John McClane vs David Addison

[diana2001]

Thought this was an interesting article for you all to read.

Working-class hero, getting the job done

FACTBOX
• Willis' works

Sunday, July 01, 2007KRISTI TURNQUIST The Oregonian Staff

There's a line in "Live Free or Die Hard," the return of Bruce Willis
as iconic New York City cop John McClane, that's obviously meant to
be quoted.

"You're a Timex watch in a digital world," the black-clad cyber-
genius evildoer, Timothy Olyphant, sneers to McClane.

It's a not-so-subtle statement of the movie's true subject. Sure,
it's a popcorn action flick in which red-blooded everyman McClane
saves the day yet again. But "Live Free or Die Hard" is really about
McClane -- and by extension, Bruce Willis -- as the last of the
working-class heroes.

It's been 19 years since Willis first donned McClane's sweaty
undershirt in the original "Die Hard." Back then, Willis had become
an overnight TV star thanks to "Moonlighting," the snappy-banter
detective show/romantic comedy in which he co-starred as David
Addison with Cybill Shepherd. But as a movie presence, Willis was
still very much an uncertain property.

The success of "Moonlighting" propelled Willis into a couple of
forgettable Blake Edwards comedies: "Blind Date," in which he was
upstaged by Kim Basinger as a boozy beauty; and "Sunset," in which
Willis looked stiff and uncomfortable playing the silent movie cowboy
star Tom Mix.

So when Willis was cast in "Die Hard," the news was greeted with a
massive collective snort of derision. This TV joker, getting paid the
then-outrageous sum of $5 million to star in an action movie? What a
bomb this is gonna be.

But first, "Moonlighting"


Well, we know how that turned out. But in the noisy aftermath of
Willis' breakthrough and subsequent stardom -- celeb marriage to Demi
Moore, a ghastly foray into music, the family's move to Hailey,
Idaho, Willis' friendly relationship with Demi and her new hubby,
Ashton Kutcher -- one intriguing detail got lost.

Without "Moonlighting," without David Addison, there may not have
been a John McClane.

I've been watching the DVD sets of "Moonlighting," which ran from
1985 to 1989, expecting to find it dated. Instead, it's been like
revisiting an old flame and remembering why you fell for him in the
first place. In its first three seasons -- before the show self-
destructed -- "Moonlighting" was so fresh, clever and sophisticated
it makes today's romantic-comedy movies seem like the work of junior
high students.

The fashions may have faded -- Shepherd's wardrobe of padded-
shoulder, soft-dressing ensembles, Willis' gigantic Ray-Bans -- but
the stars' chemistry hasn't. And it's obvious that in "Die Hard,"
Willis became a movie star because he was able to inject some of
his "Moonlighting" character into his big-screen persona. The
swagger, the jokes, the macho confidence overlaying a nagging layer
of doubt and fear -- that was the anti-hero Addison all the way, and
it became the foundation of McClane.

What makes Willis great in both roles is that he's not just trying to
show off -- he's trying to show the woman he loves that he can get
the job done.

In "Moonlighting," Addison's the kind of guy who leads office limbo
contests. When awakened by a middle-of-the-night phone call, he
answers with a reflexive, "She's not here!" But despite the
buffoonery and overgrown-boy antics, deep down, David wants to win
the heart of Shepherd's character, Maddie Hayes, the pragmatic ex-
model trying to make a go of their silly private detective agency.

It's no easy task. "David," she cries in exasperation, "I need a
business partner who's a mature adult!"

In "Die Hard," McClane winds up in Los Angeles and in Nakitomi Plaza
not because he's looking for trouble -- he's trying to re-connect
with his wife, Holly (Bonnie Bedelia). Both Addison and McClane are
working-class guys. David tries to pretend he's more successful, more
educated, more worldly than he really is. McClane is painfully out of
place in his wife's upscale corporate environment.

More than just beefcake

It's that vulnerability that makes Willis popular with women in a way
that other muscle-bound dinosaurs of that era -- Schwarzenegger,
Stallone, Van Damme, for crying out loud -- never were. And
vulnerability is why audiences fell in love with McClane. Willis has
always had the kind of physicality that makes him seem like a real
person -- he's fit, but he doesn't look like he lives in the gym. So
when McClane cuts his feet on broken glass, we wince. When he's
scared, we feel his terror. And when his undershirt gets sweat-
stained and ragged, we can almost feel the heat rising off his skin.

Willis himself was an underdog, according to what "Moonlighting"
creator Glenn Gordon Caron says on the DVD commentary track for the
show's pilot episode. The former New York bartender showed up for his
audition with his hair (he had hair then) cut short, dressed in
military fatigues, and an earring in his ear.

"We took him to the network 11 times," Caron recalls.

ABC didn't want him, execs said, because "no one would ever believe
Bruce Willis could share the frame with someone as beautiful as
Cybill Shepherd."

Caron prevailed, with the help of a female executive who said of
Willis, "He sure looks like a dangerous man to me."

But after the "Moonlighting" pilot aired, Los Angeles Times TV critic
Howard Rosenberg seemed to agree with ABC, referring to the show
as "Beauty and the Beast." A few weeks later, Rosenberg publicly
recanted.

A man, not a boy


In the years since, Willis has become a versatile, underrated actor.
But he's still able to summon that star-making persona he pioneered
two decades ago.

"Live Free or Die Hard" is an entertaining movie, though not in a
class with the original. But Willis is solid as a rock. The
boyishness is gone -- the man is 52, after all -- and he's
unapologetically bald. ("Hair loss is God's way of telling me I'm
human," Willis has said.) His skin is leathery and creased.

But in a movie world populated with actors who aren't boys, but don't
yet seem like men -- Tobey Maguire, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon,
the ever-eccentric Johnny Depp and Nicolas Cage -- Willis seems a
throwback to the era when male movie stars were masculine, but not
vain. Tough, but able to be tender.

In "Live Free or Die Hard," McClane brushes off a comment that he's
heroic.

"You know what you get for being a hero?" he asks. "You get shot at,
get divorced, eat a lot of meals alone, your kids won't talk to you.
Nobody wants to be that guy."

Thank goodness Willis is still that guy.

http://www.oregonlive.com/O/entertai...940.xml&coll=7

Diana
www.moonlighting21.com
Moonlighting Strangers

[TJL]

Good article. John McClane rarely gets recognition for being a great action movie character.

[MulberryGal]

That's an excellent article!! Thanks Diane!

Mul