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nTitle: Leon (1994)
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nDirector: Luc Besson
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nCast: Jean Reno, Natalie Portman, Gary Oldman, Danny Aiello
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nThe most controversial aspect of Luc Besson’s Leon (1994) isnthe suggested romance between Mathilda, the 12 year old girl who wants tonbecome an assassin, and Leon, her protector and mentor. Mathilda is a littlengirl who lives in a very troubled household in which everybody is alwaysnscreaming at each other, everybody spews hatred, you know, you’re a-typical assnbackwards dysfunctional family. Mathilda’s father even steals cocaine from hisndrug dealers and therefore places his entire family in jeopardy! Of course Mathildanhates living there, which is why she spends most of her time outside of thenhouse, smoking cigarettes behind her abusive father’s back. One day, Mathilda’snfather has to answer to a crooked DEA officer about some missing cocaine, andnsince the coke never turns up, Mathilda’s father is killed, and so is hernentire family! Lucky for Mathilda, she was out in the convenience store buyingnmilk for Leon. One thing leads to another and Leon ends up taking Mathilda,nunwillingly at first, into his life. Will this new lifestyle workout fornLeon? Can he take care of something elsenother than himself?
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nSo why does a little girl fall in love with a man threentimes her age? Well, she develops feelings for Leon because he protects and caresnfor her, something she never got from her family. Leon also ends up saving hernlife at one point. He doesn’t slap her around the way her father did either, sonshe begins to fall for the guy even though he is considerably older than she is.nRelationships with huge generational gaps are not unheard of in cinema, examplesnof this are Kubrick’s Lolita (1962), Adrian Lyne’s Lolita (1997), Harold and Mauden(1971) and Birth (2004). But after a test screening in L.A. in which thenaudience reacted negatively to Mathilda’s advances towards Leon, these elementsnwere deemed too racy and so director Luc Besson decided to edit the film innorder to omit those Mathilda/Leon scenes that displayed some intimacy betweennthe characters. Jean Reno says he wanted to portray the character of Leon as slownof mind, as a character who wouldn’t even think about having a relationshipnwith Mathilda; this element of Leon comes across exactly like that. He is shockednbeyond measure when Mathilda confesses her feelings to him. In reality,nMathilda’s affections come off as childlike and more than likely misguided, butnyou get the vibe that her feelings are of genuine affection for Leon. If younwatch the American version of the film entitled ‘The Professional’, then younare getting the edited version. You’ll get less scenes of this interplaynbetween Leon and Mathilda, but if you get the deluxe edition, then you’ll see anbit more of what goes on between them, which by the way is not in bad taste,nLuc Besson handles things extremely well displaying Mathilda’s affections,nwhich come off as nothing more than a harmless child hood crush.
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nThe film was also edited in other ways, for example, the characternof Mathilda is a 12 year old girl who wants to become “a cleaner” or a hirednassassin. So we have scenes of Mathilda cleaning her guns, dismantling a gunnand putting it back together again, we even have a scene in which she threatensnto kill herself by putting a gun to hear head. Images of kids handling guns inna film are always a risky because it’s an idea that will be seen in a negativenlight by ultra conservative audiences and the Motion Picture Association ofnAmerica. Why? Because it’s an idea that we don’t want to propagate; the idea ofnchildren carrying instruments of death. If you choose to show scenes such asnthese on your film, you have to make sure that it is justified or else yournfilm will more than likely get flamed by critics and moral snobs. Many times anfilm will receive a cold reception at the box office if it gratuitouslyndisplays children handling guns in one form or another. For example, IrvingnKirshner’s Robocop 2 (1990) got a lot of heat because it depicted a 12 year oldnkid running a drug cartel, cursing like a sailor and shooting machine guns. ThenMonster Squad (1987) suffered from the same malady; on that one we have kidsnstabbing female vampires square in the chest and a character called ‘Fat Kid’nloading a shotgun, cocking it and shooting The Monster from the Black Lagoonnwith it. Most recently, Kick- Ass (2010) and its sequel Kick Ass 2 (2013) alsongot criticized for the character of Hit-Girl, a gun totting, sword carryingnteen. But while the violence in some of these films I’ve mentioned might comenoff as gratuitous (yet tons of fun to watch) on Leon it feels justified.nMathilda feels threatened by the world she lives in, she was abused physically bynher own father, she lost her entire family to a mad man and now avenging hernlittle brother’s death is what drives her. She has nowhere else to go, and the onlynfather figure she knows is an assassin named Leon, you do the math. I saynMathilda is a character that speaks volumes about adapting in the wake of adversity.n
