MovieChat Forums > Live Free or Die (2006) Discussion > Do You Have To Be From NH To 'Get' This ...

Do You Have To Be From NH To 'Get' This Movie??

posted 16 years ago by sdribble
10 replies | jump to latest

Reading some of the negative comments on here, about this movie, makes me wonder if:

A. People just don't get subtle humor anymore, in this age of American Pie-type movies. (Sorry, but I just don't get how having 'relations' with baked goods is funny?)

Or,

B. The only people who really get this movie are those of us who live here. This movie pretty much nailed the NH living experience:

-It seems like its always winter here, except for like 2 months in the summer where we all drown in humidity.

-Chain smoking and the State Liquor Store experience. (You can buy beer and wine in almost any store, but you have to hit up a state-run store to get the 'hard' stuff.)

-You can always hear a chainsaw or a train whistle off in the distance somewhere.

-Vehicles on the road in various states of disrepair that only the owner of the car knows how to keep running and not kill anyone, yet the cops never stop them.

-We really do have stores owned by men with mullets and mutton chops.

-Everyone goes out Friday night because its the only night other people are out. Just try going out on a Tuesday here. If you find anything open past 10 PM, you and the bartender will be the only ones there.

-Every other surname sounds French, probably thanks to being right next door to Canada.

-Utz brand snack chips, which crept in here from PA like 9 years ago and are now everywhere. (Except Market Basket, thanks to 'old school politics.')

-Every town seems to have a restaraunt with 'Clam' something in the name. Personally I don't do seafood but everyone else here sure does!

In conclusion, I just wanted to say something about the accusations of NH being 'xenophobic'-I live in Salem and my apartment complex is full of hispanic and Indian people. I don't mind this at all. As these two cultures continue to move in, its only a matter of time before they merge together and melt in with whoever else is already here.

The future's going to be interesting.

[–] JohnS-37 16 years ago

no, I'm from Missouri and I'm pretty sure I got this movie. I understand all the NH themes but you really have those in alot of small towns across America, not just NH. But it really didn't make the movie any funnier. I did laugh out loud a couple times but for the most part it wasn't that funny nor was it that clever, like the show Seinfeld. It was a movie where you kept waiting for the punchline but never got to it. Lots of things could have been a lot better.

[–] dancehallradio 16 years ago

I lived in Windham NH, right next door to you and I did NOT get this movie. Salem is not at ALL as hick-like as you are making it out to be. There are def. people out on Tuesdays, and you are only 30 minutes from Boston.

Gimmie a break.

[–] sdribble 16 years ago

Sorry but the only Salem NH people who are out on Tuesday are all down in Haverhill. (Chit Chat Lounge, anybody??)

[–] brandon762 16 years ago

I was tricked by my TV into watching this movie (it said that Live Free Or Die Hard was on) but I thought it was great. I enjoyed the humor and I live in California, so the NH Theory isn't exactly true. I guess most people prefer up front slapsticky kind of stuff.

~Bootsy G

Visit My Goddamn MySpace!
(www.myspace.com/bootsyg)

[–] bluebabya18 16 years ago

Okay I too believe that some of the humor in this movie is hard to understand for people not from New Hampshire, having grown up there myself. I also have to agree with dancehallradio that Salem is NOT a "small town" by NH standards. I grew up in Rumney, NH (try finding it on the map hint: it's next to Plymouth) and the only stores in town close at 9pm, we have one blinking yellow light, and one family makes up half the population of the town, so I think of anyone I certainly can understand the themes in this movie better than most. Of course I might get it a little better than most since I lived like 45 minutes from where it was filmed but that's not the point lol

"I've learned I still have a lot to learn" ~ Maya Angelou

[–] StuffedMannequin 15 years ago

I'm in Salem, pretty much raised. I wouldn't say there are any hicks here, if anything just alot of people from Massachusetts flooding Route 28 to avoid as much tax as possible.

ps to the OP. Do you live in that apartment complex right next to the Christmas Tree shop?

"We wont be needing your BANANA STICKERS."

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] sarahliz1624 9 years ago

I'm from Maine and spent a lot of my childhood in NH. While I got what they were trying to do, and it probably worked on paper, the execution was terrible and it just wasn't funny. I did laugh a bit at the guy dying from bad clams (although living in Maine on the coast I've never once in my life heard of this ever happening with the exception of red tide warnings, which would all but shut down a local clam shack) and the stuff about the alarm companies and all that was definitely funny cause it was true, so many old ladies have fake alarm signs, but as a story it didn't hold together because you didn't care about the character and that's just writing 101. Aaron Stanford did his damnedest and made this movie the best it could be, but I've heard many actors say it -- when a script is poor no amount of good acting it directing can make it into a good movie, and the directing was mediocre too.

[–] 9 years ago

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