Movies / TV
DVD Review: Leon: The Professional: Version Intergrale (Uncut International Version)
By O. R. Polk, Jr.
Jun 20, 2002, 20:28

Written and directed by Luc Besson

Released by Columbia/Tri-Star Home Video

Starring Jean Reno, Natalie Portman, Gary Oldman and Danny Aiello

Unrated, 133 min.

�Leon�s integrale version had one unique goal: to spend more time with Leon and Mathilda. To share more of their game, witness their passion and experience their love.� - Luc Besson

I�ve probably seen Luc Besson�s Leon more times in a week than most people have seen it at all. That is because I am the type of guy who if I find something I enjoy immensely, I�m inexplicably compelled to share that experience with anyone and everyone who has the time or patience to be bothered with me. So when I happened upon this cut of The Professional in a Japanese video store in 1997 (not an American video store specializing in Japanese videos, a video store IN Japan), I withdrew my last yen and ran out and purchased my very own copy. Within the next week, I sat through it time and time again with almost every single one of my friends. Just to gauge their reactions. I wanted to see the part elation, part disappointment in their faces that I knew ran across my own as I viewed this version for the first time.

I was elated because the 24 minutes of restored footage not only filled in plot holes that I didn�t previously know existed, but it further fleshed out characters that I already loved making me admire them that much more.

I was disappointed because I felt cheated. Not by this new version, but by the previous one. When The Professional was released on these shores on November 18, 1994 (it opened in the director�s native country of France on September 14, 1994 under the title Leon) America�s cinematic thought police deemed that some of the material, that only served to thoroughly define the relationship between the two leads, too provocative, explicit and unacceptable. They demanded that the offensive footage be trimmed in some cases, in other cases, cut altogether. But somehow all of the various shootings, stabbings and explosions were allowed to remain intact. Even in its sanitized state, The Professional grossed back twice its initial investment in only ten days.

Warning: MINI-TANGENT � Imagine that. Disagree with me if you like, but I don�t think a country like America even has the right to be so disgustingly and hypocritically PC. It makes no sense that a few can decide that the entire country isn�t mature enough to handle a complex and completely fictional onscreen relationship but yet they allow all the teen sex, gross out humor, violence and bloodshed on the screen that you can handle.

I felt cheated because in 1996, while I was renting again and again what I believe to be a new age classic, other more liberal countries were watching the extra 24 minutes of exorcised footage that is, well�integral to the story. On June 26, 1996 Leon: Version Integrale opened in France, Japan, Germany, Finland, South Korea and Hong Kong. The public demand in France was so great that theaters didn�t close their doors and had around the clock showings.

Besson (La Femme Nikita, The Fifth Element) owes much to the works of George Bernard Shaw. In Shaw�s Pygmalion, Professor Henry Higgins tutors the crass Cockney Eliza Doolittle in the ways of polite society. This theme is reenacted in Besson's Nikita. Nikita (Anne Parillaud) is an animalistic street dweller and drug addict before she is recruited against her will by a secret government agency that uses her natural instincts and street smarts to transform her into a lethal killer under their employ. At one point they have to teach her how to eat with utensils but when their work is complete, Nikita is released into society as the sexy and sophisticated Josephine. If this story sounds familiar it is because Nikita was remade in the US and titled Point of No Return starring Bridget Fonda in 1993. The character Leon is modeled after Victor �The Cleaner� in Nikita who was also played by Reno.

Besson, like many foreigners, likes his strong female leads, preferably of the gun-toting variety who happen to kill for a living. He cast his then-wife Milla Jovovich in a pivotal role in The Fifth Element and then again as the lead in his flick about the life of Joan of Arc, The Messenger. In The Fifth Element Jovovich portrayed a sometimes savage alien who also had to be taught to speak and eat properly in order to fit in around her onscreen counterparts.

A perfect assassin. An innocent girl. They have nothing left to lose...except each other.

THE MOVIE:

The youngest entry in that long line of tough Besson femme fatales is the precocious and suitably spunky Mathilda. Mathilda (Natalie Portman) comes from dysfunctional family and broken home. Her mother is a prostitute, her father is her mother�s pimp and a part-time drug dealer. Even her sister beats on her and won�t let her watch afternoon cartoons. The only bright spots in Mathilda�s day is smoking cigarettes in secret and cuddling with her 4-year-old little brother.

