CNN's Jake Tapper settles a long-running debate with film historian and author Jeremy Arnold over whether 1988 movie "Die Hard" is a Christmas movie or not. #CNN #News
Goes to show that the popular vote should prevail. Die Hard, IMHO is *not* a Christmas movie. It’s a movie that takes place at Christmas but has nothing to do with else to do with Christmas.
Did she love it? I went along to the cinema to see it when it came out only as an act of love and solidarity for my hubby, I'm not an action fan at all, and I loved it!!!
We watched it on Christmas. She agreed it was a Christmas movie and the story moved along nicely. A bit too much violence for her preference 😂 She was actually more invested in Al’s safety. “You can’t kill Carl from Family Matters!” 😅 Her rating: 3.5 stars out of 5.
@@trailrunner72You should convince your wife that Die Hard has similar plot points with Home Alone, also both movies being produced by 20th Century Fox within 3 years of difference, each one got 4 sequels (most of em are inferior to the original).
“Die Hard” is such a legendary movie. Love that it’s locked in the late eighties, such a different world. The building was so beautiful, the interior sets with Japanese influence just amazing. The music, top notch. It definitely made two legends, Alan Rickman and Bruce Willis.
"Now I have a machine gun ho-ho-ho" (with a santa hat) Christmas music throughout the movie, Christmas party, Christmas time. Yes die hard is a Christmas movie.
I think Jake Tapper is the kind of person we need doing a very wide range of news stories: interesting, knowledgeable, articulate, thoughtful, and principled. This is obviously one of the fluffier pieces he has done, but here he doesn't blow off the interview. He comes at it with a surprisingly deep background knowledge set, very respectfully interacts with his guests, and sets up an interesting dialogue.mWe are lucky to have him in his role.
I think what makes Die Hard a Christmas movie is the hopeful spirit that the movie embodies - good miraculously triumphing over evil against all odds on Christmas Eve.
@@QuantumOfSolace1 No, the story is about a man traveling from New York to California to be with his wife for Christmas. The events happened on Christmas Eve at a company Christmas party. Everything about the story revolved around Christmas. It's just not a kid friendly movie.
Funny thing is, it's a Christmas movie by proxy. The house that Roger Murtaugh's family lives in is actually the same house that is owned by the neighbours ofbthe Griswolds in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. 😆
@@IanWillbond the song that opens the movie is jingle bell rock. Also there was a Christmas tree up in Roger's house and Riggs refers to Christmas as "the silly season" to the jumper.
@gandydancer8234 But does having it set at Christmas, actually make it a Christmas movie? If Ridley Scott decided to put a Christmas tree in the nostromo and have jingle bells playing in the opening scene of Alien, would that make it a Christmas movie?
I don't know if Lethal Weapon has ever entered the conversation whether it's a Christmas movie. It takes place during the holidays. The opening credits has Jingle Bell Rock by Bobby Helms and the ending credits has I'll be Home for Christmas by Elvis Presley. There's references of Christmas throughout the movie. The character Martin Riggs has a redemption arc. Lethal Weapon was also released a year before Die Hard both films produced by Joel Silver.
Exactly, great example. It's one thing when a movie revolves around Xmas an another with the backdrop of Xmas, and only the first one IS a Xmas movie!!!
Jeb Stuart, the guy who literally wrote the movie, said it’s a Christmas movie. Case closed. When the guy who created it (I realize it’s loosely based on a book. Loosely.) says he intended it to be a Christmas movie, you really can’t argue.
It has taken me 20 years to convince my Wife Die Hard is a Christmas movie! This movie is educational as well... it teaches people outside the USA what the ingredients of a Twinkie are too !🤣😎
He travels to LA to spend Christmas with his family There is an actual Christmas party going on. They rock Christmas in Hollis Kills first guy a puts Santa hat on the guy They end the movie noting it's Christmas The movie closes with "Let it Snow". Best action movie ever!
If it takes place at christmas and is about people just trying to get through whatever they are dealing with at christmasstime, its a christmas movie. If you always watch it during the season, its a christmas movie. Period.
Just saw it again on the big screen at AMC last week. Laughed at all the great lines. (There was a gas station in the foreground at one point .74 a gallon)
I've seen Die Hard hundreds of times and it's an absolute favorite Christmas movie. Two others: for LAUGHS and HEART = The Ref; and for pure Christmas joy and growth = A Muppet Christmas Carol. Both (all three!) are perfect!
