Right its been almost a week since my last post (almost sounds like a confession!) and its about time again I did another so this un will be on an action movie from the 90's and the film in question is Leon aka Leon: the professional (in the US that is!) about an Italian hitman.
Anyway without any further ados let's load up those guns, strap on the grenade vest and give this mother a look (don't worry only kidding about the guns and grenades).
And as usual there is another warning ahead for SPOILERS!!
STORY
Right so the story begins with Leon (Jean Reno) a professional hitman carrying out a job, showing his incredible efficiency and stealth like lethality. After the hit Leon returns home to his apartment where he sees a young girl Mathilda (Natalie Portman) hanging around smoking a cigarette but also notices she has a bruise on her cheek. Mathilda lives in the same block with her dysfunctional family which consists of an abusive step father (Michael Badalucco), a self absored step mother (Ellen Greene) and her obnoxious step sister (Elizabeth Regen) as well her baby brother. The father however is in trouble with corrupt DEA agents lead by the unhinged Norman Stansfield (Gary Oldman) who is also a drug addict. The father has been stashing cocaine for Stansfield but he has also been cutting some of it to keep for himself and Stansfield insists he find out the day after who has been doing it. Meanwhile Leon spends his day looking after his plant, doing physical workouts and going to the cinema.
The next day Stansfield and his agents return and ambush Mathilda's apartment while she is out shopping and Stansfield murders Mathilda's step sister and mother and he then confronts the father, who attempts to kill Stansfield but fails, shooting him in the shoulder after which Stansfield kills the father. Mathilda soon returns to the apartment walking by she hears that her young brother was killed, distraught she goes to Leon's apartment door and rings the bell until he opens it. Leon reluctantly decides to help Mathilda when she tells him she has no other family however she quickly discovers his hitman equipment and she asks that Leon train her to become one herself to avenge the death of her brother. Leon then takes her under his helm and trains her in how to use different weapons and in return she cleans his apartment and teaches him how to read. Mathilda also soon tells Leon that she thinks she is in love with him but Leon refuses to be respond in any way to her (just as well!).
One day Mathilda sneaks back into her step family's apartment one day (now labelled as a crime scene) to pick up a secret stash of money however at this point Stansfield suddenly appears with two other officers who are investigating what happened on the day of the raid but Stansfield angrily refuses to cooperate and leaves. Mathilda on overhearing Stansfield say where his office is decides to take one of Leon's guns and some bullets and kill Stansfield by following him to his office where she bluffs her way to get in. However Stansfield finds her in a bathroom but is interrupted by one of his men who tells him that one of his team was killed by a hitman (Leon) in Chinatown. Leon meanwhile as he returns to his apartment finds a note that Mathilda had written for him detailing her plan. Leon then heads to the DEA offices and rescues Mathilda, shooting two more of Stansfield's agents. Afterward Stansfield heads over to Leon's handler and mafia mobster, Tony (Danny Aiello) and forces him to tell him where Leon is. And this leads into the film's action packed climax where Stansfield and his men storm Leon's apartment.....
THOUGHTS
Over 20 years later Leon is still an entertaining and gripping action thriller which even though it is somewhat morally ambigious it does more than enough to hold the attention of its audience. The film itself can be to an extent be compared to the director Luc Besson's earlier film, Nikita where Jean Reno also played a similar character except Leon is less cold hearted. And the film also does a good job at balancing the complex relationship between Leon and Mathilda where Leon tries to protect her but stop her from actually living the kind of life he does. The film also has several gripping (and violent) action scenes which are quite suspenseful and well staged as well as some corny moments too where Leon and Mathilda become playful with each other.
PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES
Performance wise Leon is very good overall starting with Jean Reno who is excellent in his role as the deep voiced eponymous Italian hitman, who reclutantly (at first) takes in Mathilda after her family are killed. Reno naturally has some excellent scenes in the film such as the one at the start where he infiltrates a mobster's hotel room and kills all his guards leaving only the mobster alive. And he silently sneaks up on the terrified mobster and holds a knife to his throat and he gives the mobster a number to dial and says quietly "dial this number" and he speaks to another associate who tells him never to show his face again in town after which Leon let's him go. Another good scene is when Leon walks into his apartment block and walks past Mathilda who is sporting a bleeding mouth and she asks "Is life always this hard, or is it just when you are a kid?" and Leon replies "always like this".
Then there is the scene where after Mathilda proves she can fire Leon's gun and she fires it all directions out his apartment window and we see Leon walk with her. And Leon stops and says to her "If you try anything like that again, I'll break your head" and Mathilda says "OK" and Leon contines "Its not professional" and Mathilda simply says "OK" and he angrily says "And stop saying "OK" all the time, OK?!!" and again Mathilda says "OK" and Leon says "Good!". Then there is the cheesy moment where Leon tries to comfort Mathilda just after he takes her in and she angrily says of her step mother regarding her brother "I was more of a mother to him than that goddamn pig ever was!". And Leon says "Hey, don't talk like that about pigs. They are usually much nicer than people" and Mathilda says "But they smell like shit!" and Leon says "Not true. As a matter of fact, right now I have one in my kitchen that's very clean and smells very nice". And Mathilda snappily says "I was just in your kitchen and didn't see any gooddamn pig!" and Leon says "Don't move. I'll get him!" and he comes back with a pig pot holder making stupid pig noises. And last of all is there is last scene together where Leon creates an exit from their hotel for Mathilda during Stansfield's ambush and he says to her "Don't worry we're checking out!". And Leon lifts Mathilda into a duct leading in the hotel basement but Mathilda refuses to leave him and Leon hugs her tight saying "You're not going to lose me. You've given me a taste for life. I wanna be happy. Sleep in a bed, have roots. And you'll never be alone again, Mathilda!".
