These Christmas action movies make the Die Hard debate irrelevant
John Woo's new Silent Night and last year's Violent Night blow away any doubts that action films can also be a holiday films
Film Features die hard
When it comes to pop culture opinions that will elicit either a dramatic eye-roll or complete disinterest from everyone who hears them, “Die Hard is a Christmas movie” sits near the top of the list (and both sides of the “Martin Scorsese/superhero movie” debate are rocketing up the charts, by the way). Yes, Die Hard takes place during Christmas, it’s about family, and the villain is a classic greedy Christmas archetype. It’s not worth litigating that ever again.
Thankfully, in a welcome and most likely unintentional development, Hollywood has spent the last couple of years rendering the whole “Die Hard is a Christmas movie” thing irrelevant by making action movies that are explicitly about Christmas. John Woo’s new Silent Night and last year’s Violent Night pick up where Die Hard leaves off, giving you more excuses to watch action-packed holiday-themed counter-programming to the more traditional seasonal movies about family and learning and the old Building And Loan.
Violent Night is the more overt homage to the Die Hard debate, since it’s about a guy in one location on Christmas killing a bunch of terrorists. But the guy this time around just happens to be Santa Claus (David Harbour)—who in this world is an ancient Viking warrior with magical powers who delivers presents to every boy and girl once a year. There is also, cleverly, a pretty explicit Home Alone tribute where a kid sets up a series of familiar traps (nails, glue, broken ornaments) that a pair of evil goons keep stumbling into.
That bit might be a nod to another classic Christmas pop culture talking point, specifically “the guys in Home Alone should’ve died,” which brings up the arguable downside to Violent Night vs. Die Hard: The former is very, very, violent. John McTiernan directed Die Hard as a little more of a general good time that most people can comfortably enjoy, which adds to the “it’s a Christmas movie!” nonsense. But Violent Night is gleefully, unapologetically brutal. There’s a scene where Santa puts an ice skate on each hand and rips through a bunch of guys like he’s spamming Mortal Kombat moves. Your family might be able to tolerate “yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker,” but a guy getting decapitated by a skate as his body limply slumps to the ground might be a tougher sell where the stockings are hung with care.
Silent Night (in theaters this week) is less obvious, but it is closer to the “actually, this is a Christmas movie” spirit of the Die Hard debate. It’s about a man (Joel Kinnaman) whose family is killed in the crossfire of some kind of gang battle on Christmas day, so he turns himself into a John Wick-style murder machine and embarks on a quest for vengeance. So, like Die Hard, it’s set at Christmas and it’s about a man who … loves his family? He’s not being reunited with his family the way John McClane is, and there’s less of an arguable theme about materialism, but this is definitely a Christmas movie.
How can you tell? Well, Kinnaman’s character is wearing a Christmas sweater and it’s called Silent Night, which is a Christmas thing. That’s at least as deep as the Die Hard stuff, and since it has that title you won’t have to justify its Christmas-ness to any non-believers. Better yet, it operates on the central gimmick of having no spoken dialogue, which means you and your family can still gab while watching Kinnaman mow down villains with a shotgun and you won’t miss any exposition (once it’s released on home video, at least).
The lack of dialogue also sends a positive message about unity and putting aside your differences, which is the kind of reminder we could all use during the holidays. It’s not about the things that separate us, like language, it’s about the things that unite us, like watching a John Woo’s first American movie in 20 years, in which Joel Kinnaman writes a “Kill Them All” reminder on his calendar and the proceeds to, you know, kill them all. Another positive message! Getting things done. Accomplishing your goals for the year. Finding ways to better yourself. This is a nice movie about a nice man doing nice things that the whole family can enjoy, making it a perfectly appropriate addition to the “this is actually about Christmas” canon—though it’s also very violent.
So, this year and every year, feel free to skip Die Hard and the whole debate surrounding it. Hollywood has spent the last two years giving you other, more appropriate options for Christmas action movies. Besides, Die Hard is actually a Halloween movie—it’s about people lying about their identity in order to get treats (bearer bonds), there’s a scene where someone eats candy, and one of the bad guys seemingly comes back to life at the end before being killed for real (like Jason or Michael might).
27 Comments
Are we forgetting Shane Black?-Lethal Weapon-Kiss Kiss Bang Bang-TLKG(as mentioned above)-Iron Man 3-The Nice Guys
The whole “Is it a Christmas movie???” debate seemed better suited to Lethal Weapon than Die Hard, to me.
I’m too old for this “Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? shit.
Yup.
Joel Silver produced both movies, and apparently liked Black’s setting Lethal Weapon at Christmastime so much, he had Die Hard’s writers set it during Christmas, too.That’s the story I heard, anyway, but that doesn’t make sense because I’m pretty sure the novel Die Hard is based on is set at an office Christmas party, too.
Lethal Weapon feels much more explicitly Christmas-y, especially since they have cops singing carols in the station and Tom Atkins drinking nog and getting killed with it in a very memorable way. Plus all the Looney Tunes Christmas special footage. And Gary Busey’s hilarious tantrum towards the end.
But I do think they’re both Christmas movies for sure.
Shane Black invented action movies at Christmas.
First Blood was set during Christmas season, that came out in 1982.
And he worked this bit into The Last Boy Scout:
Came here to say the same thing about Black. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is my favorite Christmas film. I mean, the whole thing kicks off with RDJ stealing a present for his kid! How much more Christmas do you need?Also, not by Black but still a great Christmas-ish film: In Bruges.
Every December I choose one night to drink alone and watch my “Dark Xmas” movies:
Take that shouldn’t, but may very well be, hot: The people who think Die Hard is a Christmas movie don’t really like Die Hard so much as they like the idea of thumbing their noses at the idea of Christmas movies as exclusively non-violent, family-friendly fare. What is the defining characteristic of a Christmas movie, after all, if not the fact that watching it at any time of year other than Christmastime just feels off? Calling Die Hard a Christmas movie essentially means that for 11 months out of the year, watching Die Hard is weird. And that’s bullshit.
Lethal Weapon was a Christmas movie a year before Die Hard.
Eh my Christmas movie is and always will be Gremlins.
My brother still hasn’t forgiven Joe Dante for spilling the beans about Santa, which his youngest daughter was not yet aware of.
On Monday, AV Club sister site Deadspin uploaded an article accusing a child of wearing blackface to a Kansas City Chiefs game, a claim that was quickly debunked. Today the site updated the article, but still failed to correct the erroneous claim.
To me this suggests that G/O Media websites not only publish false information, but stand by it, and therefore cannot be trusted. I will no longer be reading AV Club or any of its sister sites, and I strongly suggest any who continue to do so fact-check their claims vigorously. Please help stop the spread of misinformation!
Just gonna leave this here…
a guy getting decapitated by a skate as his body limply slumps to the ground might be a tougher sell where the stockings are hung with care.Maybe in your den, nerd, but my house is awesome.
I can’t believe it’s still even up for debate, given Jeb Stuart – who WROTE THE MOVIE – has said, verbatim, “It’s definitely a Christmas movie.” I can’t believe we’re still arguing about this, as a society.
Don’t forget the James Bond franchise’s entry in the “action movie that’s a stealth Christmas movie” category, On Her Majesie’s Secret Service which takes place over Christmas, and even has the villain’s lair decorated for the season (the soundtrack album even has a song about Christmas trees in it)!
As far as I’m concerned, it isn’t Christmas until Nick & Nora Charles serve the nuts.Or maybe it’s when Nick gets shot in the tabloids.