Bedtime Thoughts

Tonight will be a short night. I getting up at four in order to fly to my cousin's wedding. Three hours of sleep, fantastic.

I watched "Die Harder" tonight, and I will start out by saying I love the ironic title. I felt that the early Die Hard movies (by that I mean one and two) were especially interesting because they redefined the action genre. All this has been studied by folks a whole lot more verbose than I, and you can read it in depth from them. For me, the change happened with the shift from muscle bound supermen to the, more or less, guy next door. All of a sudden here is a hero the audience (presumably at least the white males) could really relate to.

I won't sit here (lay here) and pretend that John McClain is an everyman sort, but his actions don't transcend traditional levels of reality to much. There are repercussions to his actions, he gets injured, he runs out of ammunition, he questions his involvement in the action. All wonderful, and all not especially evident in the genre films leading up to this.

With all that to chew on, I'm going to throw out a quick question to muse as you sip your coffee as I jet overhead, has the tide turned? Are the heroes in action films turning back into the supermen of the eighties? Take a look at the latest installment in the "Die Hard" franchise, the not quite as deliciously ironic "Live Free or Die Hard" (I might be incorrect with the title.... How embarrassing). McClain is back, but he seems more capable in terms of the fantastic. He is no longer the cop down the street, but rather he has been transformed into the iconic figure of John McClain with his trademarked phrases and patented grimaces.

And just as John McClain's emergence signaled the changing of the guard, so to might John Rambo's re-emergence..........

Goodnight. Play nicely.
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