Director: John McTiernan
Producers: Andrew Vajna, Michael Tadross, Joh McTiernan
Writers: Roderick Thorp, Jeb Stuart, Steven E. de Souza
Stars: Bruce Willis, Jeremy Irons, Samuel L. Jackson
The film, “Die Hard with a Vengeance,” has two of America’s well known personality actors, Bruce Willis and Samul L. Jackson. A personality actor is where the, “actors are, at some level, playing themselves [or at least that is the perception], (Goodykoontz, & Jacobs, 2014). In this movie, Simon Gruber (Jeremy Irons) plots to destroy McClain while simultaneously robbing New York of its Federal Reserve gold. It turns out that Simon is the older brother of the Hans Gruber the villain killed by John McClain (Willis) during the first Die Hard movie. During the first puppeteer like mission that Simon sends him on, John meets a shop owner in Harlem, Zeus Carver. Zeus is reluctantly pulled into continuing the scavenger hunt with John in order to find a bomb hidden within the city.
Bruce Willis is known for his tough-guy action-hero personality, which he ultimately saves the day in many of his movies. One thing I have noticed is that most action packed Bruce Willis movies; he is wearing a white tee-shirt. The tee-shirt could be a symbol of his strength and is ability to get down and dirty in order to be victorious, as it demonstrates in the “Die Hard” movie francize and many other movies. In many of his movie’s Willis generally plays the hero that cannot be beat, with that catch phrase that is forever connected to the film and the actor. Samul L. Jackson can also be considered a personality actor based on many of his bad boy/forget-the-police attitude that is needed in many of his roles. Movies like the remake of “Shaft (2000)” and his smaller role as the criminal robber in, “Coming to America” with Eddie Murphy. Jackson is typically cast as the angry black man that does not take any grief from anybody.
I believe that Jeremy Irons is known for his roles as the villain, though I would not consider him a personality actor, he is very good at depicting the bad guy. He is also the voice of Scare, in Disney’s “The Lion King (1994),” the evil brother of Mufasa, the king. Iron’s personality is not quite the same given that “The Lion King” is a children’s movie, which demonstrates that evil can have many different personalities.
**Disclaimer: All claims and options made on this blog site is purely that of an Ashford University Student and are not to be deemed as a specialist on this issue. All claims an options are in relation to ENG225: Introduction to film course taken by the student.**
References:
DontHateOnJord (Uploaded Aug 9, 2010) Coming To America – Samuel L. Jackson Scene in HD [Video Clip] Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m61eBU61Y1c
Giggedy4goo. Uploaded Jun 19, 2010. Die Hard with a Vengeance [Video Clip]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwpfSkB8nls
Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. This text is a Constellation™ course digital materials (CDM) title.
MoviemanTrailers. Uploaded Aug 26, 2011. Die Hard with a Vengeance Trailer [Video Clip] Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE6XrgzGRT4