We just watched Die Hard. First time for the kids. It is such a well made piece of cinema. It is fun to watch. It is also a fantastically blatant piece of dominant American culture mythology (propaganda if you want to be inflammatory).
This New York cop stands in for every white working class American man in the 70s and 80s as he is (1) losing his traditional family to (a) his wife succeeding in the workforce with (b) a Japanese company (imposing their cultural values on them) and he is (2) forced to defend innocents (including his family) from an international and multicultural collective group project led by a well dressed (effeminate) and “classically educated” villain who says he is fighting for freedom, but is just a greedy elitist.
Throughout the film, John McClane (rhymes with John Wayne) is challenged by (1) a man attempting to kiss him (“California!”), (2) a drugged up business man who is (a) trying to get his wife in the sack and (b) making the situation worse due to his hubris, (3) a news media that is so self absorbed and slimy that it endangers our hero’s family, nearly leading to the villain’s triumph, and (4) a variety of governmental officials who can’t get the job done (more on that below).
I need to keep this short so let me just say the two black men on the hero’s side are crucial to signaling the racism-free nature of our hero. This is no accident.
Our hero only kills when necessary, yet can intimidate bad guys (and outwit them as well) when needed. He walks through glass with bare feet and realizes that it’s not enough to say I love you, but that he must be vulnerable enough to apologize for his mistakes. This may sound promising, but it is no deep reflection, rather it is a sad “I apologized so all is forgiven, right?” attitude that has become the unfortunate emphasis of American religious belief (as it emphasizes individual over social responsibility — and even that is in a ridiculously shallow fashion).
Very importantly, governmental institutions are inept, foolhardy, and imbued with too much power, leading to countless unnecessary deaths. When people come together to do something it is either in this way or in the way of the villains (using the rhetoric of freedom to steal money). Only the individual can save society as long as the other supporting characters do what they need to support HIM (spouse losing her symbolic Rolex watch, young black man turning off the music and doing his job of chauffeuring the hero, and older black man regaining his courage to use lethal force despite shooting a child in his back story).
Again… almost a flawless movie. I’m just glad that I can be aware of what perspective these stories are reinforcing. I don’t think it’s an accident.
Solomon Everta 