McTiernan versus

[joel_rosenbaum 1269]

This could be a "whatever happened to?" discussion, because John McTiernan had a run of outstanding action movies before turning in a long series of dreck and disappearing off the face of the earth.

 

I think the "hard choice" would be Predator versus Die Hard, but others could make a case for Red October.

[Head Spin 112]

For the record, my understanding is that he dropped off the face of the earth due to some illegal wiretapping he did on the set of the Rollerball remake, which got him tied up fighting the FBI in court for years and years. At the end, some light googling is telling me that he did have to serve a year in prison. That put the kibosh on his career.

 

In any case it's an interesting idea, and I'd like to say that I will go to the fucking mat to defend Die Hard with a Vengeance.

[AbeFroman 70]

Glad to see McTiernan get some recognition here. Despite his legal troubles, he remains one of the greatest action directors of all time.

 

His late 80s/early 90s run (Predator, Die Hard, Red October) was not only amazing but kick started multiple franchises that are still going today.

 

McTiernan is long overdue for a re-evaluation and would love to hear D and A discuss one of his films.

[CarlosFerreira 20]

Die Hard vs The Hunt for Red October would be a classic episode. In the end John McClane would probably wipe the floor with Red October, but I would love to hear the opposite argument.

[Muthsarah 124]

Let's not kid ourselves, NOTHING would beat Die Hard in a versus. It's arguably the best film of the whole (80s Hollywood) action genre. It's why, for over 25 years, Hollywood has had the "Die Hard on a [bLANK]" meme.

 

I think Red October would be well worth-it, though. Sure, it's widely viewed as a good film. But how many would say great? Has it aged well as a Cold War film, or would it, today, feel a little too rah-rah-Reagan-y (Sam Neill's character in particular has a couple lines I recall coming off incredibly cheesy)? This was an early franchise, but a weird one, given that the first movie was based around Alec Baldwin's Jack Ryan, but dominated by Sean Connery, and later films just replaced Baldwin with Harrison Ford who, while clearly the bigger icon, didn't star in a movie as big as October. But they made another Ryan film only a couple of years ago (and, of course, they put Chris Pine in it....), so it started something that could keep going and going.

 

I really like the film, but I don't know if I could quite call it great. It's on the line, hence a perfect movie for The Canon. Also, it's currently available everywhere.