On Dieing and Hardness
I recently watched the unrated cut of Live Free or Die Hard and it was a substantially better movie then the PG-13 theatrical release. Why? Well, the answer is very simple and it goes to the core of the changes they made between the two releases. See, in the unrated release John McClane says “fuck” a lot but in the theatrical cut he doesn’t. It really does make a difference.
I’m not one for profanity for its own sake - well, not usually - but it is undeniable that a major aspect of John McClane’s character, and he is an iconic character, is that he curses happily and frequently. It’s the sort of thing that is glaring by its absence and without it the character is completely changed. The audience is left wondering, “hey, why isn’t John McClane swearing?” Their next thought? “Oh, that’s right, it’s PG-13.” All of a sudden you’re completely out of the movie and actually thinking about the absurd “they’ve stolen our internets!” plot. That’s not where the filmmakers want the audience to be.
Importantly, the ending of the movie had so much more impact with the inclusion of the full catch prhase. John McClane doesn’t say “yippee kiy yay.” He says “yippee kiy yay mother fucker.” That’s just science.
Sphere It
Yeah, sometimes you just expect some people to swear, a lot. John McClane is one of them.
The way they muffled the “fucker” part of motherfucker was pretty clever (for a movie where the plot twist is that somebody’s stealing the interwebs), but if he actually says the word in the uncut version, then I’m buying it.
Comment by George K — September 22, 2008 @ 6:17 pm