When it involves popular culture opinions that may elicit both a dramatic eye-roll or full disinterest from everybody who hears them, “Die Hard is a Christmas film” sits close to the highest of the checklist (and either side of the “Martin Scorsese/superhero film” debate are rocketing up the charts, by the way in which). Yes, Die Hard takes place throughout Christmas, it’s about household, and the villain is a basic grasping Christmas archetype. It’s not value litigating that ever once more.
Thankfully, in a welcome and most certainly unintentional growth, Hollywood has spent the final couple of years rendering the entire “Die Hard is a Christmas film” factor irrelevant by making motion films which might be explicitly about Christmas. John Woo’s new Silent Night and final yr’s Violent Night decide up the place Die Hard leaves off, providing you with extra excuses to observe action-packed holiday-themed counter-programming to the extra conventional seasonal films about household and studying and the outdated Building And Loan.
Violent Night is the extra overt homage to the Die Hard debate, because it’s a couple of man in a single location on Christmas killing a bunch of terrorists. But the man this time round simply occurs to be Santa Claus (David Harbour)—who on this world is an historic Viking warrior with magical powers who delivers presents to each boy and woman yearly. There can also be, cleverly, a fairly specific Home Alone tribute the place a child units up a sequence of acquainted traps (nails, glue, damaged ornaments) {that a} pair of evil goons hold stumbling into.
That bit is perhaps a nod to a different basic Christmas popular culture speaking level, particularly “the blokes in Home Alone ought to’ve died,” which brings up the controversial draw back to Violent Night vs. Die Hard: The former may be very, very, violent. John McTiernan directed Die Hard as just a little extra of a common good time that most individuals can comfortably get pleasure from, which provides to the “it’s a Christmas film!” nonsense. But Violent Night is gleefully, unapologetically brutal. There’s a scene the place Santa places an ice skate on every hand and rips via a bunch of fellows like he’s spamming Mortal Kombat strikes. Your household may have the ability to tolerate “yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker,” however a man getting decapitated by a skate as his physique limply slumps to the bottom is perhaps a more durable promote the place the stockings are hung with care.
Silent Night (in theaters this week) is much less apparent, however it’s nearer to the “really, it is a Christmas film” spirit of the Die Hard debate. It’s a couple of man (Joel Kinnaman) whose household is killed within the crossfire of some type of gang battle on Christmas day, so he turns himself right into a John Wick-style homicide machine and embarks on a quest for vengeance. So, like Die Hard, it’s set at Christmas and it’s a couple of man who … loves his household? He’s not being reunited along with his household the way in which John McClane is, and there’s much less of an controversial theme about materialism, however that is positively a Christmas film.
How are you able to inform? Well, Kinnaman’s character is carrying a Christmas sweater and it’s known as Silent Night, which is a Christmas factor. That’s a minimum of as deep because the Die Hard stuff, and because it has that title you gained’t should justify its Christmas-ness to any non-believers. Better but, it operates on the central gimmick of getting no spoken dialogue, which suggests you and your loved ones can nonetheless gab whereas watching Kinnaman mow down villains with a shotgun and also you gained’t miss any exposition (as soon as it’s launched on house video, a minimum of).
The lack of dialogue additionally sends a constructive message about unity and placing apart your variations, which is the type of reminder we may all use throughout the holidays. It’s not in regards to the issues that separate us, like language, it’s in regards to the issues that unite us, like watching a John Woo’s first American film in 20 years, through which Joel Kinnaman writes a “Kill Them All” reminder on his calendar and the proceeds to, you already know, kill all of them. Another constructive message! Getting issues performed. Accomplishing your objectives for the yr. Finding methods to raised your self. This is a pleasant film a couple of good man doing good issues that the entire household can get pleasure from, making it a wonderfully applicable addition to the “that is really about Christmas” canon—although it’s additionally very violent.
So, this yr and yearly, be happy to skip Die Hard and the entire debate surrounding it. Hollywood has spent the final two years providing you with different, extra applicable choices for Christmas motion films. Besides, Die Hard is definitely a Halloween film—it’s about folks mendacity about their identification to be able to get treats (bearer bonds), there’s a scene the place somebody eats sweet, and one of many unhealthy guys seemingly comes again to life on the finish earlier than being killed for actual (like Jason or Michael may).
