...riding off into the sunset.
The aforementioned ingredients were Shake-n-Baked for years. The core ingredients were harvested during the '50s & '60s, the recipe was crafted in the '70s, then in the 1980's all we had to eat at the local cineplex was a Rambo burger with a side of Arnold and an explosion to wash it all down. The 1980's perfected the action genre. Viagra hadn't been invented yet, so a lot of shit got blown up.
Until July 15th 1988.
A movie with the goofball actor from Moonlighting hit the theaters but it had a title that sounded as if Rambo himself was having a hard time holding it up.
DIE HARD.
The first word repents finality.
The second says "fuck you".
The American Action Palate changed in a week.
Limited release July 15, 1988
Wide release July 22, 1988
The Rambo burgers, the hot side of Arnold...we finally saw them for what they were...burnt steak slathered in A-1.
We'd been eating shit and loving it because that's all we'd had for years.
We didn't know anything else.
To be a hero you had to have muscles and guns and bunch of other stuff we didn't have.
We didn't have ripping muscles.
We didn't have screeching machine guns.
We had a job we were good at but bored with.
We had a rocky marriage.
We did what we had to do to get by.
And so did John McClaine.
I was 15 years old when DIE HARD hit the theaters. I just watched it again for the 500th time for this podcast.
I'm now 44.
*Probably* like you, I don't have ripping muscles.
I don't have a screeching machine gun.
I have a job I'm good at but bored with.
I've been in more shitty relationships than good ones.
I do what I have to do to get by.
Just like John McClaine.
2 hours and 12 minutes of celluloid blew a bigger hole in the American consciousness then Chuck Norris could ever hope to do, even if he was swinging Lee Marvin's epic cock.
DIE HARD redefined the American Action Movie. After July 15th, 1988 an action movie no longer needed big muscles, big guns, big explotions, big tits, and all those other things. The star of the movie became a guy like us.
You.
Me.
Them.
Everyone.
Everyone is John McClaine.
*I just watched the movie and (fueled by distrust of the internet-I don't believe anything I find online) I can't remember how it's spelled in the credits. McClane. McClaine. McClain.
Reelbooze Season 2 - Drunker, Harder, Faster Episode 3 - Die Hard
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