Product Description

Gary Oldman, Natalie Portman, Jean Reno, Peter Appel, Danny AielloDirector: Luc Besson

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #566 in DVD
• Brand: Blu-ray Drama
• Released on: 2009-09-14
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 16:9 - 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Colour, Director's Cut, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .18 pounds
• Running time: 133 minutes

Synopsis
French director Luc Besson tackles his first American movie in this unusual tale of Leon (Jean Reno), a stoic assassin who develops a reluctant relationship with an orphaned 12-year-old girl (Natalie Portman, in an excellent debut performance). When a corrupt DEA official (Gary Oldman) murders the girl's parents in a botched drug deal, the diminutive New Yorker has no one to turn to but Leon, the hit man down the hall. A combination of thrilling action and heartfelt emotion, LEON is a remarkably unique and engaging film.

Customer Reviews

'EVERYONE!!!'
Back in the day when Luc Besson had standards and Natalie Portman could act this action film gave a fresh lease of life to the words 'overblown', 'intense', and that now hackneyed, abused and bedraggled word, 'passionate' (in its old meaning of intense feelings that controlled your every action, not ones that led to your part-time hobby, or doing your job ok).

The three leads, Reno, Portman and Oldman are possessed, driving the story to an amazing climax. And Besson fills the screen with meaning and purpose, delivering the kind of scenes that Hollywood includes in schmaltzy tributes to the magic of the cinema. The film is a genre unto itself - popcorn art-house. The continental style of Besson, the focus on Little Italy, presents New York with a fresh perspective even now.

The main story sounds controversial, the developing love between a hitman in his 40s and a 12 year old girl arguably more emotionally mature than him, and it is. Some people see Leon as only a father figure for the girl, Mathilda, but no, while it is love it is not familial love. However, Reno plays Leon in such an intelligent and sensitive way that the film never becomes distasteful nor illegal and the purity of the love remains, even if it hints at a future.

Gary Oldman is supremely talented in all of his films, an excellent Beethoven, subsumed entirely into Mason Verger, and magically metamorphosised into a human pair of slippers as Commissioner Gordon, but rewatching Leon now makes you realise that any role in which he doesn't play an out and out villain is a tragic art crime. He was born to play the kind of evil lunatic he is in Leon (and as good as Heath was, I would have loved to have seen Oldman as the Joker).

Although it may feel slow-paced to some, if you're trying to lead an action fanatic into a richer world of film you can do no better than Leon. Sadly the picture seems to have done the opposite for Msr. Besson, whose output has become ever more vapid, and Natalie Portman too; she still has to fulfil the expectations raised by her performance here.

*Blu ray*
1080p. DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 - Bass is no longer distorted as on the old DVD, the rhythmic booms used by Besson add to the tension now rather than causing discomfort. Dialogue very clear. English subtitles only. Region B. Director's Cut (133mins - still 3 mins off the French version) and Theatrical Cut (110min). 2.35 aspect ratio faithful to the Technovision process (the same as used by Coppola for Apocalypse Now).

I'm with Christian Bale on extras. People have gone to extraordinary lengths to give you convincing lies, why ruin the magic? However, the interview with Natalie Portman is interesting, given all the second hand reports of how she regretted the film. The interview with Reno is also above average for these kind of things. And finally there's the 10 year anniversary reminiscence by cast and crew and a trailer.

There's no comparison to the old DVD, it is a gigantic jump. Even if it is diffcult to rate. If you've seen the avforums review you'll find the chap's complaints are nonsensical; the colours are very natural and vibrant as needed where vibrancy occurs. Watch Speed Racer if you want shiny pretties. There was some rare and isolated shimmering of bright light colours and the picture quality does feel a little aged (the latter not necessarily a bad thing - it helps establish a feeling of time and place entirely in keeping with the Old World view of New York). There's still obviously room for improvement but that next step essentially would be a copy of the negatives and a projector. Note that the original film and sound have not been remastered but this means that they have retained a great natural filmic quality - and the reproduction of the print makes it feel like a cinema experience. Importantly, the film looks as it was intended to look and it has not been mutilated by DNR. Unreservedly worth the upgrade, at what cost is up to you.

An incredible film, but let down a bit by the Blu-ray transfer
Leon is a hitman, a professional killer with no equal. That much is clear to see from the opening scene. If there's a chance you happen to come across him, it will most likely be your last. He's precise and he's sure. He seems to have little else in his life apart from his plant and classic films.

