The said Constitution shall be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms.

Think about what makes John Maclane such an appealing and wonderful character. This is a man who is put in bad situations not by choice, and certainly does not want to deal with them, but he does deal with them, despite his own personal feelings. In Die Hard, what does John try to do first? He goes up higher in the building and tries to summon help. The fire department, the police, anyone. He would have been very happy to have the LAPD come in and clean up the mess. However, that would not have made a very interesting movie, and John had to deal with those bad guys all on his own. That same philosophy carried through the rest of the trilogy and appears to be maintained in the fourth installment.

What makes John such a great character to root for is that he is not superman, not an "Ahnold" action movie clone, he is just a cop from New York in the wrong place at the wrong time. He fights against the odds and has something that we don't see too often: fear. How can you not root for someone like that? He gets lucky, uses some smarts, and a maintains a whole lot of balls to get through the troubles he gets into.

Now take the "Reluctant, tortured hero" character and apply to other films that he has done, and you will see that same quality in those characters as well. Granted, not every film he has done fits this mold, but more of them do than you think would.

The first film to really take this into account would be Hudson Hawk (1991). Bruce plays an ex-con who only wants to live a normal live and have a Latte. He is instead coerced into the proverbial "one more job" and off we go.

Or look at The Last Boy Scout (1991). The character in this film may as well have been John Maclane, as similar as they were. Bruce plays a private detective who used to be a Secret Service agent for the President and took a bullet for the Pres. He was relieved of duty because he was guarding a sleazy politician who was beating up young girls and Bruce beat the hell out of him. The character becomes a drunk and falls off the radar until...you guessed it, he is brought into a series of events (against his will and wishes, gasp!) and must deal with the issues on his own.

You get the idea now, he is really good at these characters. Other films that fit this mold are Pulp Fiction, Twelve Monkeys, Last Man Standing, The Fifth Element (John Maclane in space), Armageddon, The Sixth Sense (a bit of a stretch, but still falls within the definition), Unbreakable (this one is THE definition of reluctant hero. In this one he actually has super powers and doesn't want to use them), Tears of the Sun, Sin City, and even Grind House.

There are elements of this character types in other films that he does, but the above films really match that mold. So I then put it to you, dear reader, who plays this type of character better than Bruce? Let me expand on that a bit further, who plays the character better, and for such a long time, as Bruce? Please note that I am not saying that the characters in each film are just cookie cutters of the other (despite my jokes about "Maclane in Space") as I believe the characters do have enough differences to make them unique. It is the character type I am focusing on here. If I had to pick one actor who could be close (damn close) to playing an excellent reluctant hero I would pick Clint Eastwood. That's a good choice, right?

Well then, there you have it. I did it, I put it out there. Clint Eastwood and Bruce Willis, in the same sentence, in terms of acting.

Would you have believed it? I would not have either, until I really thought about it. Yet when the term "(insert adjective here) actor of our time" is thrown about, is Bruce ever at the end of it? I have not heard it, at all. Should it be? Absolutely. Without a doubt. You may or may not agree with me, but if you are still reading this, then chances are you are a fan of Bruce as well, and it is about time that he begins to get credit where credit is due. Not as an action hero, but as an actor, plain and simple.

Bruce Willis, the actor. Kind of funny sounding at first, but at its core, that is how it should be.