>> HARD MAN
Back to his best in Live Free or Die Hard, Shaun Davis charts the career of action hero, everyman champion and all-round Hollywood stalwart, Bruce Willis.
Evident in his bewildered poster pose,
Blind Date was an off-kilter way for
Bruce Willis to make his entry into cinema.
His wise guy comic shtick was a firecracker
trait in need of expert application; he needed
to rise high above the grounding of an Emmy
awarded television star… it just so happened
that forty storeys would do the trick.
In Die Hard the torch was lit for Willis’ blazing career. From the ground floor and up, John McClane’s vested hero was a character he played with relish. Under John McTiernan’s watertight direction and a concept as high as the Nakatomi Plaza itself, Willis broke from the shackles of rom-com dirge with guns blazing. Enter phase one of his career: the action hero.
Born in Idar-Oberstein, West Germany,
his father a US serviceman and his mother
of German descent, the young Bruce soon
rooted out acting as his true calling. After
a move to New Jersey at a young age,
he skipped college and found himself
coasting between jobs. From sheepherder
to harmonica player, a successful stint on
the stage led him to New York for bigger
opportunities. Television was his first port
of call and after a short recurring role on
Miami Vice, his pairing with Cybil Shepherd
formed the core of successful ‘tec comedy
Moonlighting. Now he’d caught the public’s
attention, Bruce’s cheeking charms begged
to be transposed onto the big screen.
Phase one was a mixed bag of roles. As the ‘90s rolled in, the Shane Black scripted Last Boy Scout was a shiny example of Willis’ talents. A murky trawl through the P.I. business, coated in neon lit sleaze and spat through quick fire dialogue, this was a genre highlight. But for every success came a Bonfire of the Vanities. Cram in two more additions to the Die Hard franchise and the box office offered Willis some forgiveness. Despite the blips, his sheen as a believable action star was untouchable. Sent up in Altman’s mind maze satire The Player, his gun-toting skills would still always come with a cheeky smile. Forget North or Death Becomes Her - this nod was Willis’ comedic high of the decade.
The revival was always hinted at - his tight-
lipped nuanced performance in Tarantino’s
Pulp Fiction evidence. But it took a trip
to the moon and back to the morgue for
him to show us that he wasn’t going down
without a fight. Armageddon was a cheese-
infested slice of cinema that rocked the box
office, giving Willis the chance to lend some
wizened thesping chops between the scenes
of impressively constructed action. In The
Sixth Sense his down played and heartfelt
performance aided the film come its rug pull
of a climax. His integration into phase two
was complete: the everyman’s hero.
With the new millennium came the invention of a shaky franchise starter in The Whole Nine Yards. Although a slight misstep, it was his stoic political views that soon took precedence when it came to selecting roles. Representative in Hart’s War and Tears of the Sun, Bruce fought the Republican cause with pride. But it took another kind of hit for Willis to truly regain his credentials. Like Pulp Fiction, Sin City offered him the chance to shine in a segmented fashion. The storming comic adaptation packed a grizzled punch in the box office and the successes began rolling in. First came the cack-titled Lucky Number Slevin, then the redux feel of 16 Blocks. After his latest comic turn in Over the Hedge and a return to the Die Hard role that made him, Bruce Willis is poised for his biggest comeback to date…
Shaun Davis