MovieChat Forums > Die Hard (1988) Discussion > 1988, when race had not yet been weaponi...

1988, when race had not yet been weaponized !


We have black & yellow bad guys, we have black & yellow good guys. We have black & white heros. Its just a perfect non racist film. A film where any race stands as an uniformed front.
Its beautiful.
Look at America today.

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bullshit , if this came out now all the anti-woke crybabies would be saying

"Hans Gruber the evilest mastermind head bad guy is white!
all the european terrorists are white!,
... and the donut eating sidekick(al) is black!
therefore .... You hate white people!!!! woke !!!!
we whites males are oh so persecuted"



...oh and bonny punched the reporter . What a Mary Sue ! why is wimmin hitting a man ?
woke!!!

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I have to agree. This movie was quite "PC" for the time.

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I'm pretty anti-woke, and I can debunk that. I would not be saying stuff like that.

I also really don't notice stuff until people make such a big deal out of it.

Look at Black Panther and Wonder Woman. I just saw another superhero movie when I watched the trailers for them. Completely forgot that Black Panther was black (and most of the cast was black) and Wonder Woman was female. I just saw superheroes altogether. But then everyone started making such a big that Black Panther was black and Wonder Woman was a female character. THEN Black Panther became a black superhero movie and Wonder Woman became a female superhero movie. I also didn't connect the dots that most of Black Panther's cast was black. Then when people started making such a big deal about it, then I noticed stuff. Originally, I just saw other human beings when I watched the trailers. Oh and the marketing for Wonder Woman made such a big deal about the director being a woman as well. I'm pretty sure I've seen tons of movies and TV shows that were directed by woman and liked them throughout the years. So I don't know why everyone had to make such a big deal about Wonder Woman's director. I don't care. Just make something entertaining.

Also, when it came to Die Hard, I saw that movie after I had seen some of Family Matters. So when I watched Die Hard, I was pretty much "hey, isn't that the dad from Family Matters?" I didn't see a black guy.

Oh and I've liked plenty of things throughout the years with a non-white main character or a main character that was female. And I still do. Two of my favorite movies of 2022 are Day Shift and Christmas Bloody Christmas. Black main character in Day Shift, and the main character of Christmas Bloody Christmas is female. Also, I liked Chris Hemsworth's female partner in Extraction 1 and 2. My second favorite character of the two Extraction movies. She is a complete badass. AND she's not white. AND I would love to see her as an older/experienced Lara Croft.

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"I'm pretty anti-woke, and I can debunk that"
I'm not sure you are given the balanced view you posted

"Completely forgot that Black Panther was black"
"Then when people started making such a big deal about it, then I noticed stuff"

As it should be ,
question is where do you go from here ?
Do you continue to just watch the movies as the makers intended and not worry about what color people are ,
Or do you join the ranks of of the militant anti-woke squad and become outraged every time you see a black person or a woman on the screen ?


tbf , wonder woman couldnt really be played by a man. and "black" pather couldnt really be a white man
These guys get really upset when the role *could* have been played by a white man
.... and also if the bad guy is white (like Die Hard)

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No one does any of that, even in retrospect, and people love to criticize older movies with the modern points of view.

But I actually agree that it would be more harshly criticized if it came out today. Because movies now prioritize identity politics. They would probably recast McClain as a Bisexual woman of Color, and When you put so much emphasis on Gender, Race, and Sexuality orientation, you can't claim those other castings are accidental.

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Bingo!

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Yep, a much better time, a more advanced age.

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They dint have no tech back then

just the fax maam, just the fax

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At the time, maybe in its 1988 year of release or maybe a year later, iconic black pioneer Sidney Poitier called out these same qualities and praised Die Hard as where casting could go in the future.

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Poitier would be accused of having "internalized white supremacy" for saying that today.

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There is only one race, the human race. Oh, you're referring to ethnicities, my bad. Also, I think the word may be a bit advanced for the country nitwits.

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