So, considering her unfortunate situation, I can�t say in good conscience that is actually a sad turn of events when her family is murdered by corrupt DEA agents led by Norman Stansfield (Gary Oldman) when Mathilda is out running errands. In one of the more tension-filled scenes in the movie, Mathilda walks coolly by her former home and sees the carnage that has taken place in her absence. She hears the killers discussing the fact that they know she is missing and set about finding her. So she quietly walks to her neighbor�s door and begins to ring his doorbell. With tear-filled eyes, she pleads for him to let her inside.

Her neighbor is Leon (Jean Reno), a strong silent man who lives alone with just his plant (�It�s my best friend. Always happy, no questions. It�s like me you see: no roots.�) and his few meager possessions. Leon often spends his days repeating a methodical and ritualistic daily routine: working, going to see old musicals in the theater, doing sit-ups, drinking tall glasses of milk and caring for his plant. Mathilda has encountered Leon, his salt and pepper stubble and dark round glasses before in the hallway of their building. She may even have a small crush on him. Leon takes his sweet time making the decision to let Mathilda into his apartment. It�s probably not even a full minute but it feels like forever. Mathilda�s would-be assassins are literally right behind her, looking for her. Only when your knuckles are completely white and your fingers have ground themselves completely into your armrest does Leon finally succumb to his better judgement and lets Mathilda inside his sanctuary.

Once inside, Leon learns that Mathilda isn�t even terribly upset that her entire immediate family just bought the farm. She doesn�t even care about most of them but she�s very distraught that the killers gunned down her little brother. She wants to make them pay somehow and she is hell-bent on revenge. In a short time, Mathilda convinces Leon to become her unwilling protector ("If you don�t help me, I�ll die tonight. I can feel it.�) and she also learns a few key things about him. Leon is a �cleaner�, his euphemism for contract killing. Leon is a hitman. Mathilda�s reaction: �Cool.� He is adept at his job but uneducated. The emotionally immature Leon is also illiterate. So Mathilda makes him a proposition: become her unofficial guardian and teach her to �clean� so that she can exact her own revenge on Stansfield and his men and she will teach him to read in addition to doing all the housework. Leon tries to resist but, like everything else Mathilda sets her mind to, he gives in to her eventually. He doesn�t want or need the distraction of caring for a young girl in his line of work, but Mathilda proves irresistable. Mathilda keeps up her end of the agreement and Leon begins to teach her his craft, thus beginning yet another Pygmalion-like transformation.

Impetuous and impatient youth she is, Mathilda doesn�t wait until her training is complete before tailing Stansfield to the DEA building and attempting to kill him there herself. This situation causes Leon to have to come to her rescue and in the process, kill two of Stansfield�s men. When Stansfield gets a description of the man who rescued Mathilda it fits exactly the description of a hitman who has been knocking off a few of his underworld associates. This puts Leon and Stansfield on a collision course, so to speak and sets up a finale that sees Leon take on roughly 50 DEA agents alone to protect himself and the young orphan Mathilda.

IMODO:

�Nothing can stop love, Leon.�

Leon isn�t about action at all; at its heart it�s a very French love story. Mind you, it�s not the conventional Hollywood love story that begins and ends with Meg Ryan scrunching her nose and grinning but rather it�s about a more pure and simplistic love. It isn�t polluted or cheapened by the physical act itself although the mention of it did make the MPAA a bit squeamish. In one of the deleted scenes, Mathilda extremely grateful to Leon for saving her from near death asks him to become her first lover. Realizing that she is confused in her feelings, Leon politely and gently declines, giving her his reasons and telling the story of how he came to live in America in the first place. It is a touching and poignant scene and it is a shame that it was never seen in theaters here. The natural chemistry between the then-11-year-old Portman and Reno is truly something to behold. It�s one of those scenes that only makes the movie better and upsets you at the same time because it was someone else�s decision to initially keep it from you.

Mathilda and Leon do develop a strong bond during the course of the film but don�t be concerned about a �Lolita�-type of story emerging. While Mathilda may have great affection for Leon, their relationship never escalates beyond that of mentor and apprentice. At the most, it is an uncle/niece relationship. (Leon even asks his boss to leave his savings to Mathilda should anything happen to him) Leon is not some lecherous 40-year-old pervert lusting after the pre-pubescent Portman, attempting to engage in inappropriate acts with her. But the powers-that-be were plenty afraid that it might be construed that way and thus asked for the removal of key scenes.

