Neuchatel Celebrates ‘Pope of Action Cinema’ John McTiernan

Director of Die Hard, Predator and The Hunt for Red October, John McTiernan will step into the limelight at this years Neuchatel Intl. Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF), presenting three of his films as guest of honor while serving on the festival jury.

If anything, the choice of honoree was obvious for NIFFF artistic director Pierre-Yves Walder, who calls McTiernan the Pope of action cinema.

The very idea of John McTiernan meeting our public will shape the history of our festival, Walder says. Because his films fed a shared love of movies, for us in Neuchatel and around the world.

McTiernans films are like luxury prototypes, says Walder. He helped invent this extremely muscular action cinema with a rough edge, turning Bruce Willis into an icon and creating the mold for modern sci-fi action.

And if Walder was thrilled when McTiernan offered to present Die Hard and Predator at the lakeside Swiss festival, the Neuchatel director nevertheless made one strong request.

I asked him to screen Last Action Hero as well, Walder explains. Because its a film Ive always loved, though Id read that he didnt feel the same way. Its kind of a cursed film, that got steamrolled by Jurassic Park in the summer of 1993, but is every bit as imaginative.

McTiernan deconstructed the codes he helped create, making something very meta at a time when that wasnt so common. Of course, the meta change soon followed, but McTiernan was ahead of the curve. He had the intelligence and foresight to make something truly wild.

Though NIFFF will only program three McTiernan masterworks in free-of-charge, open-air screenings, the festival director could happily go on at length about the American filmmakers full filmography, reserving particular delight for one late-90s standout.

Theres a very sexy, elegant side to [McTiernans 1999 remake of] The Thomas Crown Affair, says Walder. Every time McTiernan takes a genre, he just blows it away. Stanley Kubrick did the same, but in a completely different style. Both took codes from this or that style, and pushed them to the limit.