My buddies and I have this debate every year. Out of 6, we are split. I am on the side it’s not. But here is a spin. The fact that we have this debate every Christmas, have I now contributed to making it a Christmas movie against my own belief?
From a friend, (hope this helps): If we’re really going to ask “Is Die Hard a Christmas Movie?” let’s begin by figuring out what makes a Christmas Movie in the first place. Instead of categorizing all the different types of Christmas movie (The Protagonist Learns a Lesson, Santa is Seriously Injured and Must Be Replaced, The Reclamation of Family, The Reclamation of Family but it’s actually a Return to Home, The Reclamation of Family plus Protagonist Learns a Lesson, Time Travel Ghost Story plus Protagonist Learns A Lesson, A Return to Home plus Show-Stopping Musical Numbers, We’re in Love But Pretending Like We’re Not Oh Wait It’s Christmas, We’re in Love But Pretending Like We’re Not Oh Wait One of Us Is An Angel, Something About the Innocence of a Child Saves The Day But Honestly It Got Confusing There Toward The End, etc, etc) I thought we could maybe just answer the question What makes a Christmas Movie a Christmas Movie and go from there. So: What make a Christmas Movie a Christmas Movie? It’s maybe not as easy as ‘What makes a Christmas song sound like Christmas?’ (a minor subdominant chord with an added 6) (no, for real) but I bet there’s some stuff basic we’d agree on. Like: 1)The filmmakers intended it to be a Christmas Movie 2)It’s set at Christmas 3)There’s Christmas music (especially at the finale) 4) Something has to happen in time for Christmas (or for Christmas to be saved) 5) It has sort of has a vaguely anti-capitalistic pro-Christmas message and 6) One of the characters has a Christmas-related character detail or motivation- like say for example the wife of the protagonist is named HOLLY. (Seriously why do you think Die Hard ISN’T a Christmas movie? It literally does all six off the above things we all agree are Christmas Basic. Is it because you don’t think a Christmas story should feature a blue collar fellla slowly running out of cigarettes at a party with unlimited booze while he and his wife are being distant because they never finished this fight in July that eventually crescendos into violence and explosion after explosion? Because if that’s not Christmassy to you, maybe you just haven’t been to any Irish Catholic Christmases.) (And if the reason you think it’s not a Christmas movie is because you think the movie is about “Will Bruce Willis kill these terrorists?” you are extra-double wrong, my friend. Die Hard is about “Can a man get back to his wife and family in time for Christmas?” The terrorists are just the obstacle getting in the way. Like: Titanic isn’t about two pretty people running away from water. I mean, yes, that happens, but that’s an obstacle to what it’s really about: “Can true love survive the greatest disaster in History?” The terrorists are just an obstacle that our protagonist has to deal with while he struggles for Reclamation of his Family and the thing that will eventually help him to Learn a Lesson along the way. So - Even if the movie does all of those things plus is, at its core, a traditional Christmas story (Reclamation of Family plus Man Learns a Lesson) does it FEEL like a Christmas movie? Let’s look at the two most Christmassy Feeling Movies of all: A Christmas Carol (in all its iterations and variants) and It’s a Wonderful Life. We can agree these two movies absolutely do all of our Christmas Basic things, plus are Christmas stories (Time Travel Ghost Story plus Protagonist Learns a Lesson, and Reclamation of Family but Really It’s a Return to Home plus Protagonist Learns a Lesson, respectively) and wow they so FEEL like Christmas don’t they? If these two movies are your Christmas favorites or if you’re more of an Elf fan or whatever (Love Actually fans though: what are you even doing?) we can all agree these movies ARE SO CHRISTMASSY. So beyond the Basic Christmas stuff, what do these two movies have in common? They both conclude as the Protagonist Learns a lesson, in both movies the Protagonist is reabsorbed into a kind of domesticity after ejecting it or running away from it (this varies in the Carols, but it’s typically there) and both of them ARE DARK AF. No seriously. AF. Let’s not forget the action of It’s a Wonderful Life kicks off with suicide and A Christmas Carol is at it’s funniest when it’s about GREED AND CLASS WARFARE (terrorists don’t seem so out of place now right? Especially when the terrorists in Die Hard are in fact PLOT TWIST not terrorists at all but instead greedy thieves who value money over all else OH DANG MAYBE DIE HARD IS A CHRISTMAS MOVIE) The darkness in both of these stories (and in almost all Christmas movies worth their weight in celluloid) comes from the same complicated place: Regret. Christmas requires regret. Let’s face it. Christmas is haunted. The ghosts in A Christmas Carol are there to screw Scrooge to places he’s been, things he’s done - a way to measure his present against his past. Christmas is all the things we didn’t do and all the things we wanted that didn’t come true. We start out as children staying up all night waiting for impossible magic and transform over time into adults who know that many Christmases