Saint gives props to John McClane in Live Free or Die Hard
Who’s the greatest action hero of the modern age and why?
John McClane that’s who… and why? Well, that IS a discussion boys and girls.
Sit in the lotus way at the foot of SAINT and let me remind you why we love the impossible feats of John McClane over all others.
If you can name the action hero or the movie or the actor who plays said action hero you can point out the flaws… the most common being lack of humanity. Sure we’ve seen Indie in the third Jones flick try to live up to his dad’s image. Rocky grew old… Neo lost his girl and gave his soul to win the final battle… and even the robot who came back through time to dash our hopes… showed up twice more, programmed to save the day. Bond has faked love so much we don’t care if he did love the last spy chick who was killed… and Riggs finally got too slow and too old for this shit.
FOOTNOTE: PLEASE…Don’t even bring up Rambo.
They all lost the human feel along the ride and attempted to regain it by the very end… and Rambo (once the most human of all) will too, watch… or… just take my word for it.
John McClane, even through the impossible feats… being the one man S.W.A.T team, surviving against all odds… NEVER stopped being a human being. He always has a bad idea of what’s next to do…. we always find him with his life just where we find ours: A damn mess. He’s a half ass cop, a half ass father, a half ass husband, a half ass friend and a most time drunk. He’s the hero who would much rather have been anywhere but where he is.
Even then, he’s fueled more by suddenly having a problem come up that takes brute force and can be shot, than by honor. All his other problems are far worst than anything we see him face fighting the bad guys. He can’t just kill everybody in his life or beat up his failures. Despite the ass kicking he will no doubt receive (John sucks at hand to hand ) this is easier than going home and facing the rest of his life.
Can you relate? I bet you can.
Live Free or DIE HARD puts a low tech John McClane roughly ten years after the mad bomber attacked New York in the middle of a rebel hackers wet dream. An estranged family and not much of a pay grade bump from the NYPD… surviving the more impossible… human factor intact.
I enjoyed it.
SAINT