Some people tend to get typecast into roles they can’t escape no matter how hard they try. For Hart Bochner the role of the wise-talking jerk is one that he’s played more than once, but nowhere near as convincingly as he did in Die Hard. If there’s any character that needs a lifetime achievement award to be handed their way it’s Hart Bochner for his role as Harry Ellis simply because we all believed that he was the ultimate tie-wearing, button-down, coke-snorting, cowardly jerk that kind of got what he had coming to him.
That’s awful to say to be honest but it’s also pretty true. Bochner played the part so well that no one was really shocked or hurt when Ellis finally got put down. The guy was a jerk with a capital J. He snorted cocaine in the offices, hit on Holly continuously, and even had the nerve to try and show off to her husband just how important she was to the company in an effort to punk him. Something tells me that if the script had called for it Ellis might have been counting his teeth on the carpet after John swatted him around a bit. But no, fate and the writers had something far worse in mind for Ellis.
You’ve either got to be wholly committed to a role such as this or you’ve got to be that kind of a person to start with to make it work so well. Without trying to say anything bad about Bochner it’s easy to see that he fell into the role with such gusto that people were almost leaning forward in their seats to see Hans put a bullet in the man. Plus, he was the ultimate coward when things really got serious. He tried his best to weasel his way into the good graces of Hans and the others, but he was out of his league the moment he decided to call even an ounce of attention to himself.
The trouble with characters like Harry Ellis, or maybe the genius of it is, they are universally despised by almost the entire audience most times. Some might actually find it in their heart to think it sad that any character gets killed in a movie, but the majority will usually look at a character like Ellis and just wait for him to get clipped. The character offers nothing more than an unwitting target for those that are itching to pull the trigger on someone, and are often given up as sacrificial lambs, either by others or through their own doing, to those that are intent on mayhem. In Ellis’s case he was actively trying to sell John McClane out while making it sound as though he was trying to deescalate the situation. It wouldn’t have been surprising if John had been found and killed if Ellis had gone back to Holly with a shrug that said “I tried”.
That’s just the kind of slimy character that Ellis was, and kudos to Bochner for selling it so well. For this role alone he could be given the nod for a lifetime achievement award.
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