I don't usually watch films looking for veiled, thinly or otherwise, social commentary. Some films, like James Gunn's recent Superman, you just can't help but watch and draw comparisons with the current state of the real world. Usually, though, I prefer to just let a film be a film.

So when I read film criticism like Jon Lewis' BFI FILM CLASSICS: DIE HARD, I tend to assume that the author has an axe to grind, and/or a weird point to make. When I think of DIE HARD, I think of it as a movie that really did change the way it's genre operated for all time. Every action film that has been made since has been made in the shadow of Die Hard, and we've seen endless retreads ("Die Hard on a bus! Die Hard on a plane! Die Hard on a boat!") and mainly awful sequels. But I consider Die Hard to be just a great action movie. Jon Lewis has other ideas...

First off, this is a British Film Institute publication, but Lewis, unlike the authors of most BFI film studies, is an American. A self-loathing American. Who really comes off like he hates America. He basically calls American moviegoers morons, constantly denigrating the intelligence of people who enjoyed THE FILM HE IS WRITING A BOOK ABOUT, which, I assume, he enjoyed. You know, since he's writing a book about it. He credits the actions that Bruce Willis takes in the film with those of a man who is consumed with a deep-rooted shame at being a part of "The Patriarchy" (A phrase that makes me want to hurl books across the room, kick my foot through a television, etc.), the friendship between Willis's and Reginald VelJohnson's characters as being a homosexual romance, calls Roger Murtagh (Lethal Weapon) "the black sidekick".....Fuck you, man, Murtagh is no one's sidekick....the Lethal Weapon films are buddy movies, and each man carries his own weight equally! I could go on and on, but this book, frankly, pissed me off to no end. John McLane is a closeted moron who grew up emty-headedly watching cowboy movies, like most other Americans.....? Make me puke, Mr. Lewis.

I enjoyed reading some of his less idiotic insights into the film and its making, but overall, this was kind of an exercise in self-loathing and "LOOK AT ME! vibes from Mr. Lewis. Who seems like a real jerk, in my opinion.

Great read for die hard Die Hard fans, film scholars, students, film buffs and those work in the social sciences, who work with films.
Structured into thematic chapters - wait, I do not think I have read these theories before - what is happening? Whammies!
If you have read other BFI classics before, you are already familiar with the well-paced, engaging short-close reading format and design.
If this is your first, you will be satisfied.
I will make sure to include this book in my reading list for my modules.

A fantastic and gripping book from beginning to end suitable for Die Hard super fans and those new to the franchise alike.

A fantastically detailed and thoroughly researched book that explores the themes - literary, artistically and politically that influence the Die Hard film and how this is expertly interwoven into the film.

It’s interesting to read the explicit links between life in the 80’s, including geo-political tensions and how these relate to the final movie that we know and love.

Also, the contentious question of whether Die Hard is a Christmas film is expertly debated and catalogued to finally provide a cast iron answer!

An extremely interesting look at one of the best action films ever further enhanced by a wonderfully interesting and impossible to put down book.

A must read!