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nTrue, the scenes in which Mathilda asks Leon to train her tonbecome a killer and the subsequent scenes in which he actually takes her on an assignmentnto kill somebody will probably result shocking to some, to me it’s just a movienwith high entertainment value and good ideas. I like it when a film attempts tonshake me up a bit. But behind the controversy and the violence, at heart there isna good film about two people who actually need each other. Mathilda obviouslynneeds Leon for the reasons I’ve already mentioned, but Leon is an extremelynlonely man. When he is not killing, he is training or going to the movies, orncleaning his plant, which he calls his best friend. At heart, we have a mannwhose life is empty and sad; a man who needs the light that Mathilda brings tonhis life. There are some great scenes where both characters are simply havingnfun being all silly and goofy around each other, lightening up their lives asnbest they can. So the film isn’t as violent as you might be led to believe, it’snactually a sweeter film then it is violent.
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nAn astounding element of this film is the cast; starting withnNatalie Portman who was 11 years old when she was cast for this film. The numerousnarray of emotions she conveys on her performance is amazing and made even morenamazing when we take in consideration how young she was 11 when she made thisnfilm. The casting director was going to say no to Portman because she was sonyoung, but when Besson saw her audition, he gave her the part! The filmnbasically revolves around the character of Mathilda so the right casting ofnthis role was essential. The young actressnwho would embody Mathilda needed to convey a plethora of emotions necessary for the part. In my opinion, they couldn’t have made anbetter choice than Portman, who is amazing here. There’s this awesome scene wherenMathilda is getting drunk in a restaurant…awesome stuff, in some scenes she’s terrified, in others she’s crying beyond redemption, she really displays a whole spectrum of emotions. Gary Oldman is annamazing actor who used to play a lot of villains earlier in his career and thisnis one of his best ones, if you ask me, Oldmans character on this film is rightnup there with ‘Drexl’ from True Romance (1993) in terms of craziness.nOldman is bat shit insane on this film, even more so when he takes his pills! In turn, Jean Reno plays his character with a cool mellow vibe, he’s got a childlike innocencento him; he will be the nicest killer you’ve ever met. Funny how this film makes you feel empathy for a cold blooded killer!
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nThe idea for Leon came to Besson while making La FemmenNikita (1990), if you notice, both films share a few similarities, startingnwith the fact that they are both about women who want to become killers. On La Femme Nikita, Jean Reno also plays a killer who even dresses in the same fashion as Leon. Besson always felt that he could expand on this character, center a film around the killer, so he wrote Leon, always having Jean Reno in mind for the part. Funnynhow this film was the film that Besson made while waiting for Bruce Willis’snschedule to clear up so he could finally film The Fifth Element (1997) withnhim. In the interim between that waiting, Besson wrote Leon and shot it! ThenFifth Element was a dream project of Besson’s, yet it is Leon, the film he madenin between his big dream project that is considered to be the superior film.nMe? I say they are both good on different levels, each good within their genre.nSo my final words is, if you haven’t seen Leon, do yourself a favor and checknit out, it’s filled with awesome performances all around and let’s not forget,nthis was Portman’s breakout performance! She does an astounding job in thisnfilm, you’ll love her character, a little girl who struggles to survive as bestnshe can in this harsh world.
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nRating: 5 out of 5
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