Christmas Head-to-Head: 'Die Hard' and 'Home Alone'

It's remarkable, really, how two of arguably the most popular Christmas films with an almost universal appeal - the 1980s action flick Die Hard which established Bruce Willis as an action hero, and the family-friendly box-office hit Home Alone which made a star of Macaulay Culkin - are so similar, in so many regards. I've read many articles noting this difference before, so to spice things up a bit, I've decided not only to contrast the two films, but to also craft my own 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 2010s versions of these films - god forbid they ever really do remake them though.


1. Bruce Willis'  John McClane and Macaulay Culkin's Kevin McAllister are both humorous, cheeky individuals with a knack for getting out of sticky situations, and who rift and argue with family members.

I firmly believe that this is, by far, Bruce Willis' finest performance. I like him well enough in Twelve Monkeys, The Sixth Sense and Looper, but this is the one film and one character which really allows him to show everything that makes him the screen persona we all love. The most notable part of the performance is I guess just how convincing he is as a guy who can take down a whole tower full of terrorists in one go. Each action sequence is completely brilliant not just because of the way its directed (which I'll get onto in a bit), but also by how Willis carries himself in each of them. Whether it's crawling through lift shafts, tumbling down stairs with big Germans, or smashing into windows, Willis has an air all of his own that makes John so compelling to watch in these sequences. My favourite moments of his performance though are largely his non-action scenes, like his conversations with Reginald VelJohnson's Sergeant Powell, his hilarious trolling of the terrorists, and my favourite of all his complete verbal annihilation of the highly incompetent Deputy Chief (Paul Gleason, much less capable of controlling a situation than he was in The Breakfast Club).

As for Culkin, I'd say his performance is one of the best examples of a straightforward leading kid's performance in a film. One thing I really like about Home Alone is that Kevin isn't really the precocious, know-it-all perfect kid, but rather just a normal one, not overly naughty, not overly nice, a normal kid we can root for. Kevin McAllister is just charming enough to win us over, but also troublesome enough for us to somewhat sympathize with his frustrated parents. The most important thing, anyway, is that Culkin is able to make scenes of just a kid having a good old time at home with all the freedom in the world fun to watch, the scenes where he matures through a greater understanding of the danger he faces from the crooks Harry (Joe Pesci, in non-swearing and more jovial than usual mood) and Marv (Daniel Stern), and what Old Man Marley (Roberts Blossom) represents.

1950s John McClane: William Holden
1950s Kevin McAllister: Brandon DeWilde


2010s John McClane: Matthias Schoenaerts
2010s Kevin McAllister: Gaten Matarazzo


2. The two films present career highs for both directors, John McTiernan and Chris Columbus.


Not going to lie, not a huge fan of either these auteurs in general. I've always found the first Predator to be incredibly overrated and not much else in McTiernan's filmography besides the third Die Hard film and of course, this first and best venture, has really appealed to me. But oh, what a lovely height to reach; his direction of action sequences here is with such an assured hand, and he knows how to mount the tension even in scenes where characters are just sitting around and talking and smoking. Many of the action sequences in Die Hard are among the most exhilarating and brilliant ever put to film.

Columbus did the two most workmanlike Harry Potter films and beyond that, I've been more impressed with his writing skills than directing skills overall. His work on Home Alone stands out above the others because of how he manages to imprint a certain style alongside his homage to of course, John Hughes (who wrote the screenplay) and stuff like A Christmas Story. There's particularly innovative touches he brings to the story like the Angels with Filthy Souls film-within-film scenes, and anything involving John Candy's Gus Polinski which is technically very tonally out of place with the rest of the film, but in a good way.

1950s Die Hard director: Billy Wilder
1950s Home Alone director: George Seaton


2010s Die Hard director: Pete Travis (in case you don't know who, he did Dredd)
2010s Home Alone director: Taika Waititi


3. Both films have characters we grow to love the more we get to know them in Sergeant Powell and Old Man Marley...

One deceptively clever aspect of both films is their deconstruction of particular character stereotypes. A first glance at Sergeant Powell gives the impression that he's just your usual deadbeat, donut-loving cop who won't be of much use in the film beyond humour at his incompetence. The more we get to know him, however, the more we realize there's more than meets the eye; he proves to be the most adept policeman on the scene, and VelJohnson creates a heartfelt and hilarious dynamic with McClane. His final scene in the film rivals George McFly's right hook as one of the ultimate 80's feel-good moments.

