It puts a whole different twist on “Welcome to the party, buddy,” doesn’t it? Joking! Child, child. After arguing for years that You die hard It’s not a Christmas movie, because most Christmas movies don’t usually have that much blood on the screen, I owe everyone a chance to see this rejection from director John McTiernan. He did not intend to make a Christmas movie, McTiernan explains in this long monologue for the American Film Institute. He set out to make an anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian film that had just been infused with the Christmas spirit or something.
I’m correct (via Daily Wire):
McTiernan initially refused to do the job after seeing his “authoritarian” response to the left-wing terrorists in the source novel, Nothing lasts indefinitely. It was only after changes were made – in part through the transformation of left-wing “terrorists” into capitalist thieves, that McTiernan entered the project:
“Joel Silver sent me the script three or four times. And about these left-wing terrorist terrorists who enter the Valhalla genre of capitalism, Los Angeles, they bring their weapons and their evil ways and shoot people who only celebrate Christmas, terrible, terrible people. And it was really about the stern face of the authority stepping in to fix things, you know? And I kept telling Joel I didn’t want to do that, “he said.
McTiernan said he used “It’s a Wonderful Life” as inspiration for the direction the film wanted to go, primarily his critique of unfettered capitalism.
“I went to Joel. And I said, “Okay, if you want me to make this terrorist movie, I want to get to where the hero in the first scene is when the limousine driver apologizes for never being in a limousine,” he said. “The hero says it’s okay. I’ve never ridden a limousine before. Okay, working class hero. “
“And Joel understood what I meant. And he said well. And that’s how we started working on it, “he continued. “And, in fact, everyone, as he came to work on the film, began to receive, as I said, this idea of this film as escaped. And there was joy in it. Because I was, I changed the content. And so it became “Die Hard”, I had not intended it to be a Christmas movie, but the joy that came from it is what turned it into a Christmas movie. And that’s really the best thing I can tell you about this. “
There is not much doubt about this element in It’s a wonderful life, although there is at least one balancing factor in Baileys’ savings and lending and in Bedford Falls merchants. Indeed, there is not much balancing element in McTiernan’s interpretation You die hard. Even Takagi meets badly to the point where Hans Gruber destroys his suit.
As for the argument that McTiernan is only against “unrestricted capitalism” … meh. There is no such thing as “unrestricted capitalism,” except for Ayn Rand’s novels and then only in Galt Gulch. Perhaps the closest we get to unrestricted capitalism is in Hollywood itself looooooooves to give lectures on the evils of capitalism, while its stars shoot 20 million dollars per picture, and their directors cooperate with totalitarian communist regimes to make their images.
However, it is right. It’s McTiernan’s movie and he says You die hard it really is a Christmas movie. If you want his thoughts on Donald Trump, stay for about 8 minutes or so, but I’m just as surprised as his Hollywood adopts “unrestricted capitalism.” However, if the AFI wants to perform a public service, maybe I can get McTiernan to explain what the hell Basic was about.