are actually going to be worse than the year before. Christmas comes back around again every year and our memories of it are so vibrant that we can clearly see what we wanted then, where we are now, and what the future has in store. George Bailey can see of all the places he didn’t go and all of the things he gave up, Scrooge knows that it’s his fault the future ahead of him is a great valueless nothing, and John, when faced with death and covered in blood, chokes on all of the things he should have said to Holly back in July: “I'm getting a bad feeling up here. I'd like you to do something for me. Look up my wife. Don't ask how, by then you’ll know how. And tell her - Tell her I've been a jerk. That when things started to pan out for her I should have been more supportive. I should've been behind her more. Tell her that she’s the best thing that ever happened to a bum like me. She's heard me say I love you a thousand times, she never heard me I say I’m sorry. I want you to tell her that, Al. I want you to tell her that John said He’s Sorry.” Yeah, that counts as regret. But okay: Lots of movies have regret. What makes Christmas movies different? Because in a Christmas movie Christmas is the thing that makes it possible to change. Christmas is going to come back around again next year, and while that brings on the melancholy, it also means you still have chances for redemption. You still have time to fix what went wrong. The magic of Christmas is that we aren’t too far gone, that we haven’t drifted too far away, that we can still go home and set things right. We can run through the streets and see that Bedford Falls is still there, we can tell the General that he’s allowed to come home from the War and find a place in snowy Vermont (while falling in love with one of the Haynes Sisters), we can learn the true meaning of Christmas in the aftermath of an ill-advised comedy kidnapping, we can go to our nephew’s house for Christmas and be welcome, we can still fight our way to Holly in time for Christmas morning. We just have to suffer through Pottersville/throw the big show and make it snow/ convince the boss to give everybody Christmas bonuses / survive a series of Lesson Teaching Ghosts/ throw Hans Gruber off a building first. Regret is turned into redemption through the power of Christmas (and in the case of Die Hard also through the power of, like, a lot of explosives.) And if the deal is you don’t think Die Hard is a Christmas Movie because you’ve never watched it at Christmas, remember: part of Christmas Magic is the promise of something new. This is why it snows at the end. While George Bailey and Clark Griswold learn that home was right where they left it (and they just accidentally lost themselves along the way,) Scrooge and General Waverly find a new home in a new place by trying a new thing. Sometimes coming home for Christmas is finding a new home altogether. John and Holly don’t reunite back in New York by restaging the fight from July. They make a new home in a new place just in time for Christmas morning and the big finish musical number. So: new isn’t so bad. Give Die Hard a try as a Christmas Movie. Come out to the coast, we’ll get together, have a few laughs. And yes, the snow fall at the end is actually ash and fiery debris and $640 million in burned-up negotiable bearer bonds, but it closes with a great big Christmas number just in time for Christmas morning- what more do you want out of a Christmas Movie?
Serious, professional personalities still have their own thoughts and opinions outside of work. Think of how boring his home life would be to those around him if he was always in "professional" mode. And besides, this is kind of newsworthy since it's been a debate since the film first launched, and I'm sure the start of many fights on December 25th around the table. 😆
Considering the screenwriter, director, and even the studio itself declared that it was officially a Christmas movie, there really shouldn't be any lingering debate. The only point I would disagree with Jeremy Arnold over in what he said is that this movie could NOT have taken place at any other time of the year. Christmas is the only day of the entire year that virtually all companies shut down, leaving everything sparse enough for something like this to take place. Any other day there would be more complications with other people in the building on different floors, possibly more security, police would probably respond faster, (even though they are portrayed extremely bad in the movie, other than Al.) Besides the obvious aspects that would only happen at Christmas, there are a whole bunch of subtle things that are integrated specifically into the movie that really only make sense on Christmas. Then of course all the themes at the heart of the movie are pretty much everything that makes up standard Christmas movies, just with the twist that there is some incredible action thrown on top. I've never understood how people see it as a simple action movie, when there is a huge amount of depth if you look past that layer. Honestly, how can someone consider Home Alone a Christmas movie and not Die Hard? Every person has their own ideas of what makes a movie a certain type of movie, but as far as I am concerned, it ticks every box that any other Christmas movie hits, and then some.
