Review by Nia Edwards-Behi
It just keeps happening. Jurassic Park turned twenty last year, as did The Nightmare Before Christmas. The year before that, Aladdin. Next year – whisper it – Toy Story. One of my most beloved films of childhood and, frankly, adulthood, The Lion King turns twenty this year. Those of us born in the mid-80s have reached the point where those favourite and formative childhood films are almost as old as we are, and it’s weird. I know, that’s how ‘time’ works and all, but just like how confusing it is twice every bloody year when the clocks change and the dark/light in the morning ruins everything, it’s still weird. I’ve taught classes of first year university students who now think Jurassic Park qualifies as an ‘old’ film and that is reason enough for irrational concern.
Now, before I completely lose you all with the Spielberg-Disney preamble, there is a point to my musing. This year is also the 20th anniversary of the release of Luc Besson’s Leon. Now, Leon isn’t a film I saw twenty years ago, so this anniversary is not quite so traumatic to my capacity to understand that time, you know, passes, but regardless, it was one of the first proper violent ‘grown-up’ films I saw. I can’t say exactly when, but I was definitely still at school, and so that feels like a long time ago. Perhaps further background is needed to properly contextualise what I mean. I’ve mentioned elsewhere recently that I came quite late to the horror genre, and was actually one of those rare children who watched age-appropriate films without sneaking off to watch films I wasn’t meant to (what a square). Leon – along with Blade, Alien and The Exorcist – was one of the first films I remember seeing which had proper blood and swearing and violence in it. And I thought it was blummin’ great.
Jean Reno stars as the titular Leon, the lonely, gracious and brutally effective hitman for hire, who inadvertently takes a 12 year old girl under his wing. Natalie Portman makes her screen debut as Mathilda, the girl desperate for revenge after her entire family – though she only really cares about her little brother – is massacred by crazed and corrupt police officer, played by Gary Oldman. Leon and Mathilda strike up the unlikeliest of friendships as they both struggle to navigate the harsh and violent nature of their lives.
The film itself is not the most complex of crime thrillers. While films that cover similar terrain might weave an intricate tale of drug dealers, corrupt police, families and gangsters, in Leon these tapestries of crime very much form the backdrop for what is a simple story of revenge, action and friendship. I was a little concerned, before viewing the film again, that re-watching the film might reveal a level of creepiness that I hadn’t previously detected in the film. Happily this hasn’t been the case, but I might add that I watched the theatrical cut of the film – allegedly, according to the internet, Besson’s preferred cut – rather than the so-called ‘director’s cut’ (the international cut, as it should be known), which contains sequences which may well have added that missing creepiness. Both versions of the film are contained on this special edition Blu-ray.
While the film looks great, Besson’s exuberant style perfect for Blu-ray treatment, for me it’s the performances of the three central characters that make the film. Besson wonderfully shoots his characters, and they make the film as great as it is. Jean Reno plays Leon with such a subtle sense of child-like wonder and simple-mindedness that sympathy for the central character is guaranteed. Natalie Portman’s incredible screen debut withstands the test of time – though since Black Swan her ‘crying face’ has become something of an internet joke staple, it’s an element to her performance here that is entirely powerful. At once vulnerable and steely, Mathilda is perhaps the most complex character in the film and the incredibly young Portman does an astonishing job in portraying that complexity. At the other end of the scale Gary Oldman does his best ‘crazy Gary Oldman’ as Stansfield, the psychotic and crooked cop who slaughters Mathilda’s horrible family and seeks to do much the same to her and to Leon once they make their intentions clear. Oldman plays the role at just the right level – a few notches higher and he’d be pantomimic, but as he is, he’s terrifying. In particular, the scene in which he confronts Mathilda after she’s followed him into the DEA building to try to kill him is almost unbearable.
The Blu-ray package itself is a little bit disappointing, insofar as the only special features – aside from the two versions of the film – are a couple of interviews, one with Reno and one with composer Eric Serra. Really, I would have hoped for a little bit more for an anniversary release, but understandably there might also not be all that much material to draw from. It’s nice, however, to be reminded of just how great the film is, and the Blu-ray transfer itself is beautiful. Given Leon came about at a time when violent, grown-up cinema was arguably at its height, here’s hoping the next few years mean a lot more revisiting of these films and – please – a resurgence would be nice too.
Leon: 20th Anniversary Blu-Ray is available now from Studiocanal.