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Thursday, December 1, 2016

Thoughts on Die Hard

I saw Die Hard at the Moving Image museum last weekend. It was a lot of fun to watch a masterpiece onscreen, to laugh and clap along with the audience (clapping at Alan Rickman and Reginald VelJohnson's entrances, the yippie ki-yay line), seeing the film as a crackly old print instead of a clean remastered version, noticing smaller details, like foreshadowing moments, the camera doing a slow pan over Holly's family photos to reveal John as her husband, Karl's growing bloodthirs...ty quest for revenge on John killing his brother, Ellis being high on coke during his scenes, the ways in which Gruber stayed cool as the police were outside, and how Rickman couldn't keep his real accent from coming in, he just barely sounded German.

I did wish that they did a little more with Al Leong, as he doesn't do much besides swipe a candy bar and shoot people, and he gets killed very easily. I also thought that Theo was the only surviving thief, as he doesn't kill anyone, he is the computer hacker, and he is alive when Argyle punches him out.

I kept getting psyched during the movie, and had to keep myself from reciting lines out loud (under my breath, I was reciting along with Al Powell's Twinkie scene, until I saw that the guy next to me was looking at me). I love how a lot of the minor characters get a memorable moment, and the movie is insanely quotable. It is just a fantastic movie overall.

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