perspective of the actors and make the movie less intense. In Die Hard, Han Gruber is the leader of the terrosist. The antagonists did not change their stand till the end of the movie. Except, one scene that Han Gruber pretend as an escape hostage and tries to kill John.
Die Hard shows the intelligent of John McClane and the law enforcement. John McClane defeats all of the antagonists by his own, which shows his braveness and cleverness. However, in the movie, the FBI used their power to command the engineer to shut the power off, which let the terrorist open the final vault lock. These make a comparison between John and the FBI. The film has explicitly narrating the plot in the beginning of the movie by showing what the terrorist wants. Nevertheless, Han Gruber and his team pretend to be terrorists to cover up the theft. Therefore, John and the LAPD do not know the main intension of this incident. From the reading, classic film usually include character- centred causality, repetition and continuity editing, which Die Hard matched with the readings. In Die Hard, John McClane against the terrorists alone, this denotes character-centred causality. Furthermore, the film has indicated repetition, John McClane visits his wife in Los Angles to rescue his marriage, after the terrorists’ incident, he successfully rescues his marriage.
The director John McTiernan insist to used real flares to produce an unpredictable smoke and scene in order to the film more realistic. Handheld cameras have been frequently used to film closer to the actors to creating a more cinematic intimacy. Moreover, different angles of shooting can also enhance realism of the plot, for instance, there are nine camera crews with 24 different cameras while filming the movie. John McTiernan was influenced by the French New Wave cinema at that time. The editing style was contraried to the mainstream style in 1980s. Die Hard was nominated for best film editing in 1989 Academy Awards (Oscar). The style of the movie composed to be realistic as John McTiernan used real flares and different angles to film. The film is not overwhelm with action sequences as the film is alternative with comedy and romance. The part where Argyle is having fun in the limousine and the argument between Al Powell, an LAPD sergeant and Dwayne T Robinson, the LAPT deputy chief, have lowering down the intense of the film. John McClane, the protagonist of the movie has no partner helping him out in the building and he exposed his identity by Harry Ellis, Holly Gennero-McClane’s co- worker. John McClane is being passive in the beginning as he is unarmed and the number of the terrorists.
Die Hard is a huge production movie with unique editing style and shooting style. Die Hard was considered as the greatest action film ever made, it had received four nomination from Academy Award (Oscar). It considers as a classical Hollywood action movie and it has surprised audiences with spectacle action sequences in the 1988. Die Hard is an unexpectable movie that the action scenes are without using computer graphics (CG), it provides a realism to the audiences, especially the helicopter and explosion scene. Die Hard given a feeling of modernistic and realism no matter of its sound effect or the production. Compare to Rambo: First Blood Part II, which product in 1985, Die Hard is an excellent action movie in 1980s, as it has splendid sound effect, shooting method and giving a realism to the audience.
Reference
(n.d.). Retrieved September 20, 2020, from https://oscar.go.com/