Die Hard With a Podcast
6 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 5 years ago - ★★★★★ - 38 ratingsDie Hard With a Podcast is a 9-part series examining the best American action film of all time: Die Hard. This podcast may center around Die Hard, but it also explores more than just what happened inside Nakatomi Tower that fateful Christmas Eve. This is a podcast for anyone out there with interest in the film – or even just action films, films from the 1980s, the evolution of the American movie hero, film production… Die Hard is at once a product of its time, and the start of a new kind of moviegoing experience.
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Episodes
Episode 06 - It's a Christmas movie. So why do we care?
December 25, 2018 09:35 - 53 minutes - 49.1 MBIf you're going to talk Die Hard, you cannot avoid the meme/debate over whether or not it's a Christmas movie. We discuss why it is (and okay, a few reasons why not), but more importantly, why we care about the question in the first place. What does Christmas mean to us, and how do pop culture traditions factor in? Let us know what you think! Drop us a line at [email protected], or visit our site at www.diehardwithapodcast.com
Episode 05 - Roderick Thorp's Nothing Lasts Forever
December 10, 2018 08:10 - 1 hour - 70.4 MBAlmost a decade before there was Die Hard, there was Nothing Lasts Forever. While it sounds like a lost James Bond film, it's actually the book that Die Hard was based on. That's right – Die Hard was based on a book. Roderick Thorp was a crime novelist who met success with 1966's The Detective, which first spawned a movie adaptation, and then a sequel: Nothing Lasts Forever. Simone and special in-studio guest Daniel Walker (who is special because he actually read the damn book) discuss the l...
Episode 04 - Holly Gennaro (and Holly McClane)
November 22, 2018 08:22 - 47 minutes - 43.5 MBHolly Gennaro McClane: portrayed in Die Hard by Bonnie Bedelia, John McClane's estranged wife reflects the conflicts and contradictions facing women at the time the film was made – and even still today. She's a working woman, a mother, and a wife. But there’s no consensus on whether she’s also a damsel in distress, or if she – like so many other conventions that Die Hard challenges – goes beyond your typical 80s action movie female lead. Let us know what you think! Drop us a line at diehar...
Episode 03 - John McClane: Analyzing a Barefoot Hero
October 16, 2018 07:19 - 1 hour - 59.7 MBThe high-quality talent of the team that brought Die Hard to the screen is well-recognized. But to many, the secret ingredient to the movie's success was Bruce Willis and his portrayal of John McClane, an everyman police officer from New York, trapped in Nakatomi Tower at exactly the wrong time – and without even shoes on his feet. McClane takes on the role of reluctant hero to save his wife and the other innocent hostages, and defeat German terrorist-thief Hans Gruber. The McClane character...
Episode 02 - Breaking the 80s action movie mold
September 20, 2018 07:49 - 37 minutes - 34.1 MBEvery film is both a product of its environment, and a rebellion against it. Artists (and audiences) search for something new and fresh, but cannot escape the world as it exists around them. Die Hard is no exception. While Die Hard is often marked as a turning point in American action cinema, we must first look at the state of action cinema as it existed before 1988. What does a “typical” 80s action movie look like? What artistic and societal pressures shaped that mold? And in what ways does...
Episode 01 - The Making of Die Hard
September 06, 2018 10:15 - 43 minutes - 40 MBThere's no better place to start than at the beginning – so, for the first episode of Die Hard With a Podcast, we're taking a look at the making of Die Hard. For a film with so many incredible stunts and huge explosions, it's hard to believe it's based on a book – or is technically a sequel to a 1960s Frank Sinatra flick. On this show, we go from acquiring the rights to the story, crewing up the film, writing the script, casting its stars, and rolling at the Fox Plaza building in Los Angeles...