Mathilda (Natalie Portman, making her feature film debut here) is a young girl, suffering at the hands of her abusive foster family, and lives in an adjacent flat with her brother, but clearly knows nothing about her neighbour's occupation. Her foster father is involved with storing drugs and other corrupt activities for local bad guy Stansfield (Gary Oldman), who just also happens to be in the police. He is NOT a man you want to double-cross. So when he gives him 24 hours to come up with an explanation as to why his latest batch of dope is 90% pure instead of the full 100%, you know what's going to come.

Leon ends up befriending Mathilda after some brief, chance meetings. She nips out to get some shopping for her family and also some milk for Leon, the last part being the only brightness to her day because he's the only person who will talk to her and treat her with respect. While she's out, Stansfield returns...

Unable to go back to life as it was, she insists on staying with him and for him to teach him how to be a 'cleaner', her ultimate aim being on getting revenge on Stansfield because amongst all the bloodshed, her younger brother became a casualty. In return, she'll help clean his flat and teach him how to read. Before Mathilda, all he had to care about was his pot plant, but she does begin to take a slightly unhealthy interest in him for a girl of 12, because she's young and impressionable. He knows not to take advantage, though.

Leon is an example of absolute perfection in a film. Not only for the way Besson films it, or Eric Serra's incidental music, but for the cast. Besson-regular Jean Reno excels as the silent killer, while Natalie Portman was a revelation in her first major role, and clearly she's gone on to have a fantastic and varied career, one of my favourite films of hers being when she appeared alongside Zach Braff and Peter Sarsgaard in Garden State. Naturally, Danny Aiello provides great support on occasion as bar owner Tony, and friend to Leon, but the cast is topped off brilliantly by the inclusion of Gary Oldman in an outstanding performance as Stansfield, a man who is clearly several sandwiches short of a picnic.

This new release is not only the first time the film has appeared on Blu-ray, but also contains both the theatrical and director's cuts, the latter fleshing out the story more including additional scenes where Leon teaches Mathilda the tricks of the trade.

For the most part, the picture is nicely detailed throughout and reflects well Luc Besson's sharp eye for direction, filling the image with his 2.35:1 anamorphic vision, whether it's the close-ups of any of the key cast's faces or the glorious New York locations. Like the Subway release, there's occasionally some shimmering that's mostly notable in the black sections of the image, while at other times it just looks a rather hazy print. It doesn't happen as often as in Subway but it does make me wonder why it's there. For the record, I'm watching on a Panasonic 37" Plasma screen via a Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-ray player.

The sound is in DTS 5.1 HD Master Audio and it's not only without fault for the sound of gunfire, and also everything that happens in the last 20 minutes or so - which I won't spoil here, but the intense background music that plays throughout most otherwise-quiet dramatic scenes.

The extras are as follows:

* 10 Year Retrospective (25:09): Split into 3 chapters, various cast and crew members talking about how the film came together with clips from the film in their original ratio also included (as is the same in the rest of the extras), including the fact that the character of Leon was seen as a spin-off from Reno's character in Nikita, and Besson's ex, Maïwenn Le Besco, tells she was 12 when she first met him and then later fell in love with him. He's 17 years old than her so she explains how she can understand the relationship between Mathilda and Leon with her love for him.

* Natalie Portman: Starting Young (13:49): Natalie Portman talks about her first film experience.

* Jean Reno: The Road to Leon (12:24): Reno talks about growing up in Casablanca, Morocco and how he originally got into making films.

* Trailer (1:48): In letterboxed 2.35:1.

The menu mixes footage from the film in black and white with some of its eerie music. There are English subtitles but the Chaptering is, again for Optimum, appalling with just 12 over the 133-minute running time.

Film: 10/10
Picture: 8/10
Sound: 10/10
Extras: 4/10

leon directors cut vs ordinary cut
I loved this film in its original form but the extras in the directors cut are amazing. The normal film has so much missing that without watching the additional cuts you just do not realise how the missing pieces affect the ordinary cut particularly surrounding Leon and Matildas emotional relationship. The film is not about a sexual relationship, it is not that, its about the loneliness of an assasin with the mind of a child vs a child that has had to become an adult far too early particularly in relation to cruelty and her parental responsibilities to her younger brother. All in all worth the expense of having multiple copies of the film.

The transfer to blueray is ok but not brilliant when compared for example to casino royale blueray but for me it was about getting the additional cuts and with blueray they all fit on one disc no problem.