The one thing overlooked about this movie imo is Bonnie freakin Bedelia. She's the reason for the season! She makes my spirits bright! She puts the... you get it.
The debate is easy to me, we all watch Die Hard around Christmas. We also watch it whenever we want, but Christmas time always gets a viewing. We also watch Home Alone whenever we want, but always a viewing around Christmas. It's a Wonderful Life is one of the most ageless movies ever created, so no arguments that it's the best one.
Bruce Willis is not the ultimate authority on that issue. His opinion is that Die Hard isn't a Christmas movie. This is very much up to the individuals that watch it. To me it is a Christmas movie. It came out at Christmas, and in my family we watch it every Christmas as a tradition. It is set at Christmas, at a Christmas party. There are Christmas decorations, and Christmas songs, Santa hats, jokes about Christmas, talking about Christmas events, people saying "Merry Christmas", the list goes on and on. If you want to say that Die Hard isn't a Christmas movie, then Home Alone isn't either. Home Alone isn't about Christmas. It is about a boy left at home alone at Christmas, defending his home from burglars. But it clearly is a Christmas movie. Both of them are to me.
Watching people trying to justify Die Hard as a "Christmas movie" is like watching 45ers trying to justify Trump's crimes. It hilarious watching them fail.
Funny because my best friend met Bruce Willis on the street in Manhattan about 3 years ago and Bruce told him and his friends that Die Hard is not a Christmas movie, It's a movie that takes place during the Christmas season but it's not about Christmas. Now Scrooge or A Wonderful Life are Christmas movies because the plot is all about Christmas. The plot of Die Hard is about Criminals that are trying to rob a company.
Willis didn't write Die Hard and he came on as the sixth choice to play McClane. He did a great job but point is invalid. Christmas is integral to the plot of the movie.
You know what else are Christmas movies? 1. LETHAL WEAPON 2. Gremlins 3. Batman Returns 4. Shazam 5. Trading Places (also a New Year's movie) 6. Long Kiss Goodnight 7. Iron Man 3 (also a New Year's movie) 8. Ghostbusters 2 (also a New Year's movie)
Die Hard may have been set during Christmas, but it was released in July of 1988 as a summer blockbuster, one week after the Fourth of July, when people were having backyard barbecues, going to the beach, going to boardwalks and amusement parks, going to baseball games, watching fireworks, and spending time outdoors and having fun. No one was thinking about snow and Santa Claus.
The "ultimate" Christmas movie, "Its a Wonderful Life", was released in January of 1947, after Christmas and New Years. What difference what season "Die Hard" was released? It's still a Christmas movie!
@@howardmoore1332 Yes, but It's a Wonderful Life was about a Christmas angel coming to help George Bailey see that his life was worth something, and the Christmas setting was in keeping with the theme of the movie. Die Hard was based on a book that was inspired by The Towering Inferno, and that was a sequel to an earlier book about a private detective. Christmas was just part of the backdrop.
@@christinafrascona123 Christ was born in late summer, either in August or September, and the reason we celebrate in December is because December 25th was originally the Roman pagan festival of Saturnalia, before Rome converted to Christianity. The point is that Christmas is the backdrop for Die Hard, but it is not essential to the plot. Die Hard was based on a book that was inspired by The Towering Inferno.
Cobra is my favorite Christmas movie- Axe wielding psychopaths, Stallone in his prime, amazing car chase, 1980s, cutting pizza slice with scissors to a Toys R Us commercial 😂
@@MikeHorror67 they sell boxes of chocolates all throughout the year but i've never encountered specialized xmas chocolates (except maybe the kisses in the xmas tree shaped container) whereas companies double down on valentines themed chocolates. i've also seen chocolate bunnies for easter. also halloween themed. but xmas boxes? not really.
Die Hard takes place on Christmas. How much more evidence is needed than that? Also, props for mentioning On Her Majesty's Secret Service. It's both a Christmas movie and one of the best Bond films.
This was a wise-ass answer to when people would ask "what's your favorite Christmas movie?" It was MY wise-ass answer through the 90s and 00s. Then it became a running joke to claim it's actually a Christmas movie. Then... for some reason... people actually started insisting that it really IS a Christmas movie. And now we have to have this mind numbing discussion ever year. Christmas is a minor part of the setting. It's not remotely the theme, regardless of this guy claiming that the family reconciliation factor, which again makes up a minor part of the setup and has a loose arc that's touched on only a couple of times throughout the movie, is somehow the Christmas throughline. When you take into account Roy Rogers, Yippy Cayay, the lone lawman against the odds, and all the gunslinging... Die Hard is actually a Western. Stahpit. It's an Everyman-Hero action movie plain and simple. Anything else is cognitive dissonance. Thanks, everyone, for ruining my wise-ass answer to that question. I had to change it. Now my favorite Christmas movie is Trading Places.
