DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE - Blu-Ray (20th Century Fox 1995) Fox Home Video

Given the sizable success of 1990’s Die Hard 2, it remains something of a minor mystery why 2oth Century-Fox waited until 1995 to revive one of their biggest film franchises for a third outing. John McTiernan’s Die Hard with A Vengeance is a fairly engrossing actioner, mostly because McTiernan and his star, Bruce Willis, are not chasing after the specter of their aforementioned success in Die Hard (1989). Willis, in particular, had, by then, matured well beyond the smugly charismatic bad boy and sly old dog image, successfully cultivated, mined, and ‘officially’ launched as his public persona in TV’s hit detective/comedy series, Moonlighting (1985-89). And Willis, having aged, somewhat more rapidly than his contemporaries in the interim, looking like eight miles of bad road run over twice, is a more evolved action star in this third installment, in many ways, to effectively mark the end of the first ‘original’ trilogy and, in hindsight, serve as the kick start for a whole new franchise of lesser known and regarded movies, then, yet to follow it. We really have to give props to Willis here – mature enough to recognize he can no longer pull off the sassy upstart, effectively, to get under the skin of any career criminal and, instead, pursue the bad guys on their turf, though nevertheless, still very much his terms. Die Hard with A Vengeance clicks precisely as it should because, unlike the first 2-movies, the screenplay by Jonathan Hensleigh and Roderick Thorp acknowledges Willis’ John McClane can no longer pull off the hat trick alone. And so, this third installment affords him a partner in the unlikely cohort of an embittered shop keeper, Zeus Carver (played as an exquisitely mocking comedic foil with razor-backed precision by Samuel L. Jackson).  

Hensleigh and Thorp’s prose steadily evolves the Willis/Jackson buddy-buddy chemistry from its faulty start – each, considering the other a racist – through one joyously antagonist defeat and fait accompli - toward the not altogether inevitable, yet never anything less than satisfying conclusion. In the driver’s seat as the villain, no less a dignitary of the actor’s profession than Jeremy Irons – a superb chameleon, and herein cast as terrorist, Simon Gruber, the unscrupulous brother of Hans, whom McClane effectively dispatched from a high-rise balcony in the original Die Hard. What is most appealing about Die Hard with A Vengeance is its refreshing return to the hallmarks that made the original movie so rewarding – excellent character design and development, a taste for the eccentric in little jabs of darkly purposed blue humor, and, of course, the action set pieces that are, at least in this third installment, exhilarating, if occasionally, only incidental to our overall appreciation. One has to sincerely admire McTiernan here for not leaning to an even more absurd epoch, endeavoring to outdo the carnage and calamity on tap in the original movie, taken to its testosterone chest-thumping extreme in Part 2, with ostensibly nowhere to go. Yet, how best to bring McClane’s follies and foibles back down to earth without undermining the audiences’ expectations for a summer thrill ride and blockbuster?

Miraculously, McTiernan demonstrates his extreme confidence, respecting the audience just enough to suggest they may have sincerely tired in their otherwise mind-numbing devotion to special effects, and instead, ready to invest alongside his desire to tell them a good story with a few carefully timed baits on the hook. Even without their celebrated devastation, the real cinema magic on tap in Die Hard With A Vengeance is to be observed in the triumvirate of Willis, Jackson and Irons sparking off each other with occasionally bright, sometimes vicious assaults on each other’s character, person and innate intelligence, but always with a purpose, and, as genuinely evolved characters with more substance to recommend them – even, at a glance. Wisely jettisoned from this third installment - Bonnie Bedelia’s perpetual damsel in distress, and reoccurring characters, Sgt. Al Powell and boorish TV reporter, Thornberg. Their ‘coincidental’ re-emergence in Die Hard 2 was more than a little tough to take – the kismet, teetering on cliché. But herein, McTiernan is brave enough to offer up no such ‘old home’s week’, even as nostalgic nods to the Die Hard(s) of yore or pander to the ‘fan club’ mentality. In fact, in almost every way, Die Hard with A Vengeance completely breaks with the traditions already well-established in those first two movies.

