Review of Leon: The Professional Director`s Cut

Introduction

Luc Besson had made such an impression with his stylish French films that it was only a matter of time before Hollywood came knocking. After the critical success of The Big Blue and Nikita, Besson decided that his first American film would take place in New York and feature one of the characters from Nikita, the Cleaner (Jean Reno).

Léon is a love story, not an ordinary love story however. There`s a hitman, a vicious DEA agent, a 12-year old girl and a local mob boss. This is a recipe for something different and unlike anything gone before. After witnessing the slaughter of Mathilda`s (Natalie Portman) family by DEA agents, Léon (Jean Reno) is forced to save the life of Mathilda. His simple life is disrupted, so are his feelings and he becomes responsible for Mathilda`s welfare. Their relationship grows very gradually with him being the surrogate father teaching her the tools of his trade.

Video

The quality is good throughout. No sign of compression at all mean that Columbia has mastered a lovely 16:9 enhanced transfer. If you look closely however, you`ll notice minimal amounts of grain, but it won`t detract from the film. Luc Besson`s beautiful framing makes this a sheer delight to watch time and time again. Even the inserted extra scenes are graded to match the rest of the movie and are seamless. Good detailing and well-balanced colour. Visually this is DVD is gorgeous to watch.

Audio

There`s the original Dolby Digital 2-channel (Dolby Surround) and a new Dolby Digital 5.1 sound mix and both sound good. The audio is clean throughout, with good detail coming from all channels where appropriate. It`s nice and punchy. Couple this with Eric Serra`s atmospheric and poignant score and you get a film that delivers the complete package.

Features

The film has easy to navigate menus with a few extras:

• International Ad Campaigns - 11 pieces of international artwork. There`s nothing special about this though.

• Isolated Music Score - As it says, isolated music score!

• Talent Files - Bios for Luc Besson, Jean Reno, Natalie Portman and Gary Oldman. These are all too brief static pages with selected filmographies.

• Theatrical Trailers - Léon, The Big Blue and The Messenger: Joan of Arc.

• Production Notes - This is on the enclosed leaflet with chapter break info. There`s some interesting information here but as with anything interesting it`s simply not enough!

Subtitles: English, Spanish, French and Portuguese

It`s a shame there`s nothing more such as cast or crew interviews, or even a Léon Retrospective on the popularity of the film. It would have been great to have a few more features.

Conclusion

At long last we get an extended version of the popular film, Léon. It`s been a long time coming on DVD having been released as an extended laserdisc in France and Japan for a number of years. Not only an additional 24-minutes, but the film`s proper title has been restored too (it was called The Professional in the US and other countries).

The film doesn`t waste any time in the opening scene and takes you straight into one of Léon`s jobs. This milk drinking tough-as-nails character doesn`t mess about; he`s serious, very serious. He`s left some difficulties back home in Europe and leads a simple life in New York; the last thing he needs is a youngster depending on him, but this same youngster is the one who brings him out of himself, re-igniting his belief in life. No film would be complete without a bad guy, and this is where Gary Oldman, as DEA agent Norman Stansfield comes into play. He`s after Léon and Mathilda and comes across as just plain nasty. Certainly not someone you`d want to mess with. Léon helps and protects Mathilda all the way to a riveting climax.

The acting here is very good. Jean Reno`s understated performance as a killer for hire, coupled with showing a more tender side in taking care of a child is played incredibly well. Of course, having to look after Natalie Portman is a job in itself but she seems capable and determined and in her debut film role and takes the challenge on the chin turning out a top-notch performance. What can be said of the excellent Gary Oldman that hasn`t been said time and again? Oldman as the not-so-nice DEA agent proves to be so effective that he gets another unsavoury character to play in Besson`s next film, The Fifth Element. You can tell he relishes these parts.

The tension, the love, the unfolding relationship, all of it in fact, is a wonder to behold. This is Luc Besson at his very best. Everything from the story, the characterisations and the music, all of it is superb and this International version reinforces Léon as a truly unique and masterful film. The extra footage makes sense too and just adds much more to the film than the original version. The relationship between Léon and Mathilda is reinforced and you feel involved in what happens as the story progresses. If you`ve seen the original cut of the film and enjoyed it, you`ll also appreciate the extra footage here.

Despite the lack of extras on this disc, this DVD is for every movie enthusiast`s collection. Action thrillers don`t get much better than this. Highly recommended.