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I BOUGHT A DIE HARD COMIC TODAY, YOU GUYS.
THAT IS ALL.
It doesn't even matter if it sucks. A Die Hard comic, omg.
THAT IS ALL.
It doesn't even matter if it sucks. A Die Hard comic, omg.
Epic Die Hard Marathon... is back
May. 18th, 2010 05:34 pmYeah, idek what happened. Feel free to poke me if I'm taking forever with something. In the meantime, the Die Hard Marathon is back!
Every Die Hard movie is about hostages. DH2 puts John inside the crisis with Holly still out of reach. This time the terrorists seize Dulles Airport, complete with travelers, workers and planes circling overhead - they control all of it. As usual, everything's going according to plan, save one thing: John Fucking McClane. Our favourite fly in the ointment, the monkey in the wrench. You know how this goes, right?
I think having John McClane show up even in the vicinity of a well-planned crime must be every criminal's nightmare in the DH universe. He's got some kind of probability-bending, criminal-foiling superpowers, amirite? It's nuts.
This is easily the weakest of the four DH movies (imho of course). ( Read more... )
Every Die Hard movie is about hostages. DH2 puts John inside the crisis with Holly still out of reach. This time the terrorists seize Dulles Airport, complete with travelers, workers and planes circling overhead - they control all of it. As usual, everything's going according to plan, save one thing: John Fucking McClane. Our favourite fly in the ointment, the monkey in the wrench. You know how this goes, right?
I think having John McClane show up even in the vicinity of a well-planned crime must be every criminal's nightmare in the DH universe. He's got some kind of probability-bending, criminal-foiling superpowers, amirite? It's nuts.
This is easily the weakest of the four DH movies (imho of course). ( Read more... )
ORIGINAL FLAVOUR
So Die Hard. I have and have always had a lot of affection for this series. It's full of straight up, well-directed action, with very few of the jarring, anti-progressive elements of other action series. Strangely absent are casual sexism, racism, or bigoted humor.* It's also not a didactic or overtly political series: we don't have to sit through John McClane explaining that we need to get tough on crime, or that gun rights are fundamental. It's a series about criminals, corrupt people in authority, and everyday heroes.
John McClane himself isn't everyday--he's obviously a skilled police officer, with all sorts of other useful knowledge--but he isn't marked as special. He's just this guy. And the supporting characters who get their own moments in the heroic sun are even less 'special'. An executive. A limo driver. A uniformed cop who's been riding a desk for years. They're just people, who keep cool during a crisis, and do what needs to be done.
That's not to say that there isn't a political message in Die Hard, or that it's free of problematic tropes, but man, it is a shockingly easy series to watch. It's got so much of the good of western/crime/siege stories, with so little of the bad. There's no endorsement of ra ra masculinity, no endorsement of going it alone for the sake of going it alone, and no endorsement of violence-wielding ubermensch. John is a hero--and Holly, and Al, and Argyle--because of his will power, his sense of justice and duty, and his ability to get shit done. He's not a hero just because he kicks ass--look at how the SWAT team fared--he's a hero because he kicks as much ass as he needs to, for the right reasons. If you cross that line, the movie doesn't like you anymore and you meet a fairly nasty end.
*[There's plenty of background 80s sexism, for example, but it's not foregrounded like it is in a lot of celebrations of machismo.] ( Read more... )
Die Hard 2: Die Harder next weekend, y/y?
Also, I was thinking we could do the Alien Quadrilogy when we've wrapped up DH. Thoughts?
oh internet
Apr. 11th, 2010 09:48 pmI was looking around for opinions on racism in the Die Hard series (mostly Live Free Or Die Hard and its treatment of Mai), and I stumbled across this comment. I'm posting it here because it's not the first time I've seen the sentiment.
"Sometimes I felt like I was listening to bell hooks. Sometimes anti-racism can get so radical that it in itself becomes racist. See also: DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE."
I... what?
In Die Hard With A Vengeance, Samuel L Jackson plays an electrician and shop owner in Harlem. He does not like the White Man. Take note of the capital letters - he is staunchly opposed to institutionalized white power, get me? He scolds his nephews to stay in school and make something of themselves, saying that no one else, least of all the White Man, is going to help them. He hates drug dealers and thieves. He believes in and tries to do good for his community.
He initially doesn't want to get involved in the crazy bomb-plot-thing that drives the action of the film, saying it's a 'white problem'. But you know, he's saying those words to a white New York City police officer, who he's just met in less than ideal, and highly racially charged circumstances. He's saying them to living, breathing symbol of what he hates. He's saying these things to freaking John McClane, who's a big boy and can certainly take it. There are real reasons for Zeus to feel this way, and to not want to get involved with the police. And hello, power + privilege times eleventy-billion. I mean, my god. Talk about myopia.
Additionally. It's Die Hard. DIE HARD. Aside from some seriously problematic bits in DH4, the series is quite good as action movies go, but it's by no means progressive or rooted in the anti-racist movement. I mean... what the actual fuck? How do you twist things around to argue that DH is racist against white people? *flails*
"Sometimes I felt like I was listening to bell hooks. Sometimes anti-racism can get so radical that it in itself becomes racist. See also: DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE."
