die hard morality tale

Recently watched Die Hard and Die Hard 2 for the first time. Both are ridiculous, ludicrous and very engaging. DH2 more than DH emphasizes Willis' character's willingness to hurl himself wrecklessly into the center of whatever action is taking place. In both, Willis' appeal is that he seems human, humane while at the same time supremely tough. He does not show intelligience or wit particularly. His essense is more character, grit and courage.

One thought I had w/ both the movies (both from the 80s) is that they are savvy about who to make the bad guys. In the first movie, the terrorists are German. In the second, they are in the words of one of the bad guys in the movie, "assholes" just like Willis' character. The things that distinguish Willis' character from the bad guys are:

--He has a family he adores. Evidence: He thinks about them and talks about them wistfully. He reunites w/ his wife at the end of each. The bad guys, on the other hand, never seem to have anything other than control, cruel intelligience and mayhem on their minds.
--He is a cowboy, individualist, while they are a supremely coordinated team under the iron rule of an old school leader, disciplinarian.

So one part of the satisfying morality play is that Willis stands for a meme we revere in the U.S., the worth and power of the individual. At the same time, his appeal is tied to a populist theme of the downtrodden workers who are courageous but nevertheless broken and marginalized by the system. (Joe, from DH has a small part in DH2. The head of Airport Police is petty, vengeful and trivial bec/ of the work he must do and the lack of support and understanding of his management. At the same time, he and his crew, just like Joe in DH, blossom when Willis' character gives them the opportunity and their courage, strength, resilience is needed. This is another meme in the U.S. We may be asleep, fat, lazy, shiftless now. But we can transform into a powerful and righteous force as needed, at will.