American John McClain kicking pseudo-German ass in a Japanese plaza, what is more American than that? What you may not know is that Die Hard is almost a perfect allegory for World War Two. First you have the set up of a Pseudo German (British Actor Alan Rickman playing a German character) using his charm and wiles to use real Germans (the two German brothers) to take over something that wasn't theirs (Nakatomi Plaza) And just like Hitler, Alan Rickman said he was one thing when he was another. Hitler said he was not going to take the Rhineland but totally did, while Alan Rickman said he was a terrorist when all he really was is a thief. Shit goes down and John McCain finally springs into help when something of his almost gets ruined (his ex-wife, or wife that he hadn't seen in a while, she doesn't matter) He launches an offensive against the lone German dude and totally wrecks his shit but very close to losing his shit as well. This is very clearly Operation Overlord, you may know it as the opening scene from almost every Medal of Honor game or “D-Day”, fun fact D-Day literally means Day-Day. It gives John McClain the MP5 submachine gun that he will use to kick pseudo-German ass for the rest of the film. The two bumbling FBI agents in the film are representative of the British and Soviets from the current American perspective of the war. Americans think they did everything in WW2 while the Brits practically rolled out the red carpet for the SS. The LAPD are a representative of Canada in WW2, again from an American perspective. We Americans think, for the most part that Canada had nothing more than a cheerleader role, let alone that they had a major role in Operation Overlord and almost every other operation in the war, but I digress. You see, Alan Rickman was just biding his time to reach his ultimate goal, bearer bonds. While Hitler just wanted the world. The whole thing about the hostages was really about the Jews. Hitler said it was just temporary as did Alan Rickman. But what they mean by temporary is that it won't last long and it ends in death. When McClain's feet gets all cut up do to the glass, this is an allegory to Operation Market Garden, the first major fuck up by the Americans. We thought that Holland at the time was being held by “Old men and Hitler Youth” and it was straight to Berlin. But we were wrong, dead wrong. Holland was held by the hardest of hardcore solders, the SS Panzer Corps and they found immense joy sending the 101rst and 82nd Airborne packing. And towards the end of the film when Alan Rickman is so desperate that he goes after McClain himself and poses as a scared American? Battle of the Bulge. As you know, Hitler dies as does Alan Rickman, but you may not notice is the nerdy black guy that is doing all the work on the locks actually lives and gets arrested. This is an allegory to the Nazi Scientists being sent to various Allied countries and being used for their own research. America gets the girl (Freedom) and they drive off into the distance to Christmas music, allegory to the fact the solders in the European front are told they will be home by Christmas, and they think all is well with the world.....but they are wrong. Next time: Die Hard 2 is the Cold War!
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