Old Man Marley is a deconstruction by the Home Alone screenplay of the 'strange scary old man' trope, gradually revealed as just a kind and lonely old man who wants to reconnect with his estranged son. Robert Blossoms and the screenplay craft this little subplot into the most affecting section of the film, and like Die Hard the payoff scene at the end is marvelous. It evokes To Kill a Mockingbird's Boo Radley in the best possible way and is probably my favourite element of the film.


1950s Powell: Ossie Davis
1950s Marley: Walter Brennan


2010s Powell: Hannibal Buress
2010s Marley: Harry Dean Stanton (perfection, if I may say)


4. And villains we kind of love even though they're entirely despicable.


Hans Gruber + Alan Rickman is up there with the most perfect combinations of character and actor put to the silver screen. The screenplay to the film rather daringly gives us a villain whose actions are entirely self-motivated and not in the least honourable, who quite frankly treats his henchmen like dirt and whose every supposed moment of 'kindness' is undercut with malice, and yet also makes him completely hilarious and somewhat endearing without compromising his menace. The perfect man to play him was the stage-trained thespian Alan Rickman making his iconic screen debut as the German germ Gruber, delivering each of his lines in that inimitable, deadpan fashion that's one of a kind. It's brilliant how many variations of that deadpan Rickman employs from the straightforward anger he displays to McClane, to his chilling coercion of Mr Takagi (James Shigeta) to give up the code to the building's vault - 'I'm going to count to three. There will not be a four' - , and I never cease to laugh at his false incredulous delivery of 'You're amazing. You figured this all out already?' to the sleazy Ellis (Hart Bochner, he of the great shit-eating grin) as the latter documents his grandstanding plans to negotiate with the criminals.

Also, am I not the only one who when watching Doctor Strange kept getting reminded of Gruber's American accent in Die Hard whenever Cumberbatch spoke?

Home Alone also has two rather memorable villains in Harry and Marv. Pesci and Stern are a fabulous comedic duo, the funny thing is they're always incompetent in some fashion and yet also feel threatening because we're viewing them from little Kevin's perspective. They're far from being the greatest villains of all-time, or even the best performances of either actor, but I always look forward to their scenes when I watch the film, especially in the final act when everything goes to shit for them.

1950s Hans Gruber: Peter Ustinov
1950s Harry and Marv: Herbert Lom and Danny Green 


2010s Hans Gruber: Benedict Cumberbatch
2010s Harry and Marv: Randall Park and Jesse Plemons



5. There's so many delightful little gems in each of the casts, little gifts sprinkled all over the place.

Who doesn't love a bit of Argyle (De'voreaux White), hooked into his tunes in his limousine with a teddy bear, without a care in the world? Sleazy reporter Richard Thornburg (William Atherton) causing nothing but trouble, sleazy Ellis claiming he can handle the Eurotrash? All of Gruber's henchman, from the wacky heavies from wacky hacker Theo (Clarence Gilyard) to the muscular and seemingly immortal Karl (Alexander Godunov), to that chap who sneaks a chocolate bar from the candy stand when no one is looking? They even bring in Robert Davi from The Goonies to play one half of a ridiculously 'macho' pair of cops with Grand L. Bush, who are unceremoniously killed off in a blaze of glory.

All of these characters are terrific additions, and much in the same way, Home Alone is sprinkled with little gems of this sort, from Catherine O'Hara's delightfully overwrought and anxious mother, the aforementioned John Candy as the least helpful travelling partner ever, and really just about everyone adds a bit to the cast.


6. Production-wise, the film celebrates Christmas in almost every facet.


I could go on and on about how both these films excel from a technical perspective. Die Hard has magnificent staging and setpieces which all feel completely streamlined, brilliantly edited in all regards, and the sound effects to every clanging bullet, every explosion is pitch-perfect. Home Alone just carries such a sense of unbridled enthusiasm through each frame, whether it's Kevin having fun or Kevin in danger. The final act, with Kevin springing all manner of traps for Harry and Marv, is what I like to see as a fun subversion but also loving tribute to Christmas - he's got all the toys and tools he needs for Christmas and uses it to 'gift' Harry and Marv with a taste of their own medicine. These hilarious sequences, intertwined with the more overtly Christmas-y scenes like the ending and the church scene with Old Man Marley, create for the perfect holiday experience.

As for Die Hard, how much more Christmassy can you get than having that large fella you just killed off by hurling him down the stairs nicely adorned in a Christmas hat and festive greetings to your enemies?

This 'Ode to Joy' scene when they discover the riches in the vault is pure cinematic gold, somehow managing to make villainous greed seem like a completely winning celebration of Christmas values.

And of course that marvelous finale where McClane makes use of gift wrapping to give Mr Gruber the greatest gift of all.

Simply put, two of the greatest holiday films of all-time.