Luc Besson had made as striking art house debut with ‘Subway’ followed by ‘The Big Blue’ but his third film, ‘La Femme Nikita’ was a move away from that niche into far more commercial territory about a hitman nee hitwoman Nikita, a convicted felon who is retrained as an assassin. It was a big hit but it was the character of Viktor, a cleaner – an underground term for someone who disposed of bodies, that Besson loved. Viktor was to become Leon and Jean Reno would play the role again in what would be Besson’s first English language feature film. It was a bold move to cast an actor arguably unknown outside of France in the title role even more so was the casting of a young unknown Natalie Portman in her first film role that included several controversial scenes. And rounding out the cast was a brilliantly unhinged trigger happy Gary Oldman as a corrupt DEA cop.
Portman would play 12-year-old Mathilda reluctantly taken in by Léon, a professional assassin, after her family is murdered. What would develop is an unusual relationship as she becomes his protégée and learns the assassin’s trade. That in itself was enough to raise eyebrows but a scene where the pre-teen Mathilda said she wanted to have a baby proved too much for the censors and was cut from the American release where it was re-titled ‘The Professional’ and it was also cut from the British release too. It was not the only scene to be deleted : a set of scenes where Leon takes Mathilda along for her first hit was also cut though this was for running time reasons more than anything else.
Leon was a huge hit with fantastic set pieces, great performances and a tear jerking climactic moment where the orphaned and distressed Mathilda pleads with him not to leave her and Leon realizes she has given him a taste for life again. It is arguably Besson’s most popular film to date. Influential in style it also set a template for Besson’s many future action scripts that included Taxi, Kiss of the Dragon, The Transporter, Unleashed, Taken, & Columbiana many of which spawned several sequels.
Released on 4K Blu-Ray this latest release is described as Leon the Definitive Edition and it has never looked so good with brilliant rich colours. The discs bonus features includes:
Both director’s cut and theatrical version of the movie
New Andre Labbouze, technical director – 10 min
New Thierry Arbogast, cinematographer – 20 min
New Sylvie Landra, film editor – 30 min
New Alain Kruger, journalist – 15 min
For once the directors cut is arguably the superior and well worth a look if you’re not familiar with that particular cut. But is it a definitive edition? Its true that the interviews with the cinematographer, and editor as well as Besson’s own colleague Andre Labbouze make an interesting watch with a number of amusing anecdotal tales about the making of the film. But what would have made this really a definitive edition would be contributions from Besson himself – no directors commentary, no standalone interview and its major omission. Equally some input from Reno, Portman and Oldman would not have gone amiss either. Leon made Reno an international star that landed him roles in Mission Impossible, Godzilla &Ronin, it introduced the world to what would be an Oscar winning star in the making with Natalie Portman and cemented Oldman’s star after a run of great roles in Dracula & True Romance.
Leon remains one of the great action film shot with a European sensibility in the US (although all the interior scenes were shot in a sound stage in France). And though this is perhaps not quite the definitive edition of the disc fans might want the film has been indulged with a rich transfer making it the most deliriously gorgeous looking version of the film ever.
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We ask Luc Besson, ‘Will there be a Leon 2?’…..
Here’s the Leon trailer…..
