I have recently watched Die Hard, and I am here to settle the age old question: Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?
Ever since the movie came out in 1988, there has been a large debate over whether or not it counts as a Christmas movie. To answer this question we must first ask what makes a movie a Christmas movie? What is the criteria? My criteria came down to a three-item test.
The first and most obvious test is does the movie take place on or around Christmas time? Die Hard does take place on Christmas Eve, so it passes the first question. Although this test is crucial, this alone does not make it a Christmas movie. Movies like Mean Girls and Edward Scissorhands have Christmas scenes or elements in the plot but are not Christmas movies. Any movie can mention Christmas, but mentioning it alone does not make it a Christmas movie.
The second test is whether the plot is tied to Christmas in some way. This does not necessarily mean that the entire plot has to be directly dependent on it being Christmas time, but it should at least be a factor. Take Home Alone, for example. Sure Kevin could’ve gotten left at home at any other time of year, but that would make the feeling of the movie entirely different. If you take a movie like Die Hard and remove the fact that it’s Christmas, the movie doesn’t change much at all other than taking out the mentions of Christmas and the few Christmas songs in the soundtrack. These are really just minor changes that don’t affect the overall feeling of the movie.
The third and final test is does it have that festive feeling all good Christmas movies do? People watch Christmas movies to enjoy something interesting that will get them into the Christmas spirit. Some common core themes we recognize from beloved Christmas movies are family, love or self growth. This movie was an action movie about the main character John McClane played by Bruce Willis (The Sixth Sense, The Fifth Element, Pulp Fiction) trying to stop German terrorists. I must say that this feels neither very holly nor very jolly.
Taking into consideration my three criteria, Die Hard only passes the first and easiest test. I have to conclude ONCE and FOR ALL TIME that it is not a Christmas movie.