Luc Besson has stated many times that he was upset by the misunderstandings regarding the film�s content and his motives in making it. �I was interested in talking about pure love,� he said. �Society today confuses love and sex. The more society develops, the more we act like beasts. That is why I chose to talk about two 12-year-olds, even though one is actually 40.�

Make no mistake, Leon and Mathilda are both children. While Mathilda is a young girl in appearance and age she is prematurely�mature. She is clever, able and wise beyond her years, much like her "old soul" character in Beautiful Girls. Nothing that life throws at her shakes or rattles her. Leon, on the other hand, inhabits the body of an adult but his mind is incredibly simple. His self-imposed isolation from the real world has made him na�ve. He lets his only friend and Mafia handler, Tony (Danny Aiello), handle his money for him initially because he is illiterate. Tony convinces Leon that banks always get robbed but no one robs him. He preys on Leon na�vet� and illiteracy further by noting that with a bank, there are tons of forms to fill out and that with him, there isn�t that type of trouble. It's never addressed directly, but you get the impression that Tony is robbing Leon blind and Leon will never see the full amount of money owed to him. Tony only gives Leon enough money to get by and that is all Leon ever asks for, thinking that Tony is "holding" the rest of his money for him.

�I want love, Leon�or death.�

Mathilda tells Leon at one point: �I�m finished growing up, Leon. I just get older.� He replies, �For me it�s the opposite. I�m old enough. I need time to grow up.� Jean Reno, who often compares the characters he plays to animals, says that �Leon is a chicken: a good killer, but stupid.� He is, indeed, exactly like the movie tagline describes: He moves without sound. Kills without emotion. Disappears without a trace. He is a Batman without the brains, moving in shadow, obeying his own strict moral code (no women, no children, which coincidentally was also Al Pacino�s mantra in Scarface). The films opener shows him at work; graceful, emotionless and effortless, killing everything in sight. His child-like irresponsibility shines through, however, when he chooses to take Mathilda along on his �jobs�, endangering her in the process. This again reminds me of Batman, this time in Frank Miller�s The Dark Knight Returns when Bruce Wayne takes on the young Carrie Kelly as his new Robin, getting the youngster into all types of dangerous situations by having her tag along on his "missions".

In fact, dangerous situations are what this movie is all about. It is almost a tragedy, with an undercurrent of sadness permeating nearly every scene. Perhaps it is because it is helmed by a foreign director. Besson�s eye almost makes New York look like Paris through his lense. In his home country, Luc Besson was often accused of pursuing cinema du look, seeming to prefer flash and style over substance (The Fifth Element is a prime example although it was filmed later). I think Besson silenced those critics with Leon. While it is indeed stylish and hopelessly European, it also has rich characterizations and an uncompromising storyline at its core. Its look and feel make it hard to shoehorn into any specific genre. It�s story is part romance, part thriller and part action movie. Its look lends itself to the arthouse genre more than anything else. And while its ending is tragic and sad, it leaves us with hope and a happy resolution although not of the typical Hollywood variety.

This movie comes HIGHLY recommended by yours truly. I won�t go into extreme detail about each individual performance but I would be remiss if I did not single out one of them. Not Gary Oldman�s over-the-top pill-popping policemen. It is the powerful tour-de-force performance by the talented neophyte Natalie Portman.

The role of Mathilda is a complex one that required a lot of depth and is basically the focus of the movie, despite it being named for another character. In her first movie role ever, Portman shouldered this responsibility admirably. Besson displayed a lot of faith in her and she didn�t drop the ball once it was handed off to her. It is scary to think that if she displayed chops like this at 11, what she�s going to be capable of at 21. My only hope is that she isn�t just well-known and remembered for role in the Star Wars prequels like so many talented actors before her. I�d much rather see her legacy be like that of a Harrison Ford than that of Sir Alec Guiness. Movie critics love to contrast and compare the stars of the past, present and future dubbing this actor the �next� this person and this actress the �next� that person. Natalie Portman, however, is the real deal. She is Audrey Hepburn for her generation. Coincidentally, Hepburn starred in a musicalization of Pygmalion, My Fair Lady, in 1964. It�s only fitting and a postive omen that Portman follow in her footsteps.

I�d suggest everyone of you who reads this review, pick up Leon. If you�re like me and enjoy it, share with as many of your family and friends as possible.

O.R. Polk, Jr.

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