KJB Holiday Special: Die Hard

Saying "Die Hard is a Christmas Movie" is just an excuse to watch a good movie around Christmas time that isn't some holiday special trash made in the 1950s.

Die hard may or may not be a Christmas movie, but die hard 2 obviously is.

An hk that moans... I'm so ashamed of myself

More like November aNalysis

Only bad part of this commentary is they keep talking about it reacting to Rising Sun, when it predates that movie by about five years.

My sister’s boyfriend brought up the question of whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie at Xmas dinner last year and this episode flashed through my mind

Super late (only recently joined the patreon, so am going back through older episodes). The discussion of the cop's background of having shot a kid is very much steeped in popular myth (or culture) during the time this movie was made. There was a time before every toy gun had a bright orange tip on it, and I remember being told very explicitly by my mom when I got my first toy gun sometime in the late 1980s to never point it at a cop (and this as a suburban white kid). I don't know if this was one of those "happened once but suddenly became an inescapable story for 3 months" things or if she was just being cautious, but it was absolutely something people talked about back then.

Possibly my favorite bonus episode ever.

i love this podcast so fucking much

Comparing this to Rising Sun is interesting, because this is so much better about the 80s/90s “sinister Japanese” trope than RS, and this came out 5 years before RS (and one year before Black Rain). Hollywood got worse about this as time went on, apparently. Also, in terms of new takes on terrorism, Andor has gotten there.

1:24 well speaking as a cis white kiwi .... its because its worth listening too and honstly i whish i had known he was coming i would have said hi lol but new time you are down this way your more than welcome to stay at mine ... tho wether you'd want to is another question entirely...

32:14 well given that its the 1980s new york i suspect those rules he's not following invole beating the snot out of minoritys sooo maybe thats a good thing in this case lol

But will you get hbomb on and do the 1998 The Avngers movie?

despite being a police officer ...in new york....in the late 1980s..... lol statistically speaking...

Alice I think that there are people who do serious cinema studies who watch-- the caveat though is that they are absolutely here for the bits and the cum jokes at least as much as they are here for the serious Alice Analysis.

Yo, I’m a queer Aussie who listens. I appreciate the podcast a bunch. This and WTYP helped me get through my Eng degree. Merry Xmas folks.

On the New Zealand group, there was also a group of trans KJB fans who came to the Canberra TF live and we had a great time though we missed Alice dearly

Ya'll have gotten me through many a night shift. thank you

Of course you're supposed to spank the MP5, it's a SUBmachine gun. (https://twitter.com/CenturiiC/status/1395009104700006410?s=20&t=X5FI8TgW_Kel8zDFYtgm9Q)

This isn't a review of the Penguins of Madagascar tv show???!?!?! And you call it Christmas, smh

Suggestion for next Xmas: Go (1999) It's as 90s and Die Hard is 80s.

I thoroughly enjoy this podcast, I've made it a ritual every Thursday to go to my favourite cafe and listen to the new episode with a warm drink and it's often the highlight of the week, so thank you for that. But also, The Winter of Content is such a stroke of genius and compassion that this alone makes me feel such joy giving you my money and I will keep doing so if and when this ends. Thank you all 😌✨️

A beautiful episode y'all! The only thing that I'd liked to have heard in addition to all the analysis is a brief comparison with the book it was based on: It had an exploitative oil company instead of a "neutral" Japanese zaibatsu, a group of left-anarchist ideological terrorists who were almost 50% ladies instead of a group of mercenary Euro-trash dudes, and a taciturn WWII fighter pilot pushing 70 instead of a wisecracking NY cop pushing 40. Especially interesting are the themes of how the terrorists are there explicitly to fuck up the genuinely evil oil corporation and yet the book's lead makes everything worse by his unhinged lust for blood escalating the situation, whereas in the film that same drive to kill everyone is portrayed as a righteous and necessary response to uncivilized* violence. (*:Hans Gruber is very cultured, but since this is a Western, his violence threatens the status quo and thus is a threat to civilization.)

The Long Kiss Goodnight Please. Better than all the other Die Hards. Alice is right about everything.

Tony is played by the caked-up guy from the Living Daylights. Same guy

Listening from Wisconsin, which is a lot flatter and less interesting than New Zealand, but it's home

Why is it called Die Hard? What does it mean to Die… Hard? Guess I gotta watch it

Alice at the start of the pod: People have written serious discussions about this movie, and I am intimidated by that weight of prior discourse and the implicit obligation to have a novel analysis. Also Alice: This movie is about 90s masculinity and the origin of trolling. This isn't a Christmas movie, it's a Western.

YESSS

yippy kiyay muddertruckers

The movie about the secured cannon who always plays exactly by the rules is Hot Fuzz.

Now I have a podcast, Ho Ho Ho!

Literally watched this last night and was thinking “Hmm the KJB gang sure would have a lot to say about this movie” and here we are

Yay Devon!

Die Hard, and it’s cultural influence on the events of 9/11