Willis to rescue in skyscraper caper

Press, 28 July 1989, Page 30

Willis to rescue in skyscraper caper

By

DAVID CLARKSON

Bruce Willis puts up an epic struggle against a team of very nasty, very determined terrorists in the urban action adventure, “Die Hard.” C.8.5.-Fox, which has just released the video, is not far wrong in calling it a “blockbuster”: we are talking serious structural damage to a Los Angeles skyscraper. The video has an excellent, tight script that just never falters, and keeps on building the tension. Three actors give the superb performances that make the video so entertaining. Willis is in his element as an off-duty New York policeman, who escapes the clutches of a gang of European terrorists who take over the building, empty except for a Christmas party on the thirty-first floor. Alan Rickman enjoys himself as the head of the terrorist squad, which wants to punish the greed of a giant Japanese

corporation by killing a few executives and raiding $640 million in bearer bonds from its vaults. Thirdly, Reginald Veljohnson plays a black police sergeant in the police cordon, the only man who can really talk to and understand Willis over the radio. The video is packed with convincing stunts. Not real, but convincing. They seem to too often take no account of the force of gravity and the strength of the human body. But that is part of the film’s appeal. This is high drama. Willis begins the story by confessing his fear of flying, then gets trapped atop a skyscraper, where his survival depends on a nightmare of liftwells, air ducts, swings on the end of ropes and hoses, and more firepower than a small army unit. Among all this is some fine, dry humour, to prove that the tale is not to be taken too seriously. John McTiernan directs. The video is rated as suitable for audiences 16 years and over.