Many movie fans count Die Hard, the iconic 1988 action film, as their favorite Christmas movie. After all, the embattled John McClane saves the day during the holiday season, and between the gunplay and fisticuffs we see seasonal trappings draped across the screen.
Moviefone.com declared it the “greatest Christmas movie ever made” this week.
Not so fast, says Die Hard co-star Robert Davi.
The versatile actor/singer says the film represents a “secular” Christmas celebration, one that leaves out the religious context behind the holy day.
One of the reasons it’s become a ‘Christmas movie’ is because it’s a secularist Christmas movie, because it’s taken the real meaning of Christmas out — taking Christ out of it. That’s [the birth of Jesus] what Christmas is about, no matter what we say.”
Davi said that while he “loves” “Die Hard,” he can’t consider it a true Christmas movie because it is not about the birth of Jesus, and that considering “Die Hard” to be a Christmas movie “typifies a movement” of “neutering Judeo-Christian values.
The man behind the celebrated album Davi Sings Sinatra: On the Road to Romance understands how some could view Bruce Willis’ character as a “Christlike figure,” given his bloody, barefoot run around the building.
But as a whole, Davi says that viewing “Die Hard” as a Christmas movie exemplifies the fact that America is a more “secular society.
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