attention to every conceivable detail

-

So, I've established a couple times now that John and Holly really shouldn't get (back) together at the end of Die Hard. But, I'll reiterate: he's still a New York cop, and she's probably got an even more important job in LA now that Takagi was killed. Ellis, too. Holly does note that his office was nicer than hers, so he was probably pretty important also. My point is that Holly giving her name as McClane at the end of the film is somewhat arbitrary.

(And, a little sexist, but I don't really want to get into sexism on this, the final day of watching Die Hard.)

I wonder if the movie would still be as good without it, though. (It didn't come from the book, by the way. The cop in the book was visiting his daughter, not his wife.)

There are a couple details to this story that seem arbitrary. Aside from that just mentioned, there is McClane's New Yorker-ness. That is, does it matter that McClane is from out of town?

I'll answer this second question first. Because of the whole Christ-Figure thing--John McClane scores quite high--there could be one very simple reason John McClane has to be an outsider. To be a Christ Figure.

In the novel, Joseph Leland is a retired New York detective. Stephanie Gennaro is his daughter (and she's sleeping with Harry Ellis). And--get this--when Gruber grabs her as he falls, she falls to her death. Essentially, the marriage in the film version is original to the film. And not having her die was a deliberate change for the story.

(Powell, by the way, is not in the book. Instead, Leland talks to a stewardess named Kathy that he met on his flight to LA. His wife died after leaving him.)

I'm mixing the two things, I guess. What's better than the protagonist losing his daughter? Not losing her. What's even better than that? It was his wife from whom he was estranged. Yeah, that works.

(Nevermind that having saved her life or not, John is still at fault for staying behind in New York.)

This week has not involved as many words as usual. I was busy and/or I was tired, so entries were short. It happens.

And, as I finish with Die Hard, you know what I really like about this movie. The main villain is actually the smartest guy in the movie (although, I don't know why he couldn't find a photo of Joseph Takagi). He doesn't lose because of his mistakes. McClane just gets lucky a few too many times (in the air duct, for example) and his brute force New York cop style gets stuff done... except for the other reason I rather like this movie: had McClane not gotten involved, there would have been a singular casualty (Takagi) and that's it. Gruber's plan was pretty good.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

la fille que j'aimera sera comme bon vin

-
Image
Phil Connors doesn’t speak French. While it might be reasonable to assume Phil does learn to play piano beyond the two songs we hear him play since this is at the point he is actually trying to better himself and affect the world around him in a positive way, the French bit is much earlier. It also comes from a bit in Rubin’s original screenplay, not with Rita but with “Tess Harper—Jefferson County Poetry Society.” Basically, it’s a clear example of Phil doing the same thing he does with Nancy in the movie; he makes stuff up to get what he wants. This is only Day 10 . He hasn’t gotten to the depression that arguably makes him realize he’s an actual human being like everyone else around him… I just realized, this also means he’s probably lying when he says, “Small town people are more real, more down-to-earth.” Later, he might actually believe it. But, at this point, each line is just a move to win over Rita. Anyway, in the original screenplay, Phil meets Tess like he meets Mary in
Read more

i've seen it over a hundred times

-
Image
As I write this, it’s Day 2 for Phil Connors on the DVD and my daughters are in the kitchen making a cake to celebrate Day 100 for me... photo should be below. The movie Phil had seen over 100 times (or so he tells Laraine) was Heidi II . It’s a “family classic” according to the Alpine Theater’s marquee. But, as I’ve mentioned before, it doesn’t exist. Originally, the movie that Phil could see every day if he wanted to do so was It’s a Wonderful Life . Danny Rubin’s ego—and this is his suggestion, not mine—made him believe Groundhog Day “a timeless quality and had the potential to become a film that could work for audiences for a very long time.” So, he put another such film on the marquee. But, “even believing that Groundhog Day was a potential classic, [Rubin] never was thinking of comparing it to It’s a Wonderful Life “— (I’d say putting that title on the marquee was Rubin deliberately comparing the two, but maybe that’s just me.) . Rubin continues: “But the similarities bet
Read more

the wretch, concentred all in self

-
So, Rita thinks Phil’s defining characteristic is his egocentrism. At the point in the story that she quotes Sir Walter Scott, it’s Day 4 for Phil (See the previous entry for a list of Phil’s days) and I wouldn’t argue that he isn’t egocentric. He’s still a jerk, taking advantage of his situation for fun. He’s manipulated Nancy for sex, has gone out on his costumed date to see Heidi II with the woman in the French maid costume. He’s just figured out the whole lack-of-consequences side of things with the help of Ralph and Gus. And, he’s sitting around loading up on, well, probably every dessert the Tip Top Café offers. His focus at this point is very much himself. But, a closer look at the lines Rita quotes got me to thinking, is Phil the man unsung by minstrels because he’s too self-centered? What Rita quotes is some lines from Canto VI of Sir Walter Scott’s “The Lay of the Last Minstrel.” The larger poem involves some clans at war with one another, but this particular section invol
Read more