This devout Die Harder tried watching ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.’ It made her gag | Opinion
Meet Sherry Scott.
She’s an artist, an interior designer, a bookkeeper, a pug rescuer, a gardener, a beach lover, a retired dental hygienist, a traveler, a Renaissance Fair founder ... and a Die Harder.
She hasn’t tracked the number of times she’s seen “Die Hard” — 30, 40, maybe even 50? — but every Christmas, she adds to the tally.
Scott, 72, of Grover Beach, is one of thousands — maybe millions? — who have made the Bruce Willis action movie released in 1988 an unlikely Christmas tradition.
It defies practically all the rules of the Christmas movie. There are no family farms that need saving, no desperate, last-minute hunt for the perfect gift, no cute kid tugging on Santa’s beard (there’s not a single child in the entire movie, unless you count a heavily pregnant woman’s soon-to-be born baby).
Instead, there’s a high body count (hard to say exactly how high, since multiple people are killed in explosions), some salty language and a small army of foreign terrorists. This being the ‘80s, there’s also big hair but no cell phones.
Scott loves all 132 minutes of it. She’s tried watching more traditional holiday movies. Most don’t cut it.
One year, after partaking of some holiday cheer, she “accidentally’”watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” — that old chestnut starring Jimmy Stewart.
It made her gag.
“I don’t, fortunately, remember much of it,” she said.
Peeling back the layers
As inexplicable as it seems to those of us outside the “Die Hard” fan circle, there is no denying that even after nearly 40 years, the film remains a cultural phenomenon.
There are Die Hard Christmas ornaments. Books. Ball caps. Sweatshirts. Pajamas. Action figures. Coffee cups. Lunch boxes. Advent calendars.
But it’s about more than the merch.
There have been serious academic discussions of what we can learn from “Die Hard,” including a post on Reddit titled, “Peeling back the subtextual layers of Die Hard.”
Some have likened John McClane — a cop who single-handedly defeats the terrorists while running around barefoot — to an anti-capitalist, unshod, Everyman savior.
Forbes, the high-falutin’ business publication, featured an article titled, “Die Hard U: John McClane’s Top 10 Lessons for America’s Colleges.”
And no discussion is complete without mentioning the Great Debate over whether “Die Hard” is indeed a Christmas movie, which has been the topic of scholarly articles like this one by Ph.D. Nathan Scoll: “Yes, Die Hard is a Christmas Movie: A Semantic, Syntactic, Pragmatic Approach to Resolve the Debate Over Die Hard’s Genre Status.”
Is it or isn’t it?
To Scott, “Die Hard” is the very definition of a holiday movie: “It’s something that takes place at Christmas, and I enjoy, OK?”
Most Die Harders would agree. (Scott recently ran into a fellow fan at a restaurant. He was wearing a “Die Hard is a Christmas movie” T-shirt. She was wearing her Nakatomi Plaza Christmas sweater. They instantly bonded.)
The pro side points to all the holiday tropes — the annual office party, the Christmas trees, the decorations, the seasons greetings — along with the movie’s redemptive story arc. (McClane is trying to reconcile with his wife. Spoiler alert: Mission accomplished.)
Here’s the counter argument: Those are merely holiday trappings that do not drive the story. Besides, all that death and destruction run counter to the Christmas theme of peace on Earth and goodwill to men.
I say we settle it by letting the star of the movie have the last word.
“Now please listen very carefully,” Willis said at his 2018 Comedy Central Roast. “’Die Hard’ is not a Christmas movie. It’s a Bruce Willis movie.”
Yipee-ki-yay!
Enjoy your “Christmas” movie, Die Harders.
The rest of us may try to catch a real holiday movie. I hear “It’s a Wonderful Life” is just the ticket.
