Yes, “Die Hard” is a Christmas movie.
In a new video from the American Film Institute, director John McTiernan discusses how his classic action film starring Bruce Willis became a Christmas movie in the three decades since its release.
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Though the film was original released in the summer of 1988, over time the film’s setting during the Christmas season has led fans to adopt it as a holiday tradition.
“We hadn’t intended it to be a Christmas movie, but the joy that came from it is what turned it into a Christmas movie,” McTiernan explains in the video.
He continues, “’Die Hard’ was a terrorist movie. And it was about these horrible leftist terrorists who come into the Valhalla of capitalism — Los Angeles — and they bring their guns and their evil ways and they shoot up on people just celebrating Christmas… And it was really about the stern face of authority stepping in to put things right again… It was the essence of authoritarianism.”
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In 2017, the “Die Hard” writer Steven de Souza confirmed the film’s Christmas movie status in a light-hearted tweet to CNN’s Jake Tapper.
Yes, because the studio rejected the Purim draft #DieHardIsAChristmasMovie
— Steven E. de Souza (@StevenEdeSouza) December 24, 2017