Natalie Portman who made her cinema debut here is also great as Mathilda, the young precocious girl who's whole family are murdered by Stansfield and is taken in by Leon. Portman has some great moments in the film as well such as the scene just after Leon let's Mathilda into his apartment following her family being killed. And Leon says to her "sorry about your father" and Mathilda says "If somebody didn't do it one day or another, I probably would have done it myself!". Then there is the scene not long after the last one where Mathilda says to Leon "I've decided what to do with my life. I want to be a cleaner" (i.e. an assassin) and Leon angrily says "You wanna clean?" and he passes her a gun and some bullets and says "Here take it. Its a goodbye gift. But not with me. I work alone!". And Mathilda says "Bonnie and Clyde didn't work alone. Thelma and Louise didn't work alone. And they were the best!".
Another good scene from Natalie comes when Mathilda follows Stansfield in a taxi to his office and she says to the driver "Follow that car" and the driver says "And I suppose you want me to run the lights as well?". And Natalie produces a hundred dollar bill from her bag and says "No, go slow, now take the hundred and shut the fuck up, OK??!". Then there is the amusing (albeit dubious) scene where Mathilda in the hotel where she and Leon are staying, bored, comes downstairs and talks to the hotel manager, who is under the impression that Leon is her father. And in the scene Mathilda says to the manager "He's not my father..... he's my lover" leaving the manager dumbfounded. And lastly there is the scene where Leon and Mathilda go up to a rooftop and Mathilda practices how to use a rifle (with blanks) and she hits a target who is a politician out running with his protection. And after Mathilda asks "Can we use real bullets now?!".
Gary Oldman is also great as the corrupt and unhinged DEA agent, Norman Stansfield who kills Mathilda's family and later tries to take Leon down. Oldman also has some highlights and great scenes and he get's all the film's best dialogue so the next four paragraphs are for him alone! And for a few examples there is Oldman's first scene where he is at Mathilda's father's apartment listening to his music while one of the DEA agents, Malky (Peter Appel) talks with the father and is forced to interrupt Stansfield when he thinks the father isn't telling the truth. And in the scene Stansfield moves to the father and sniffs him to test if he is lying about cutting the dope and he accepts that he isn't but tells him "Find out who did, by tomorrow. Noon!".
And then there is the scene when the next day Stansfield comes back with his agents and ambushes the father's apartment and shoots his wife and daughter and he walks up to the father in his bedroom and says "We said noon! I've got one minute past!". And in the scene Stansfield also talks about his love for Beethoven and he says to the father "You don't like Beethoven. You don't know what you're missing. Overtures like that get my... juices flowing. So powerful. But after his openings, to be honest, he does tend to get a little fucking boring. That's why I stopped!". And after the father attempts to shoot Stansfield and only manages to hit him in the shoulder, one of Stansfield's agents opens fire, and Stansfield shoots the father as he tries to run only to find he has been shot himself and he yells "FUCK! Look what you did!" and shoots him dead and Malky nervously takes Stansfield outside to calm him down and Malky says "You've shot him he's dead!" and Stansfield calmly says "But he ruined my suit".
Then there is the scene where Stansfield returns to the crime scene of Mathilda's family's apartment where he is questioned by two internal affairs police officers (presumably anyway!) but he loses patience and yells "I HAVEN'T GOT TIME FOR THIS MICKEY MOUSE BULLSHIT!! You want cooperation? Come by my office! 4602!!" and leaves hurriedly. Another good and suspenseful comes when Stansfield follows Mathilda into a bathroom in the DEA offices as she has a "special delivery" of a pizza and guns and ammo. And Stansfield asks her "Special delivery huh... Let me guess... Chinese? Thai, maybe? Ahh, I've got it. Italian food!". And Stansfield then says to her as he takes his gun out "Mathilda, I want you to put the sack on the floor... good... Now, I want you to tell me everything you know about Italian food, and don't forget the name of the chef who fixed it for me!".
And the last paragraph of all on Gary Oldman (honest! But he has so many good quotable scenes!) will cover first off the scene where Stansfield confronts Tony on Leon's whereabouts. And Stansfield says to Tony about how one of his agents was killed by an Italian hitman and he goes on to say "Not two hours later, a little twelve-year-old girl comes to my building, armed to the teeth with the sole intention of sending me straight to the morgue. And guess who comes to get her? The very same Italian hit man!". And Stansfield takes a moment and laughs and says "I'm dying to meet him!". And LAST of all is the scene where Stansfield sends in his men to take down Leon but Leon kills some of them with ease. So in the scene Stansfield says to one of his agents "Bring me everyone" and the agent asks "What do you mean everyone?" causing Stansfield to explode and yell "EVERYONE!!!".
