The Hollywood tough guys of the 1980s were born, with Sylvester Stallone's Rocky series, Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator in the middle, and Bruce Willis's "Die Hard" overnight.
These films should all be "cinema" in Martin Scorsese's eyes, about people—the complexity of people and their contradictory, sometimes contradictory nature, where they can hurt each other, love each other, and then suddenly face themselves.
Rocky in "Rocky", a small person struggling in the quagmire of life, insisted on practicing boxing for many years, and finally waited for an opportunity to challenge the world boxing king, and he began to want to prove to the world that he was not a waste material.
Sarah Connor in Terminator, an ordinary restaurant waiter, is chased by future robots for no reason, she is afraid, she escapes, until one day, she can face her inner fears and take the initiative to fight back.
John Mcclane in "Die Hard", a New York police officer in a family crisis, who wanted to persuade his wife not to go to work, but happened to encounter a group of terrorists committing crimes and robberies, and he had to perform his duties and stand up, alone to stop the crime and save the innocent lives in the whole building.
John Mcclane is not the kind of "tiger guts" that most people think, and when a crisis occurs, he is just instinctively vigilant and then avoids the control of terrorists himself.
He wanted to calm himself down and seek help from the outside world, indicating that he was a little panicked and scared inside, that he knew that his personal strength was limited, and that it was foolish to be tough with the enemy.
At that time, simply cutting off the telephone line could turn the whole building into an "isolated city", and radio became the only means of communication.
In less than 30 minutes, the perfect "chamber of secrets" was formed, and a new form of police film has since entered the stage of history.
The influence of Die Hong Kong films in the 90s was enormous.
Including Zhou Xingchi's "Truant Weilong", Jackie Chan's "City Hunter" and other films have the shadow of "confined space action films", and Wang Jing's "Rats and Dragons" is an undisguised "tribute".
For filmmaking, such a script provides a convenience. As long as the filmmakers find the right set, they can shoot a movie in almost one place, which greatly saves costs.
"Die Hard" only cost $28 million, which is a lot less than the 50 million productions at that time.
Until 2018, followers of "Die Hard" are still emerging. The most typical is "Skyscraper Rescue", the plot synopsis is the same, a skyscraper staff encountered an extreme event trapped, an extraordinary tough guy just happened to be present, so he stepped forward to fight against terrorist gangs and resolve the crisis.
Lead actor "Boulder" Johnson admits that he combined "Die Hard" and "Skyscraper Fire".
However, no matter how much the latecomers follow the example of tribute, they cannot surpass the film history status of "Die Hard".
A big reason is that they only learn the external, just want to make a commercial film, and ignore the inner emotional strength, the contradictions and struggles of the characters.
John McClane is not like those comic superheroes, he is a natural hero. He didn't have a lot of courage at first to deal with the terrorists alone, he blamed himself for not stopping them, and fell into self-doubt.
Only when others found him was forced to fight back and began the real stealth operation.
Because of his entanglement, the terrorists' seamless plan has an x-factor, which is that the x-factor can lift the audience's heart into the throat, coupled with the extraordinary rhythm control of the editing, so that the film from the second act onwards, the whole process of no urine point.
Interestingly, he was "passive" until the second act, and he always wanted to be helped by outside forces. However, he was unfortunately in a world where both the police chief and the FBI leader were "idiots."
The intervention of external forces did not bring any help to John at all, but instead helped more and more. So "Die Hard" does have the flavor of satirizing bureaucracy and the media having nothing to do.
Without any help, John reluctantly became a lone hero.
He is a "helpless hero", when he makes heroic acts, he is not righteous, but in fragments, what am I doing?
He was afraid of death.
He is already a father and carries the responsibilities of the family. The beginning of the film is not a formality like many commercial films, but focuses on portraying John.
Presenting his family not only introduces him to the mansion of the main scene of the film, but also clearly tells the audience that he is a busy policeman with little time to take care of his children. So he wants his wife to have more time with her children.
That's why he had a heart-to-heart connection with the fat black cop on the radio. He didn't want to put the focus of his life back on his family, but as a policeman, he couldn't help himself.
So when he jumped off the tall building, his line was, "God, don't let me die." ”
The subtext is, "My kids are still waiting for me to come home." ”
He is also a man of flesh and blood! Everything is like the real thing, so when he is in danger, we will have a sense of nervousness that is about to come out, instead of coldly saying, "Afraid of anything, anyway, there is a protagonist aura, and it will not die." ”
The arch-villain Hans Gruber, played by Alan Rickman, is also a very human character.
He doesn't look like a robber or a terrorist, he's a character with a sharp contrast in appearance and behavior, somewhat similar to stansfield in the later "This Killer Isn't Too Cold."
He and John, played by Bruce Willis, are the opposites of evil and right, and another interesting thing is. The evil one is dignified and decent, the positive one is not trim, which can be seen as a satire of the director's bureaucracy, the person in the suit is actually human-faced, and the person who is really performing justice is almost shot by the FBI.
In the early 2000s, Alan Rickman played the role of "Professor Snape" in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Looking back at "Die Hard" now, I find that the villain charm of Hans is largely derived from the actors, because the evil charm of Alan Rickman is really unique.
"Die Hard" earned 140 million yuan at the global box office that year, reaching 5 times the cost line, and the filmmaker Twentieth Century Fox made a lot of money, which must continue to produce sequels like many commercial films.
It lasts for 25 years.
The cost of the second part was upgraded to $70 million;
The third part rose to 90 million;
Part IV 110 million;
The fifth part fell back to 92 million.
The scene is getting bigger and bigger, but the character building is not as good as one. John Mcclane is still that John Mcclane, but everything seems to have gone back in time.
As Martin Scorsese said, some sort of contradiction has disappeared, and there are some people in the film industry who are completely indifferent to art issues.
When a movie becomes an entertainment and the audience knows that it is false, then the emotions invested will naturally be limited.
"Die Hard" still has the shadow of film art, the emotions of the characters are real, not fake, even if it is a commercial film, it is qualified to become a film history classic.
Time has proven that.
The police academy turns you from a rookie to a veteran, but it doesn't teach you how to take responsibility. - "Die Hard"