Die Hard, the Greatest Christmas movie ever. December 19, 2023

 Yesterday, I talked about Christmas movies that are entertaining all year, and now I will talk about my personal favorite, Die Hard. It may not have the traditional Christmas colors or a morale, but it's Die Hard. To be fair, it does start out in the scenario most Christmas movies begin with, it is about a father who doesn't spend time with his family. Not to mention John McClane and Holly Gennaro are too busy with their work they don't consider each other. They don't play as much Christmas music, but John whistles Jingle Bells, and it ends with Let it Snow. Holly Mentions Santa and Ebenezer Scrooge. If it was more faithful to the book it was based on, which I have not read, it would not be a Christmas movie, because it would not have a happy ending. That makes it one of the few movie book adaptions where the movie was better. One thing they did that made it more festive was change the name of the main villain. In the book his name was Anton "Little Tony" Gruber, while the movie changed his name to the iconic, Hans Gruber, possibly to sound like Franz Gruber who wrote Silent Night. With the first terrorist John killed they changed his name to Tony because in the book he was Hans, he wrote now we have a machinegun to confuse his cohorts. In the movie, I'm pleased they added the festive, "Ho, Ho, Ho." Also, in the book the terrorists were more serious terrorists targeting the Klaxon building due to a deal in Chili they were celebrating, while in the movie they were thieves posing as terrorists. Germany was about to be reunited and the Cold War was ending, so it made sense at the time. I should also mention Gruber's iconic fall, and as everyone pointed out, if they had not lied about when the late Allan Rickman was going to fall, it would not have worked. The office papers falling, can be Christmas snow. When they gave Harry Ellis a Coke, (he might have meant something else when he asked for some) Santa should have been on the can. Back to the family dynamic of the movie, near the end when John asks about Holly, after injuring his feet and getting shot by Karl with his own gun, he referred to her as Holly Gennaro. After John rescued her, he introduced her to Al Powell as Holly Gennaro, and she corrected him with Holly McClane. I also need to address the theory about the kid Al shot in his backstory being Steve Urkel. I don't believe that, but it is fun to think about it. 

That's all I had to say about the original masterpiece, and with that, I enjoy all the sequels, even the lesser ones. I like how Die Hard 2: Die Harder tried being a Christmas movie, too, but only at the beginning and the end, while the first one showed decorations and mentioned Christmas throughout. The third one was good, too, and would have been a Christmas movie if it had the alternate ending. I appreciate the third for trying to be a Fourth of July movie, even if that was dropped halfway through. All I'll say about the fifth one, is it was I didn't think it was as bad as everyone else did. After all that, the next book I write will be a story that embraces Christmas without being restricted to it. But first I need to finish the Covert Militia's Second Campaign, and their first is given away free as a Christmas present in the End of Year Sale. If you are interested in reading any independent authors works, click on the link here.Smashwords.com