The Die Hard Collection (DTS DVD-Video Trilogy)
Picture: C+/B-/C+ Sound: B-/B/B Extras: C+/D/C Films:
Die Hard (1988) B
Die Hard 2 – Die Harder (1990) D
Die Hard With A Vengeance (1995) B-
Yippie Ki Yay Bonus DVD: C+
Bruce
Willis was becoming a national sensation on the hit TV series Moonlighting when he had the chance to
do an action film, something he was not considered capable of doing since all
he was known for was comedy. Michael
Keaton would face this a year later with the Batman relaunch. Willis took
a big paycheck and many physical risks and the result was a hit in John
McTiernan’s first Die Hard in 1988.
Much has
been made of its right-of-center ideological structure, one that is even
reactionary. At the time, Japan was a rising
economic power, which stirred up old angers from WWII, which was a basis for
the platform that was the early Reagan era.
They now have their own giant tower that is meant to remind us more than
a little of the World Trade Center towers, which is now an ironic item.
Then
there is Willis’ John McClane, who is in the middle of a divorce, which is a
traditional affront to his manhood and speaks of some kind of failure in that
old-fashioned thinking. He is from New
York (read street) and is a police officer, but not a conventional one. He is visiting Los Angeles (read easy,
laidback and book wise) to see his wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia, whose character
is using her maiden name, which looks suspiciously like the word “generic”) to
fix things, but she is very successful as a female executive in a man’s world,
albeit one run by the Japanese. Nothing
is going well.
Then is
gets worse for all when Euro-terrorists invade the Japanese haven and have
arrived with automatic weapons, taking no for an answer. Hans (Alan Rickman, giving the best
performance in the film) is the head villain running things and thinks this
will be an easy operation. They want
wealth and if they cannot get it the nice way, they’re going to get rough. However, despite all their plans, weapons,
elimination of the guards and technology, they do not expect to be foiled. The audience does not expect (especially
after the bad press and low expectation Willis had to suffer through) McClane
to be able to take on the criminals, but he snaps together quickly and takes
them on.
At the
time, it was like watching a transformation of the character and watching his
journey, but few new just what a new level of film star he was heading to
be. What makes the film hold up is the
energy and pacing of the film, savvy Americanization of chunks of the James
Bond formula, sly references to the Hollywood Western and illicit appeals to
male dominance mentality made it a hit and new model for Hollywood Action
films. Most of the imitators were awful
and it did well, though it was not a huge blockbuster its first time out.
Fox
quickly wanted to capitalize on the film’s success and cash in on it, so they
turned out a sequel two years later.
Unfortunately, they replaced McTiernan with the unproven (and as it turned
out, often terrible disaster-meister) Renny Harlan, who delivered the
remarkably awful Die Hard 2 – Die Harder. Steven de Souza was back, but left Jeb Stuart
behind for Doug Richardson and managed to write the most condescending,
recycled, awful, lame, tired, boring, idiotic, unsuspenseful, unexciting, flat
and even angry script possible.
The
violence was increased, the story structure juvenile and the worst thing was to
have the characters keep referring to the last film and saying things like “why
does this always happen to us” over and over.
The biggest problem was not just being shrill when being funny, but
pretending the first film was a serious action film to begin with. William Sadler is the new opponent and the
film was set at an airport. It was so
bad, fans of their first rightly claimed it was the first film in an airport,
but not as good. All imitators would be
dubbed similarly for years since. The
film barely made more money than the first, shocking Fox and the industry at
large who expected Lethal Weapon 2
business. Fox lucked out later with Speed, then made the same mistake with
its sequel, but was smart enough to wait longer to see if they should even do
another McClane actioner.
Willis
endured through bombs (Hudson Hawk)
and would keep having surprise hits (Pulp
Fiction, The Sixth Sense) just
when you thought he career might have bottomed out. Fox decided to try again, got McTiernan back
and made Die Hard With A Vengeance
five years later. Finding a way to move
on from the first film as Willis already long had, the smartest move here was
to cast Samuel L. Jackson as his co-star and the chemistry made this film work,
even when it became weak. The Johnathan
Hensleigh script is the least reactionary of the series (including the fourth
film) and though it recycles the Bond film Goldfinger
too much and Jeremy Irons is Hans’ brother from the first film out for revenge
while he steals a fortune, the great pace, stunts and some witty dialogue and
situations made it a worthy sequel. It
was also a larger hit than the second film.
This new
2007 The Die Hard Collection is not
as thorough as the double sets made on each film that were also boxed under the
Ultimate moniker. Fox says they will be doing the films in the
High Definition Blu-ray format which may or may not have more extras than this
set, but if you want extras, find the old DVD double sets or wait on the
Blu-rays if you have the format. This is
being issued because of the fourth film and even has a bonus disc to promote
all four films, which we will get to in a minute.
All the
films are presented in anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 transfers, though the
materials can look old for the first film and too soft for the third. The first two were shot in real anamorphic
Panavision, while the third is an impressive, bold and innovative use of Super
35mm shooting, which gave the film a new look versus its predecessors. Jan de Bont shot the first film as a big
screen action epic, Oliver Wood made the second film look big and like there was
money on the screen at least and Peter Menzies pulled off the remarkable work
on the third.
The
transfer on the first film is weak, lame and recycles the old analog master
that goes back to the 12” LaserDisc down to the few print flaws. The second looks really good and particularly
has good Video Red and the third looks weaker than it should despite Super 35
being weaker than real Panavision in definition, detail and depth. Too bad, because I have seen all three films
in 35mm and they look better than this.
Like the
previous double sets, all three have DTS 5.1 upgrades, but the first film has
major problems because secondary audio materials have been used for the remix
as bad as the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. The
second sounds better, but has the poorest sound design of the series just the
same. Both were released in analog Dolby
in 35mm, but were also available in much better 70mm blow-ups with Dolby
magnetic 4.1 stereo mixes. The second
film benefited from Dolby’s then-new improved SR (Spectral Recording) system
with better fidelity and realism that even Dolby Digital sometimes lacks. The first needs a major upgrade. The third was a digital 5.1 film all the way,
but never had 70mm blow-up prints released.
It sounds really good and maybe DTS-MA will bring out more in the
Blu-ray version. The late Michael Kamen
did the score for all three films and it features some of his best work,
especially one and three.
Extras
include feature length director commentary tracks on all three films. The first also has McTiernan joined on the
commentary by Production Designer Jackson DeGovia, scene-specific commentary by
visual effects supervisor and groundbreaker Richard Edlund, cast/crew subtitle
commentary and “branching version” with extended power shutdown scene added
back in. The bonus disc includes an old
featurette on the two films crossing back and forth with their respective
directors called The Continuing
Adventures Of John McClane featurette, long & well-made documentary on
the first film called Wrong Guy, Wrong
Place, Wrong Time – A Look Back At Die
Hard which is thorough beyond what we see with most featurettes trying
to cover their subject and we get three previews for Live Free Or Die Hard, the hit fourth film.
We
actually have a review for that one from its theatrical release. That link is:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5623/Live+Free+Or+Die+Hard+(Theatrical
In the
meantime, this is the new version of the trilogy in print and is quickly
accessible if you do not want to hunt down the larger out-of-print set and
spend more money.
- Nicholas Sheffo
