Hall of Fame: John McTiernan
Often described as one of Hollywood’s most despised people, John McTiernan has simultaneously made some of the greatest action films in history and pissed off most of those people responsible for having said films made. Let’s just say, he has cemented himself on the ‘Naughty list’ for many folks working in the industry this Christmas. But, that doesn’t mean that we should forget about the amazing contributions that Mr. McTiernan has made to the genre over the years. He was Michael Bay-ing movies before Michael Bay even knew what the hell was up. He is also partially responsible for fellow BPA Hall of Fame inductee Jack Ryan’s inclusion on this prestigious list. It was McTiernan who directed that first Ryan adventure in The Hunt for Red October. So help me give the devil his due and let’s take a brief look into the storied action career of John McTiernan.
I hardly remember what life was like before I ever saw Predator. There isn’t a week that goes by where I don’t think about how damn good of a movie it is. I played with the toys, read the comics, sprinted around my backyard blasting away at inanimate objects swinging from phone lines, and generally learned how to curse like a champ from watching Predator. If I were Andrew Lincoln and this were Love Actually I would be standing outside of Predator’s door with a sign that read ‘To me you are perfect’. I think you get where I am going with this one. If you love something as dearly I as I do with Predator then the man who directed the film carries almost an equal amount of love just for being that involved.
Die Hard is at the absolute pinnacle of action filmmaking. The fact that it is considered among the greatest action movies of all time while also being maybe the most relative proves that great cinema, no matter the genre, has continued staying power well past the life of its actors. A peek at any list of great action movies following 1988’s Die Hard will show you that nearly every film on there did their best o recreate the magic that Willis and McTiernan had found. For those two, they would return to their roles some seven years later when they re-teamed for Die Hard With a Vengeance. An often overlooked sequel that followed up the original while also doing something very different.
McTiernan must have thought he needed to work with more action powerhouses because he teamed up with Sean Connery for The Hunt for Red October in 1990, Arnie again in 1993, and Willis, Antonio Banderas, and Pierce Brosnan to round out the 90’s. It was an absolutely legendary decade for McTiernan between 87-97, accounting for multiple movies on most critics top 10 lists of all time. I feel almost compelled to tell you of the Greek story of Icarus flying too close to the sun but I’m afraid I would lose you. Just Google it…
The important thing to remember about McTiernan at this point is that his life was thrown into total chaos after being imprisoned in 2013 for lying to the FBI. I would say that it’s a tragic ending to an amazingly short career for the man but there is still hope that McTiernan will have an opportunity to follow up on the successes of his past.
There are several directors who have become synonymous with the action genre over the years and some have arguably contributed more to the expansion of it than McTiernan has but I can’t think of anyone more worthy of taking a spot in the Bulletproof Action Hall of Fame than the man himself. Welcome John McTiernan to the class of 2018!
