Ashley Lister

Is Die Hard a Christmas Movie? A brief investigation into the application of genre

Ashley Lister

Abstract

Die Hard (1988) is the first in a series of American action films starring Bruce Willis. The story shows armed gunman taking control of the Nakatomi Towers whilst occupants of the building are engaged in Christmas festivities. Online discussion over the past few years has argued as to whether or not the film should be described as a Christmas movie. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that such genre labels are descriptive rather than prescriptive and to illustrate that the purpose of genre classification is often more important than the limits imposed by an arbitrary label.

Introduction

Die Hard (1988) is the first film in an American action series that was adapted from Roderick Thorp’s novel Nothing Lasts Forever (1979). The film stars Bruce Willis, as off-duty police officer John McClane, trying to rescue his wife and other hostages held in the Nakatomi Plaza, a high-rise office building, after they have been caught there on Christmas Eve. Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) is the resourceful master criminal pitting his wits against McClane.

The genre of the film has come under a substantial amount of discussion as some argue that it is a Christmas movie, including the film’s writer, Steven E de Souza (Ainsworth, 2018), and the film’s Director, John McTiernan, who took some of his inspiration from the classic 1946 Christmas movie, It’s a Wonderful Life (Cooper, 2020). Others say it is an action movie with events that merely take place at Christmas, and this is supported by an online survey that claims 62% of respondents say it is not a Christmas movie (Ainsworth, 2018). Perhaps the most telling aspect of this feature is, when ‘don‘t know’ votes are taken into account, only 25% of adult respondents described Die Hard as a Christmas Movie. Famously, during his Comedy Central roast (2018), Willis himself announced: “Die Hard is not a Christmas movie. It’s a god damn Bruce Willis movie!”

The complexity of this issue of classification arises from two areas: the notion that genre is monolithic and the purpose of genre.

To discuss the first of these areas, it seems somewhat reductive to ascribe any piece of fiction to a single genre. If we build on Todorov’s (1990:18) notion that genre consists of both the semantic and the syntactic, then we can immediately see there is a potential for two genre labels. For example, a typical heteronormative romance will have the syntactic structure of a heteronormative romance (boy meets girl and they fall in love; they’re parted; they get back together). However, if an author puts that story (with its syntactic structure of a romance)

aboard the semantic location of a spaceship, the genre does not stop being romance to become science-fiction. Instead, it becomes a romantic/science-fiction story: a hybrid. The same thing would happen if the previously described syntactic romance was set against a semantic content of western tropes or fantasy tropes: it would be described in the terms of a hybrid as a romantic/western or romantic/fantasy. In such a fashion, Die Hard could probably be described as a Christmas/Thriller or a Christmas/Cop Movie.

It should be noted that, on a syntactic level, Die Hard could be perceived as a romance because McLane joins his partner in the first act, is separated from her in the second and reunited in the third. However, this argument is hampered by the content of the movie’s semantic level, which includes the guns and violence of a thriller or action film, along with the decorated trees, seasonal music and ugly jumpers that we associate with Christmas. Curiously, when discussions of Die Hard’s genre occur, there are few people, who allocate the label romance to this film, even though it would clearly fit under the hybrid label of romance/action/Christmas movie.

These hybrid descriptions lend themselves to an overview of the second point that needs discussing, which is the purpose of genre. Todorov said genre ‘is nothing other than the codification of discursive properties’ (1990: 18), a sentiment which echoes Derrida’s observation of genre that ‘[o]n the one hand it commits one to nothing. Neither reader nor critic nor author are bound to believe that the text preceded by this designation conforms readily to the strict, normal, normed or normative definition of the genre, to the law of the genre or of the mode.’ (1980: 214). However, whilst Derrida argues that neither reader nor critic nor author are bound by a genre label, it should be acknowledged that the reader, the critic and the author are also at liberty to append the genre labels that they see as being appropriate. This line of thinking allows genre labels to become a broad (and often variable) rubric that is there only as a superordinate term to label a single aspect of the whole. In other words, Thorp’s original novel can be listed on Amazon under genre labels such as Terrorism Thrillers, and Adventure Stories and Action, whilst I can watch the film derived from that novel and describe it as either a romance or a Christmas film, depending on my needs to apply a label. In a similar fashion, a film such as Deadpool (2016), can legitimately be released by the studio as a superhero movie, it can then be described on a meta-level, within the film, as a romance, and an audience can tell their friends about it, describing it as a comedy, an action film, a Ryan Reynolds movie or a hybrid of any or all of the aforementioned genres.

Which leads to the conclusion that Die Hard is a Christmas movie if we want it to be a Christmas movie. It is also an action movie, a cop movie, a romance, a Bruce Willis movie, as well as being a combination of any or all of those labels depending on the needs of the person describing the title.

All of which can be used as a framing device for those teaching English subjects, to present texts that are perceived as difficult or inaccessible in a more palatable light. For example, if we present a title such as Wuthering Heights to students, telling them it is classified as a story of forbidden love, this sounds more exciting and engaging than introducing them to something described as an exemplar of the Victorian romance novel. Similarly, Of Mice and Men, does not seem exciting when presented as a representation of Steinbeck’s flawed American dream, however, it can be seen as more appealing when it is described as an authentic story of life and death in the old wild west.

Keeping in mind Todorov’s aforementioned observation that genre ‘is nothing other than the codification of discursive properties’ (1990: 18), and Derrida’s caveat that, in a discussion of genre ‘[n]either reader nor critic nor author are bound to believe that the text preceded by this designation conforms readily to the strict, normal, normed or normative definition of the genre, to the law of the genre or of the mode.’ (1980: 214), it seems apposite to describe this approach to genre as a way to positively frame and encourage student expectations.

Bibliography

Ainsworth, C (2018), Surprise! 62 Percent of People Say Die Hard is Not a Christmas movie. Available at: https:// www.mentalfloss.com/article/566350/most-people-say-die-hard-is-not-a-christmas-movie (Accessed: 19/03/2021) Comedy Central Roast (2018) CBS Studio Center, 29th July. Cooper, G (2020) Is Die Hard a Christmas Movie? Available at: https://www.cnet.com/news/is-die-hard-achristmas-movie-director-john-mctiernan-has-thoughts/ (Accessed: 19/03/2021) Deadpool (2016), [DVD] Tim Miller, USA, Twentieth Century Fox. Derrida, J. and Ronell, A. (1980) ‘The Law of Genre’. In Critical Inquiry, Vol. 7, No. 1, On Narrative (Autumn). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 55-81. Die Hard (1988), [DVD] John McTiernan, USA, Twentieth Century Fox. Thorp, R (1979/2011) Nothing lasts Forever. USA: Graymalkin Media. Todorov, T. (1990) Genres in Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press