Failure to Franchise

Episode 101 - Leon: The Professional (1994)

Failure to Franchise · Jul 30, 2024 · 1h 33m

The movie

Léon: The Professional
The main topic of this episode

Show notes

Our annual "Summer Surprise" series, in which our movies are chosen by an online randomizer, kicks off, with F2F's second Luc Besson. We both loved The Fifth Element , but what do we think of Besson's more grounded, earthbound, 1994 hitman action-thriller, Leon: The Professional ? Remembered as the cinematic debut of a young Natalie Portman, and for an iconic, meme-generating Gary Oldman performance, as well as introducing a global audience to French star Jean Reno, the film remains highly controversial today, thirty years after its release, for elements both onscreen and off. But do those controversial elements detract from the movie, or make it more compelling? How much can and should one separate an artist's real life from the art they produce? We ponder this, and much more, as we wade into the dicey waters of discussing Leon: The Professional . Our Twitter Our Facebook Our Instagram Our YouTube Trev's Letterboxd Chris' Letterboxd

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