Yes DIE HARD is a old classic Christmas movie..... If you want a new classic Christmas movie then look no further than the utter joy that is THE HOLDOVERS
Nope sorry kids, Bruce Willis himself has gone on record and said it's NOT a Christmas movie. It's a BRUCE WILLIS movie. He made it perfectly clear 🤷🏼♂️
Yeah, I'm still not convinced. That would mean any movie using the same themes would be a Christmas movie regardless of where and when it takes place. Die Hard's story would still work on any other day/holiday. To me, the only thing that makes a movie a Christmas is the fact it pertains to something that can't happen any other day. In this case, the movie uses the mood for it's setting, but Christmas isn't what the movie is about.
Two of my favorites: '29th Street' [R] Language (1991) Danny Aiello, Anthony LaPaglia, Lainie Kazan, Robert Forster, Tony Sirico. 'A Christmas Visitor' [G] 2002 William Devane, Meredith Baxter, Dean McDermott
It wasn't initially a Christmas movie, as it was a Summer blockbuster, but it has become a Christmas movie. It's in the regular movie rotation for many holiday film enthusiasts, myself included. There's a Die Hard advent calendar. An officially licenses Die Hard holiday ornament. The film is loaded with Christmas imagery, references and music. It's a Christmas movie
A lot of movies that are universally considered Christmas movies didn’t come out during Christmas. It’s a wonderful life came just after the Christmas season in January. Elf was released just after Halloween. Reindeer games was on February. Surviving Christmas was mid Oct. home alone and A Christmas Story we’re mid Nov. gremlins which is also considered a Christmas movie was a summer blockbuster as well
If " Its a wonderful life" is considered a Christmas movie than die hard is also a Christmas movie. Only the last part of wonderful life takes place at Christmas, the fact that its Christmas is hardly mentioned, and its not vital to the plot that its Christmas. Like die hard it could take place at any time and still work.
Die Hard is absolutely a Christmas movie. So is Trading Places (1983). Top three Christmas movies. 1. Home Alone (1990) 2. Trading Places (1983) 3. Die Hard (1988)
No. No! That's not how you do this! It is WRONG to "settle" this debate! That's like ending the Superbowl by remarking, "the Patriots suck, so it's settled" - some fights should never end!! 🤬
I mean, my argument has been the protagonist, struggling against the separation and estrangement from his wife and family, fights against (and defeats) a series of antagonists, principal among which are those trying to steal literally everyone else's Christmas. But I like the argument that: hey.. his wife's name.. is "HOLLY". Thas gonna be my favorite from now on.
When people tell me that Die Hard isn’t a Christmas movie, I always ask them if they think It’s a Wonderful Life is a Christmas movie. The two are so similar in basic construction that you can’t think one is a Christmas movie without agreeing the other is as well!
Personally, I've never felt that it was. Walking out of the theater in the summer of '88 I didn't feel the film had strong enough themes to feel like a Christmas movie or leave me uplifted like one usually does. I just felt it was a solid action film. One of the best I'd ever seen at the time I think what happened was with video rentals and sales booming at the time of its release, most people who have seen this film have watched it at home. They could put it on anytime of the year they want it, preferably Christmas. Because of that, an entire new generation has experienced this film only as "a Christmas movie". A person who'se opinion matters to me the most though is Bruce Willis. The very last thing he said during his roast a few years ago was, "Die Hard is not a Christmas movie!" Regardless, it's nice to see people still passionate about this film after 35 years. Because they just don't make them like this anymore.
I think the tradition of watching it at christmas is going to preserve this film for newer generations, personally I found it one of the best traditions ever, is one of the things that makes the film special for me. I was born 16 years after the film release, I wish I could have seen it in theatres.
Also, my mom confirmed that back in the 90s, they aired Die Hard in local tv every christmas, along Home Alone, both produced by Fox, they share some similar plot points, also Bonnie Bedelia (Holly Gennaro) is the aunt of McCauley Culkin.
