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| Léon | |
|---|---|
 Official promotional poster | |
| Directed by | Luc Besson |
| Produced by | Patrice Ledoux |
| Written by | Luc Besson |
| Starring | Jean Reno Natalie Portman Gary Oldman Danny Aiello |
| Music by | Éric Serra |
| Cinematography | Thierry Arbogast |
| Editing by | Sylvie Landra |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures Gaumont Film Company |
| Release date(s) |  14 September 1994 18 November 1994 3 February, 1995
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| Running time | 110 mins |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $16 million |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Léon (a.k.a. The Professional and Léon the Professional) is a 1994 action drama film written and directed by French director Luc Besson. It stars Jean Reno, Gary Oldman, and a young Natalie Portman in her first starring role.
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Léon (Jean Reno) is a hitman (or "cleaner" as he\'d rather be known) living a solitary life in New York City\'s Little Italy. He works for a mafioso named Tony (Danny Aiello), whom operates from the "Supreme Macaroni Company" retail store. Leon spends his idle time engaging in calisthenics, nurturing a houseplant that early on he describes as his \'best friend\', and (in one scene) watching a Gene Kelly musical.
One day he meets Mathilda (Natalie Portman), a twelve-year-old girl with a black eye, living with her dysfunctional family in an apartment down the hallway. Mathilda\'s father (Michael Badalucco) attracts the ire of corrupt DEA agents, who have been paying him to store cocaine in his residence, after they discover that he has been hoarding some of the drugs for himself. A cadre of agents storm the building, led by a ragged and drug-addicted Norman "Stan" Stansfield (Gary Oldman), and murder Mathilda\'s entire family, missing her only because she was out shopping when they arrived. When she returns with the groceries she was sent to buy, she calmly continues down the hallway past the open door of her family\'s apartment, and receiving sanctuary from a reluctant Léon.
Mathilda, who soon discovers that Leon is a hitman, begs Léon to become her caretaker, and teach her his skills as a "cleaner": she wants to avenge the murder of her brother, the only member of her family that she loved. In return, she offers herself as a maid and teacher, remedying Léon\'s illiteracy. Léon accepts her offer, and the two begin working together, slowly building an emotional attachment between one another, with Léon becoming a friend and father figure.
As Mathilda increases her confidence and experience, she locates Stansfield, follows him to his office in the DEA building in an attempt to kill him, only to be ambushed by Stansfield in a restroom. Leon, discovering her intentions after reading a note left for him by Mathilda, infiltrates the building and rescues her, shooting several of Stansfield\'s men during the process.
Stansfield, enraged that what he calls the "Italian hitman" has gone rogue and is killing his own men. He confronts Tony and tortures him into surrendering Léon\'s whereabouts. One day, as Mathilda returns home from grocery shopping, an NYPD ESU (Emergency Service Unit) team, sent by Stansfield, takes her hostage and attempts to infiltrate Léon\'s apartment. Léon ambushes the ESU team and holds one of their members hostage, bartering for Mathilda\'s freedom. As they slink back into the apartment, Léon rips open the wall to get at a small ventilation shaft in the kitchen and sends Mathilda down it to safety moments before a rocket-propelled grenade rips into the apartment.
In the chaos following the explosion, Léon sneaks out of the apartment building disguised as a wounded ESU officer. On his way out of the building, Léon is noticed by Stansfield, who silently follows him before shooting him from behind. Stansfield, looming over the dying Léon in a pool of his own blood, finally introduces himself. Léon hands Stansfield an object, which he explains is "from Mathilda". Stansfield opens his hand and recognizes it as the pin from a grenade. He proceeds to open Léon\'s vest to see not only the now - pinless grenade, but numerous others strapped to his chest. The massive explosion which ensues kills them both and sends shock waves through the neighborhood.
Mathilda heads to Tony\'s place as she was instructed to do by Léon. After sadly hearing confirmation of Léon\'s death from Tony, she is then seen returning to school. The film ends in a scene on the school\'s grounds: Mathilda has Léon\'s houseplant in hand, a plant that Léon had dropped down the same shaft that Mathilda had used to make her escape. Mathilda digs a hole and plants the houseplant in the grounds of the school, as she had once promised she Léon would, "to give it roots."
Léon is to some extent an expansion of an idea in Besson\'s earlier film, Nikita (1990), in which Jean Reno played a similar character to Léon, called Victor. Besson has said he considers Léon to be a more human "cousin" of VictorBesson, Leon: International Uncut DVD, Inside Sleeve.
Janet Maslin of The New York Times said the film "featur[es] characters who speak like Americans, think like Frenchmen and behave appallingly in any language" she thinks it "lacks the sexy elan of La Femme Nikita and suffers from infinitely worse culture shock."He May Be a Killer, But He\'s Such a Sweetie, a November 1994 review of the film from The New York Times She says Mr. Reno "plays Leon with a soulful air that overstresses his superiority to a brutish world. Ms. Portman, a ravishing little gamine, poses far better than she acts."
There is also a long version of the film, referred to as the director\'s cut, "international version" or "version intégrale". It has approximately twenty minutes of additional footage that was removed from the original release.[citation needed] The additional material is found in the film\'s second act, it depicts more of the interactions and relationship between Léon and Mathilda. In one scene, Mathilda plays Russian Roulette to try to get Léon to admit he loves her; in another, she openly asks him to be her first lover (the two are seen waking up in bed together after he refuses, though only the version intégrale gives the proper context to the scene by showing them falling asleep in the first place). Most of the other material in the longer cut involves Mathilda accompanying Léon on several of his hits.
The "version longue" of Léon was shown in 1996 in French cinemas (followed by VHS), and released - as "version intégrale" - on LaserDisc and later Region 2 DVD in Japan. It appeared as the "international version" on Region 1 DVD in North America in 2000, and was re-issued in 2005.
Bollywood produced a remake of the film released in 2000 and called Bichhoo, which stars Bobby Deol and Rani Mukherjee. The character of Mathilda, played by Mukherjee, has been altered significantly, as she is now 20 years old and is in a romantic relationship with the protagonist.
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
| Films directed by Luc Besson |
|---|
| The Last Battle · Subway · The Big Blue · Nikita · Atlantis · Léon · The Fifth Element · Joan of Arc · Angel-A · Arthur and the Minimoys (Invisibles) |
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