I... what?
In Die Hard With A Vengeance, Samuel L Jackson plays an electrician and shop owner in Harlem. He does not like the White Man. Take note of the capital letters - he is staunchly opposed to institutionalized white power, get me? He scolds his nephews to stay in school and make something of themselves, saying that no one else, least of all the White Man, is going to help them. He hates drug dealers and thieves. He believes in and tries to do good for his community.
He initially doesn't want to get involved in the crazy bomb-plot-thing that drives the action of the film, saying it's a 'white problem'. But you know, he's saying those words to a white New York City police officer, who he's just met in less than ideal, and highly racially charged circumstances. He's saying them to living, breathing symbol of what he hates. He's saying these things to freaking John McClane, who's a big boy and can certainly take it. There are real reasons for Zeus to feel this way, and to not want to get involved with the police. And hello, power + privilege times eleventy-billion. I mean, my god. Talk about myopia.
Additionally. It's Die Hard. DIE HARD. Aside from some seriously problematic bits in DH4, the series is quite good as action movies go, but it's by no means progressive or rooted in the anti-racist movement. I mean... what the actual fuck? How do you twist things around to argue that DH is racist against white people? *flails*
The Epic Die Hard Marathon is tentatively rescheduled for this weekend. Sorry guys, but between the holiday this past weekend, and some extra hours at work, I'm stuck until then. So this weekend peeps.
In the meantime, let's do an early MFK: Cute baby animals. Try not visualize the acts that your votes imply and you'll have an easier time with this one. It's ~metaphorical.
Three characters, people, animals, vegetables or minerals are given, and you must choose one to marry, one to f*ck and one to kill. No fence sitting. No halfsies. Ya gotta choose.
Vote.
In the meantime, let's do an early MFK: Cute baby animals. Try not visualize the acts that your votes imply and you'll have an easier time with this one. It's ~metaphorical.
Three characters, people, animals, vegetables or minerals are given, and you must choose one to marry, one to f*ck and one to kill. No fence sitting. No halfsies. Ya gotta choose.
Vote.
Because hey, there was actually some interest!
This weekend we will watch the film that started it all, the origin of the GODDAMN JOHN MCCLANE: Die Hard.
Beg, borrow or steal your way to a copy, because it's an epic showdown between St. Bruce of Willis and Alan Freaking Rickman, ladies and gentlemen. (And as a handicap, Bruce has no shoes. Those of you who've already seen the film will know what I'm talking about. Shit yes). Watch Alan take over an office building. Watch Bruce crawl through air ducts, expose his soft bits to broken glass, and take out all the terror-iminals, one by one. Further, watch Alan be... not too pleased with this development. SHIT YES.
Epic enough? More bombast next time? Cause I can bring additional bombast if necessary.
This weekend we will watch the film that started it all, the origin of the GODDAMN JOHN MCCLANE: Die Hard.
Beg, borrow or steal your way to a copy, because it's an epic showdown between St. Bruce of Willis and Alan Freaking Rickman, ladies and gentlemen. (And as a handicap, Bruce has no shoes. Those of you who've already seen the film will know what I'm talking about. Shit yes). Watch Alan take over an office building. Watch Bruce crawl through air ducts, expose his soft bits to broken glass, and take out all the terror-iminals, one by one. Further, watch Alan be... not too pleased with this development. SHIT YES.
Epic enough? More bombast next time? Cause I can bring additional bombast if necessary.
Epic Die Hard rewatch - who's in?
Mar. 29th, 2010 02:48 pmI come to you today with a proposal. One that will, gods of action willing, bring you great joy. I propose an epic Die Hard rewatch party, spread over a week or two. We will worship at the altar of the great GODDAMN JOHN MCCLANE, quote lines at each other, analyze things that don't need to be analyzed, and generally make fannish idiots of ourselves. Who's in?
I've discovered Die Hard slash. And it's GOOD. No really! Like, quite good. I did an olympic freaking sprint through the stories up at AO3 and now I'm checking out ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
hard4brains. This is FatF fandom all over again, except... strangely sacrelicious (sacreligious + delicious). Slashing John McClane is kind of like slashing the Man With No Name. It's like queering a piece of America itself. And I like it, oh yes.
Also! Completely unrelated to Die Hard and America, but totally related to queering up the joint, I need a Joan Jett icon. Because jfc Joan.
What, you don't get the Joan thing? Click! ( Read more... )
hard4brains. This is FatF fandom all over again, except... strangely sacrelicious (sacreligious + delicious). Slashing John McClane is kind of like slashing the Man With No Name. It's like queering a piece of America itself. And I like it, oh yes. Also! Completely unrelated to Die Hard and America, but totally related to queering up the joint, I need a Joan Jett icon. Because jfc Joan.
What, you don't get the Joan thing? Click! ( Read more... )
