Cult Movies in Sixty Seconds by Soren McCarthy

Author:Soren McCarthy [McCarthy, Soren]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Movies & TV Series
ISBN: 1904132162
Publisher: Vision Paperbacks
Published: 2007-06-28T23:00:00+00:00

Harold: I love you Maude.

Maude: That’s wonderful. Now go love some more.

Leon

Date: 1994

Director: Luc Besson

Writer(s): Luc Besson

Runtime(s): 110 minutes (USA), 136 minutes (France)

Country: France, US

Language: English

If you want the job done right, hire a professional.

Having also made The Fifth Element (1997) and La Femme Nikita (1991), director Luc Besson is no stranger to action; the man knows how to pour the eye candy. But Léon is set apart from other action films, and in fact is elevated to cult status, because it empowers as much as it exhilarates. Its action swirls around a very unconventional, controversial, and surprisingly resonant relationship. This film balances emotion and suspense in equal parts, owing as much to Shakespearian tragedy as it does to Die Hard (1988) or Lethal Weapon (1987). It has an inspired premise, is well acted and is gorgeously shot.

Savant hit man Léon (Jean Reno) runs his professional and personal life with little – if any – emotion. He shuffles desperately through crowds in an attempt to remain unnoticed, and always sleeps in a seated position with a gun at his side.The character initially appears ‘slow’, until we see him on a job – where he works with cunning and ruthless efficiency. Léon’s world changes when he decides to help Mathilda (Natalie Portman, in her film debut), the 12-year-old girl who lives in the apartment next to him. While she’s out picking up groceries, Mathilda’s family is murdered by corrupt DEA agents as retribution for a deal gone bad with her drug-dealing father. When Mathilda returns, a lookout guards the door to her family’s apartment, but she still manages to glimpse the dead bodies inside. Coolly pretending to be a neighbour, she walks by the carnage and proceeds to knock on Léon’s door. She has only met Léon once or twice, and one imagines he has no interest in getting involved. Yet after building incredible suspense, he decides to let her in. The rest of the film explores the ‘why’ of that decision.

The bloodied, beaten Mathilda turns to Léon and asks, ‘Is life always this hard or just when you’re a kid?’ Léon pauses, and his response to her is unusual: instead of merely protecting the girl, he teaches her to fend for herself so that she can take revenge on the man who killed her family. The film’s villain creates very little moral conflict for the audience. Opinions vary wildly about Gary Oldman’s performance as the film’s main baddie, a corrupt DEA agent. He doesn’t just chew scenery, he devours it as if he has a dramatic tapeworm.

Thematically reminiscent of the John Cassavetes’ classic Gloria (1980), Léon manages to conjure genuine sympathy for the characters. You care when Mathilda desperately buzzes Léon’s room to escape her family’s murderers. You care when Mathilda expresses her love for Léon. You care when Léon sends Mathilda to safety, knowing that he’ll never see her again. How many action movies can bring you to tears?

Sure Mathilda has a crush on Léon, but that’s what 12-year-old girls do: they get crushes on protective figures.

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