I definitely think it is a Christmas movie. The protagonist’s goal was to spend Christmas with his children and his estranged wife (and rekindle that relationship)- he just encountered some massive roadblocks along the way. And obviously, it’s set on Christmas Eve, with the business’s holiday party being interrupted.
Obviously, Mr.Tapper is a "Die Hard" fan. I just watched that movie, for my first time, about one year ago. It was okay. It was entertaining. I didn't think it was a great movie, but I watched it all the way through. I work with someone who is a HUGE "Die Hard" movie fan. He watches it every Christmas Eve with his parents and sister. This CNN segment is just funny to me. Lastly, I have NEVER seen "It's A Wonderful Life". A friend gave it to me, but I still have not seen it. This might be the year. It's not that I don't want to watch the movie, I just keep spacing it. Everyone, have a Merry Christmas!
Ironically It's a Wonderful Life isn't really a Christmas movie, either. The parts about Christmas (the beginning and the end) don't really have any bearing on the nature of the plot.
I am going to be honest this did change my mind. I thought calling Die Hard a Christmas movie was just an excuse for macho guys to watch an action film instead of a sappy Christmas movie, but I will say Christmas symbolism is strongly connected to the movie, a man reconnecting with his family, using Christmas related props, Redemption for both MCclane and Powell, but I would say calling it a Christmas movie is a stretch because Christmas is not the main point of the story which is usually what Christmas movies are about, a kid trying to get their dream present, a parent upset at the holidays because they feel they can not provide what their family wants. Die Hard, Christmas is connected, but it is not the main plot point.
"Die Hard" was a great Christmas present to me, and anybody I helped on a couple of occasions. Best Christmas Movie Ever = "Die Hard" "It's a Wonderful Life" was a Huge formative influence on my upbringing when I was a child in a persistently abusive household. The kids I grew up around called the woman I was living with; "Bloody Mary" for a reason, even though she acted like such a 'Nice' person in public and under scrutiny. Second Best Christmas Movie Ever = "It's a Wonderful Life". You should All be thankful that these Two movies were in the lives of myself and others.
Gawd, you guys are such wonderful nerds. Thanks...I needed that! I didn't KNOW I needed that (I didn't even guess there was any doubt about whether it's a Christmas movie...wha?) but it's good to know you guys are on top of all the minutia that divides this society so much. What are those other lamebrains thinking?
What debate? It's a Christmas movie. Only fools would see it otherwise. Christmas songs, Christmas party, Family, New Friends, examination of naughty & nice, happy ending. Duh.
Exactly, the guy said it: you could take the same story and it could work in any time of the year, Xmas only makes it more meaningful, in that sense it's not a xmas movie, it's an action movie which hits harder because it's set on Xmas season...
My family always watches the Lord of the Rings Trilogy around Christmas and we have since we saw them in the theater around Christmas decades ago, it's become a tradition to get pizza or Chinese and watch LotR. A Christmas movie can be whatever you want it to be, there aren't rules. The Harry Potter movies are viewed as Christmas movies, and only a few scenes have anything to do with Christmas and those scenes have nothing to do with the baby Jesus. I know people who binge Marvel movies on Christmas. There's no reason "Die Hard" can't be a Christmas movie.
@@44excaliburA whole bunch of Christmas movies were released ... Not in December. Die Hard is centered on Christmas and John is going to LA to spend Christmas with his wife Holly. Then he saves his wife and others from an evil man allowing them to celebrate Christmas and the fact that they are sill alive. A total Christmas miracle.
@@44excalibur OK. It's A Wonderful Life is considered to be the ultimate Christmas movie, including to the historian. It's not about Jesus's birth... "The reason for the season." It's not about excited children waiting for Santa Claus nor the adventures of Santa Claus as he and the Elves work tirelessly to get gifts to the children of the world. It's about a miserable man, his life's hardships and the fact that he no longer finds the desire in him to continue living his life. So the story is about depression, desperation and suicide. Not something that screams warm and fuzzy to me. But lo and behold a Christmas miracle happens and he survives to happily live his life with his family. Which is exactly what happens in Die Hard. So in reality neither of those two movies nor any movie that is not about the birth of Christ is an actual Christmas movie. Like the guy being interviewed said, (paraphrasing) It just depends on how you want to look at it. If it means something to you and it gives you the Christmas vibe then to you, it is a Christmas movie. To me Die Hard is a Christmas movie. 🎅Merry Christmas!
No debate, Die Hard is a Christmas movie, the bad guys are stopped, John Mclaine reunites with his wife and they find their joy again, sounds like a happy ending to me.
