John McTiernan, director of the hugely successful ’80s action movie “Die Hard,” is disappointed in Hollywood’s recent output — specifically “Mad Max: Fury Road” and the “Captain America” films.
“There is action but not of human beings. These are films made by fascists,” McTiernan told French movie magazine Premiere.
When asked specifically about last year’s “Fury Road,” which won six out of the 10 Academy Awards for which it was nominated, the director said “Pffff … corporate product.”
McTiernan went on to grouse that movies are no longer the exemplars they used to be, recalling that children once learned adults by seeing them admirably portrayed on screen.
“A kid could learn how a man or woman should behave by watching movies,” McTiernan said. “Comic book heroes are for businesses.”
The reasoning behind the action filmmaker’s distaste for most movies appears largely political.
“I can’t really watch them. I’m pissed off the second they start,” said McTiernan. “The cult of American hyper-masculinity is one of the worst things that has happened in the world during the last 50 years. Hundreds of thousands of people died because of this stupid illusion. So how is it possible to watch a movie called Captain America?”
However, McTiernan wasn’t all vitriol — he said a sort-of nice thing about Ben Affleck in “Argo.”
There is something about him that a lot of people find annoying. This arrogance, coldness … It disappeared in this film,” he said.
*McTiernan’s interview was translated from French by a native French speaker and Google Translate.