For my final blog posting on the heist movie genre, I am going to talk about a film that you normally wouldn’t think of as your typical heist film. The film that I am going to talk about is the film Die Hard (1988).
Through my last posts, I have talked about and explained films that show the stereotypical heist film. According to CI5472 Teaching Film, Television, and Media, A heist film typically involve a gang’s attempt to pull off a highly challenging robbery of extensive wealth or executing a forgery or art thief requiring a lot of careful planning. In the actual heist itself, there are often suspenseful moments in which it seems as if things will go awry, which they sometimes do, only to have the heist succeed, but then, once they acquire their wealth, they are no longer satisfied because the thrill of pulling off the heist is behind them.
In the film Die Hard you have all of these elements of a heist film, but the films main character John McClane is a New York City police officer who travels to Los Angeles to see his wife, but gets caught up in a heist plot that happens to be in progress the night that he gets in to attend his wife’s work’s Christmas party. Once the terrorists take over the large sky-scraper take the entire party hostage, the film really starts to uncover the heist plot.
The main terrorist Hans and his men take the party goers hostage and explain that they are doing this because they would like other terrorists from around the world released. This kind of creates the distraction of the police and everyone else in the building. John McClane is able to sneak away from the terrorists and eventually uncover their real plot which is to steal 600 million dollars worth of bonds held in the building safe. McClane is able to secure kill one of the terrorists and take control of his radio so that he can remain undercover. McClane is also able to make a connection with an on duty police officer who happens to be outside of the building. Once the FBI and local authorities show up on the scene they kill the power to the building and attempted to take control. The only problem is that the terrorists group has a lot of hostages and a lot of resources. McClane is eventually able to wipe out the terrorists in the building and take control over the situation.
To understand this film a little more in detail I should take a look at the different meanings of the film. To start off I believe that the explicit meaning of this film is just your stereotypical 80s/90s action movie. A hardnosed cop from New York goes out to L.A. to visit his wife, but winds up in the middle of an elaborate heist. He is able to single handedly maneuver around the build and escape death to foil their plans.
The implicit meaning of the film is a little more in depth. According to an article from hubpages.com, Implicit meaning, is the interpretation of the film. Here we are looking for something that goes beyond what is explicitly stated. Interpretation can vary by individual. John McClane is suffering from the career choice of leaving a job and city that he loves, and watching his wife break through the glass ceiling and becoming a very successful business woman for a major organization. The only problem is that it’s a company that on the other side of the country. After going through all the turmoil of the movie, realizes that everything else is very material and the thing that he values the most is his wife’s love.
I would also like to add that this happens to be this film fan blog’s favorite Christmas movie!!
Works Cited
"CI5472 Teaching Film, Television, and Media." Twin Cities - University of Minnesota. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2011. <http://www.tc.umn.edu/~rbeach/teachingmedia/module7/Suspense%20ThrillerSpyHeist.htm>.
"The Wizard of Oz - Interpretation of the film." interpretations. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. <http://tlap.hubpages.com/hub/Wizard-of-Oz-Analysis>.
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