New 'Die Hard' Director Keeps His Politics Off the Screen

Director John Moore (A Good Day to Die Hard) joined many other “artists” in Hollywood recently when he sat down for an interview with nerdist.com and revealed his extreme left wing stance on gun control.

I know, take all the guns away. Keep the guns on the movie screen.Nobody should own one. Keep them on the fucking movie screen. That’swhere they fucking belong.

Obviously Moore’s comments are aligned with the extreme left wing that makes up the majority of the Hollywood community, but his comments aren’t really the point here. There’s a larger, mostly positive, aspect to what Moore said. 

Moore revealed himself to be a self-taught expert on firearms and many military technologies like helicopters during the interview. A poor man’s John Milius of Red Dawn fame, if you will. In recent interviews Moore has even gone on to describe the very conservative character of Die Hard’s John McClane and the franchise overall.

So despite his own views on gun control, Moore has managed to keep merit in his artistic voice and provide films that don’t work as an aid to his own political agenda. He understands the audience for something like Die Hard and services them properly. He also has chosen to educate himself as a director to give authenticity to the idea of guns on screen despite being against them in real life.

Many others in Hollywood hide behind the fact that they are “artists,” but we know from watching their work that they are not. They are enemies of art as they throw things like storytelling and character and human experience to the wind and simply inject politics into the mix. If these were to come naturally then so be it, but it would be hard to argue that films like Promised Land and Killing Them Softly are little more than vehicles for the views they are selling.

We can’t ask for everyone in Hollywood to agree with us. We can simply ask that they stay true to the principles of art and voice. Moore’s recent comments prove he has with his newest Die Hard and for that he should be commended. Besides, we know if he ever tried throwing those anti- gun views into a McClane story, Bruce Willis would keep him in toe.

A Good Day to Die Hard opens nationwide Feb. 14.