Why ‘Die Hard’ is definitely a Christmas movie, according to Alfonso Cuarón
It’s one of cinema’s most nauseating annual debates, which rears its head every single year without fail: Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?
The short answer is yes, of course it is. Surely, by definition, a Christmas movie is a film that ticks a certain number of boxes associated with the festive season: it needs Christmas iconography, Christmas music, multiple references to Christmas, and a narrative that couldn’t happen at any other point on the calendar.
Based on all those metrics, John McClane’s jaunt around the Nakatomi Plaza fits all of the criteria. Poor henchman Tony gets a Santa hat and ‘ho-ho-ho’ daubed on his jumper, the soundtrack features ‘Winter Wonderland’, ‘Christmas in Hollis’, and an instrumental version of ‘Let It Snow’, never mind that McClane wouldn’t even be in Los Angeles if it wasn’t for annual Christmas party held by his estranged wife’s employer.
Anybody is inclined to disagree, and many do. Annually, in fact. It’s grown wearisome, and as much as the anti-Die Hard crowd are allowed to state their case that John McTiernan’s classic doesn’t qualify as a Christmas film (even though the director is adamant it does), who’s going to argue with four-time Academy Award-winning auteur Alfonso Cuarón?
It’s perfectly fine to hold the belief that Die Hard isn’t a Christmas movie, but of those folks who remain so adamant that it isn’t, how many of them have two Oscars for ‘Best Director’, one apiece for ‘Best Editing’ and ‘Best Cinematography’, and are responsible for masterworks and smash hits like Y tu mamá también, Children of Men, Gravity, Roma, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban? None, that’s how many.
“Ultimately, Christmas is the end of darkness and the beginning of light. It’s a celebration of hope and possibilities, and it’s a time of introspection before we start anew,” Cuarón informed The Hollywood Reporter. “In the case of Die Hard, Bruce Willis is trying to do right, and I am all for Die Hard as a Christmas story. I cannot define why and I don’t need to define why.”
If the director of Die Hard and one of modern cinema’s greatest filmmakers both think it’s a Christmas movie, then it may as well be a Christmas movie. The counterpoint is that Bruce Willis disagrees, which is admittedly a blow for those in the ‘yes’ corner when he was the guy throwing himself off the building, gunning down Alan Rickman’s band of terrorists, and pulling shards of glass out of his feet while his trusty white vest got ever dirtier.
Doubling down on his side of the fence, Cuarón – who recently produced David Lowery’s short An Almost Christmas Story and was clearly brimming with festive spirit, was asked point blank what defines a Christmas story. His answer? “It’s when Bruce Willis tries to save his wife.”
