Talk about overthinking it! This thread highlights the recurrent conflict that arises because my Myers-Briggs personality type is INFJ, but most programmers are not.<p>To me a Christmas movie is a movie with the spirit of Christmas running through it, however weakly. Another definition I have is this. A Christmas movie is a movie that is fun to watch around Christmas. Die Hard meets both of these definitions.<p>Die Hard is not, however, a typical Christmas movie. It's a movie more for people who are sick of the normal Christmas movies and want a break. Because of this special status, people who think of Die Hard as a Christmas movie feel a greater camaraderie than people who think, say, White Christmas is a Christmas movie. For example, at a Christmas party one of my friends wore, as his "Christmas sweater," a gray sweatshirt with the words "Ho ho ho" written in red.<p>Another thing that makes Die Hard special is the thought and care that the director put into it, <a href="https://vimeo.com/76739972" rel="nofollow">https://vimeo.com/76739972</a>
Know what? I'm fine either way - I'd rather argue with my dad about whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie than politics and the economy any day.<p>So here's my vote - arguing ABOUT Die Hard being a Christmas move HAS BECOME a Christmas tradition.
This is only an argument because of different ways of defining what a "Christmas movie" is, which aren't mutually exclusive:<p>a) Whether the movie is unambiguously set during Christmas, and if so whether that's clearly an artistic choice, or as much of a coincidence as a movie that has nothing to do with the weather being set in the summer or winter.<p>b) Whether the movie is aimed at the "Christmas movie market". I.e. released around Christmas, this'll usually coincide with a movie being more Christmas themed.<p>The article weaves between criteria that'll fall under one or the other, without ever really acknowledging the difference between the two.<p>Die Hard meets a) but not b), but the article doesn't mention whether or not skipping b) was intended.<p>The studio had a hard time casting the protagonist. Was it initially meant for a Christmas release, but ended up slipping into July without the script being changed to de-Christmas theme it?<p>More importantly, is there a reason to avoid b) without a)? Do mildly Christmas-themed movies such as Die Hard (it's not integral to the plot) get penalized in the market as a result? Why don't we see more of them?
Aha. A local bar was playing 1948 Rudolph the RNR followed by Die Hard, and I thought it was just a hipster ironic incongruity. Now I’m understanding some consider Die Hard a Christmas film.
My initial sense is it's not a Christmas movie because the typical example of such is a movie that has something like <i>"the joy of Christmas"</i> as its core message or theme. But I'm hardly the most buff of film buffs, so I wonder: are the any movies with something of a negative message, or just any counterexample that is clearly a Christmas movie that doesn't meet this criteria of "joy" etc.?
I wasn't aware this was even an argument. Is this a joke or an American thing? I must admit my initial reaction was bof but now I'm slightly intrigued. Maybe it's a meme?