A Christmas Story

For John, BLUF:  You would think a person could get some down time while on vacation.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Why ‘Die Hard’ Is The Greatest Christmas Movie Of All Time

The sub-headline:

Here’s why the 1988 thriller “Die Hard” is not only a Christmas movie, it is one of the best of all time.

The author is Mr James Clark and the venue is the web magazine Task and Purpose.♠♥

Here is the lede plus two:

The holiday season is a time for family, gift-giving, and most importantly forgiveness.  Unless you’re John McClane, then it means all that, plus a ton of mayhem and violence.

The 1988 holiday classic centers around John McClane, a New York City detective who’s in Los Angeles to try to save his marriage when all hell breaks loose.  A group of heavily armed villains break into McClane’s wife’s office building during their Christmas party and take the staff, including his wife hostage.  Side note:  her name is Holly, as in “deck the halls” and “fa-la-la-la-la” holly — subliminal messaging on the part of the movie’s screenwriters, no doubt.

It’s left to McClane, played by Bruce Willis, to save the day.  Crawling around in air ducts and crashing through a number of windows, he takes out the bad guys one by one before dropping their leader Hans Gruber, played by an acerbic Alan Rickman, some 30 stories to his death.

And here is a good sentence:

It may not seem like a Christmas movie at first, but “Die Hard” hits all the marks, if you think about it, it’s basically “Home Alone,” but with live ammo.

And so it is.

Interestingly, the action takes place at the fictional Nakatomi Plaza, in LA.  The Japanese love Christmas.

By the way, I don’t think Die Hard was as bloody as the original Christmas Story.  Remember the Slaughter of the Innocents, celebrated on 28 December.

Your opinion invited.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Task and purpose, as in a good superior issuing a mission provides both the task and the purpose.
♥  The article is, in the last paragraph, NSFW.  You have been warned.