And last of all we get to Danny Aiello who is also really good in his role as Leon's handler, Tony, who passes him his work. And Aiello has some good moments as well such as the scene where he tells Leon that he can hold his money for him and says "You're money is safe with me, Leon, as we're not a bank and banks always get knocked off, but no one knocks off old Uncle Tony!". Then there is the scene where Leon for the first time appears afraid and says to Tony in their meeting that if something were to happen him to him he wants to put aside his money for Mathilda but Tony reassures him "Hey, Leon, nothing's gonna happen to you. You're indestructible! Bullets slide off you, you play with 'em!". And last of all there is his last scene with Mathilda were he tells her when she says "I can clean" and he yells back at her "What work do I have for a 12 year old girl?! You're out of your goddamn head! Get it into your head! Its over!".
DIRECTOR AND MUSIC
Finally moving onto the director, Luc Besson does an excellent job with the film and he keeps the pacing nice and taut and he proves to be more than a capable action director as the film is full of suspenseful action scenes particularly the film's opening scene and Stansfield's ambush of Leon and Mathilda's hotel room near the end. Besson also proves his great visual senses as a filmmaker and makes great use of the anamoprhic film format with his framing of scenes and the characters.
And last of all music wise the film features an excellent score by French composer, Eric Serra, who is a long time collaborator with Besson. Serra's music is both atmospheric and suspenseful and its perfectly well suited to the film. Serra also on the back of the success of Leon (I think anyway!) went on to score Pierce Brosnan's first Bond film, Goldeneye as well. The film also makes good use of Swedish music artist Bjork's "Venus as a boy" and features Sting's "Shape of my heart" at the end of the film, which while its not a great track its suits the film's poignant end well enough.
FLAWS
As for flaws.... yep ok Leon does have the odd one or two.
And for starters I think one of the problems with Leon comes from the fact the film's premise is somewhat morally dubious with a hitman taking a young girl under his wing to train her to become an assassin. Thankfully however Leon never really appears to want to let Mathilda become an assassin rather just teach her parts of the trade. But the premise does make it rather uncomfortable to watch also given that Mathilda seems to develop romantic feelings for Leon as the film goes along and I think in the director's cut she tries to make a few more advances on Leon, which thankfully were not included in the theatrical cut. And these scenes serve to make Leon a disconcerting experience at times in showing that as a film it is somewhat morally bankrupt.
The film also has some rather corny moments as well particularly the scene where Mathilda decides that Leon and her need a break from their daily routine of training and workouts and she says they should play a game. And in the scene Mathilda dresses up as different actors and actresses with Leon only guessing one right (Gene Kelly, which we know as he went to see Singin in the rain earlier in the film) and its basically a bit silly and serves as some comic relief before we get into the more dramatic scenes again. The same can also be said for when Leon produces the pig pot holder and makes oink oink piggy noises, its a pretty cringeworthy moment in the film, which probably highlights Besson's quirkiness as a film maker maybe???
Another issue stems from the fact that just why is Leon an Italian hitman when Jean Reno is clearly a Frenchman?! And Leon even speaks with a French accent (probably because Reno can't do any other accent!) so it would make more sense just to make the character a French hitman but again that might cancel out the connection with Tony, which kind of makes sense in that respect, but still this guy is French not Italian!
I also had an issue with the scene where Leon ambushes a meeting in Chinatown where he kills Malky and some Chinese associates and one of Stansfield's men tells him what happened. And the agent says "He turns to Malky and says something like" and Leon says "No women, no kids" and shoots Malky. OK now if Leon killed everyone in the room then how come the agent knew what Leon said in the first place?! Not unless he let one of the Chinese live but we don't see him kill the last Chinese associate so you can only imagine Leon killed him too so in that case Stansfield's agent should have no way of knowing that Leon said that in the first place!
And last of all I think the scene where Leon manages to barge into the DEA offices and knock out the two security men at the front entrance, go up to Stansfield's office, kill two agents and take Mathilda without being surrounded by further cops on his exit is just a bit ridiculous! Surely there would be more of a force in the building or someone somewhere inside the building would notice that both guys on the floor have been knocked out! But nope for the sake of convention, Leon manages to stroll in and get Mathilda out without any trouble! Ah well that's film logic for you.
Anyway that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So to sum up Leon is an excellent action thriller which features some great action scenes as well as fine performances from its cast and a surprisingly poignant and fun relationship between Jean Reno and Natalie Portman. It also was of course Portman's debut and she really showed here that even just at the age of 12 that she already was an actress to watch out who has some real chops. And after 20 years its still an entertaining and gripping film which has aged well and is well worth checking out (and is currently on the US Netflix where I watched it again!).
So that's it for now and I'll be backkkk with another review soon.
Until then ciao for now!
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