Punch the Keys for God's Sake!

Live Free or Die Hard (2007)

Rating ... A- (85)

Few cineastes associate sequels with quality, and until recently the Die Hard series has given them little motivation to change. Things have only gotten more bizarre for the franchise since John McClane's oft-emulated escapade in the solid but unexceptional first Die Hard. Renny Harlin's blatant knock-off Die Harder transplanted the exact same scenario to D.C. and the Dulles before proceeding to play out identically, only with more parties involved (e.g. airport officials, military specialists, government agents) and thus more masculine bluster and irritating, subtext-free bravura while the third installment wisely abandoned the grammar school comparative-superlative title structure and further slid into lunacy as it forced McClane to gallavant around NYC wearing a sign that - ahem - professed indignation for black people before recruiting Samuel L. for an empty but oddly resourceful and suitably diverting romp.

You've probably deduced two things from the admittedly silly title Live Free or Die Hard, and you're absolutely correct. No, the series has not regained any of its wits, and yes the film is primarily a study of extreme patriotism. If you're mulling over that last point, consider that in a sense, with its newest film the series has finally stumbled upon affecting material. Having failed to provide audiences with a reason to emotionally give a shit when it comes to John's generic failed marriage (twice) or his surrogate partner's kid, Live Free or Die Hard wisely opts for higher stakes. McClane does his thing this time around because his impudent daughter is in jeopardy, but we care because the film's ramifications are earnestly and skillfully political and ethical.

If you hadn't heard, John McClane is pretty much in the crapper. Die Hard with a Vengeance divulges he's an apathetic alcoholic now that his wife finally up and left him, and with Live Free or Die Hard we see that he hasn't found a better outlet for his time than meddling in his daughter's affairs. In fact, he's actually - small spoiler - a completely static main character as the world evolves around him, which proves beneficial because the film uses his character for subtext rather than Screenwriting 101 tropes where losers attain capital R-Redemption.

But something has changed about McClane. As he battles his way through opponents who are consistently better trained and more informed than himself, inexplicably coming out on top, usually in some hilarious instance of absurd carnage, his general antiquatedness only becomes more obvious and it dawns on you McClane is no longer a hero. Nor is he the superhero in disguise that other folks have astutely posited; this guy is an antihero in every sense of the role, and the fact he actually accomplishes something (besides wanton destruction) during the course of the film is genuinely unsettling.

But this begs the question: why should we want an antihero to win? The answer is because he embodies the status quo of our country's truculent foreign policy, which the film pits against the shrewd but equally vengeful Timothy Olyphant whose well-intentioned plan of national improvement involves a complete overhaul from the ground up. While a few people seem to have noticed this figuratism behind Willis's gung-ho ideology, what they haven't yet grasped is that Live Free or Die Hard is a battle between two flawed factions, and that McClane is victorious shouldn't be construed as an affirmation of his outdated stance. The most notable thing Live Free or Die Hard does to make sure you aren't identifying with its protagonist is simply make him as offensively archaic as possible, beginning with his incredibly over-the-top abuse of women before, during, and after he smacks them around. (50% off the top anyone?) "Enough of this kung fu shit!" mutters Willis in response to getting kicked in the face by Maggie Q, which is funny, y'know, because he uses the words "kung fu shit," but also because it's another devious blow at Willis's red-blooded, renegade patriotism. This is director Len Wiseman's subtle attempt at ushering out the go-America tunnel vision that reduces the importance of other cultures to clichés and catchphrases.

Like Die Hard with a Vengeance, McClane finds a makeshift partner, this time in Justin Long's Matt Farrell, a hacker with precious insight about the high-tech method Olyphant uses to attack the national infrastructure. The generation gap between the two makes Long an effective foil; in one of Live Free or Die Hard's few stabs at reality, the two clash on every conceivable issue or stance. Surprisingly economical in its characterization, this dichotomy is best exemplified by a scene nested between the film's numerous gleeful firefights that finds Olyphant's squad of programmers hijacking the country's airwaves to broadcast fabricated footage of the white house in ruins. The maneuver is solely a form of intimidation from one generation to another, designed to mock older individuals who place value in tangible things as opposed to concepts or data.

That McClane and Farrell actually manage to meet in the middle on something attests to Live Free or Die Hard's notions about political transition. McClane's brief lament about the fruits of heroism - anonymity, exhaustion, and instability - makes the statement that political duty is currently upheld by individuals increasingly overwhelmed by the complexity of new issues and incapable of conceding the office to a generation of politically ambivalent. Yet there's a sense of the baton passing in this relationship between the old and young on a human level - the notion conveyed that government is a symbol of people's willingness to serve others, and that acceptance of this burden of selflessness marks true heroism. Commendable and questionable traits from both age groups are portrayed even-handedly without the culmination of a winner, though a beautiful crane shot (okay, it's not a crane shot, but it has cranes in it) closes the film on an optimistic note, emblematic of a nation that can recover and rebuild after turmoil. John McClane is more of a loon than ever, but with Live Free or Die Hard there's a method to the madness.