On this outing, John McClane inadvertently enters into a dangerous game of cat and mouse and international terrorist, Simon Gruber. After a bomb is detonated inside a popular New York department store, Simon contacts John to set his plot into motion - a taut game of punishment, loosely based on the children’s game of ‘Simon Says’; Gruber, manipulating John’s every move as he sends him on several fool’s errands before his imposed ticking time bomb runs out, thereby rendering all of his clues – meant to evolve into a bigger picture of his crime (though, not really) - utterly moot. After John is forced by Simon to wear a placard scrawled in racial epithets in the middle of Harlem, he inadvertently acquires an unlikely friend, Zeus Carver, who barely rescues John from certain death at the hands of an all-Black gang. Incurring Simon’s wrath, John and Zeus, whom Simon has dubbed the good ‘Samaritan’ are now forced into an alliance to search for several hidden bombs scattered about Manhattan, certain to decimate the town unless the pair plays by Simon’s insidious rules. With the countdown already begun, and the finality in the exercise a foregone conclusion, John and Zeus have no choice but to set aside their differences and dig in. What each fails to realize is Simon is not really interested in blowing up buildings, rather, in raiding New York’s gold depository for some quick cash – using the threat of school bombings to throw everyone off his scent. Simon’s rouse is discovered but not before John and Zeus nearly tear one another apart.

Of all the Die Hard movies, Die Hard with A Vengeance is perhaps the most satisfying in that it treats our heroes as fundamentally flawed people, doing their best, but who effectively find common ground and truth by exercising their wits in lieu of their brawn. Fair enough, the intellectual approach to crime-solving has always been something of a challenge outside of an Agatha Christie or Sherlock Holmes adventurer. And, to be sure, Willis and Jackson can hardly be considered as derived from the Holmes/Watson ilk.  Frequently, the screenplay has John and Zeus engaged in some harrowing stunt work to augment McTiernan’s intellectual deconstruction of the crimes. But kicking ass is not the whole show here – and neither does it prove nearly as substantial as when John and Zeus put their heads together – instead of knocking them against each other – to work out the particulars of Simon’s inquisitive, if ball-busting riddles. The male-bonding on tap here is of the ‘let’s fix this’ school in popular logic, as opposed to ‘how many ways can I blow everything up?’ garden variety most Hollywood blockbusters merely fall back on to anesthetize their audience. Instead, Hensleigh’s screenplay combines high-octane thrills with sincere respites into enjoyable exchanges of dialogue. *Aside: since 9-11, scenes of New Yorkers fleeing explosions has taken on a more ominous stature quality than it ought, or did, in 1995. I have always said American movies provide a lot of loose cannons around the world with ingenious ways to commit crimes. Mercifully, at least in the alternative fiction of the movies – the bad guys are brought to justice. After all, the difference between life and art is simply underlined by the fact, art has to make sense! Viewed today, Die Hard with A Vengeance remains an exhilarating thrill ride, offering the viewer more guts than spectacle – a refreshing escape from the usual fluff and nonsense generally ascribed the Hollywood actioner.

Fox Home Video’s Blu-Ray marks a quantum leap ahead in image quality. For some reason, none of the Die Hard’s have ever looked particularly satisfying on home video – until now. On Blu-ray, colors advance, are deeply saturated, and yield to a rich and varied palette with good, solid contrast throughout. Film grain, looking very indigenous to its source, makes a welcomed return here. Flesh tones are very nicely realized. Fine details are revealed in all but the most darkly contrasted scenes. That said, there are a handful of moments when the image looks a tad anemic, and contrast, appears to suffer from a loss in mid-range tonality. The audio is 5.1 DTS, and really kicks into high gear during the action sequences. Dialogue is crisp and SFX are well-integrated throughout. Extras include a brief ‘making of’ featurette, audio commentaries, trivia tracks and theatrical trailer, all imported from the standard and long-since defunct 5-star DVD collection. Bottom line: Die Hard with A Vengeance could definitely benefit from a 4K rescan. For now, what’s here gets the nod. Recommended!

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

4

VIDEO/AUDIO

4

EXTRAS

3