“The Professional” is one of my favorite movies. I hadn’t seen it in about ten years. I noticed it was in my Netflix queue, so even though I own the movie, I threw caution to the wind and said, “Heck with it! I’m going to watch it through Netflix! Damn the torpedoes!”
After I was done watching it, I contemplated my new feelings about it. Watching it now, with more mature eyes, I saw new things in new ways.
Sidebar: The same thing happened to me with rewatching “Pulp Fiction” not too long ago after not having seen it for about a decade. I found it to less exciting and more depraved than I remember.
I realized I was more experiencing it from Leon’s perspective now, than Matilda’s perspective – as I was the previous times I watched it. Instead of watching it from the perspective of a headstrong young person, I was experiencing it from the perspective of a protective adult. So, it seemed much more fragile to me this time around. Instead of exciting, it was nerve-wracking.
But, still a very good movie. Holds up well. The first difference that I noticed, though, was that now the title is officially: “Leon: The Professional”. Eh. Whatevs.
So, after I was done watching it, I decided to go onto the messageboards at IMDB to see what all the Youngins’ were saying about it. Much to my surprise, they were talking about a completely different movie than I remember, or had just watched. They kept talking about scenes that are not in the movie. Come to find out, about a decade ago, the director’s cut came out, which added three more scenes, and about 20 minutes to the film. Some of the posters were lamenting about the stupid theatrical release, and how tame it was, and how it was the declawed version of the director’s cut.
I had no idea that a director’s cut of the movie had come out, and I guess the director’s cut is now the default version of movie – much like what happened to “The Abyss”. The Millennials are experiencing a completely different movie than I did.
Sidebar: Someone needs to collate a list of 90s movies that are absolutely essential for Millennials to watch.
These three scenes, I found them on YouTube, and I watched them:
Scene 1: This is a training scene. And, it is disturbing. Leon is taking Matilda through apartment buildings, and training her on how to infiltrate residences. Essentially, how to do a home invasion. It’s a montage of Matilda putting her chewing gum over the peep-holes of apartment doors, and then ringing the doorbell. When someone answers, and the door opens just enough for the security chain to extend, Leon reaches in with bolt-cutters and cuts the chain. But, then you don’t see what happens next. Just chewing gum on peep-hole, ring doorbell, surprised face opens the door, Leon with bolt-cutters. It’s about five seconds long, and they do it over and over and over again. I lost count, but about a dozen times in quick succession.
The scene was silly, and lost me within 30 seconds. It was also vicious, as you did not see what happened after Leon cut the security chain, and it was left it to your imagination. But, it also seemed very fantastical that they would just be walking around doing this.
But, then it turned dark. Very dark. They come to a door. Matilda places her chewing gum over the peep-hole, and then quizzically states that there is no doorbell. Leon tells her to knock. Matilda knocks. A male voice comes from the other side, yelling, “Who’s there?!” Matilda comes up with some ruse. “Uh. I’m looking for Mr. Ruben’s apartment. The lights are off, and it’s dark out here, and I can’t find the apartment.”
Leon hears the sounds of a firearm being cocked from inside the apartment. He grabs Matilda away from the front of the door just as whoever is on the other side opens fire. Bullets come tearing through the door. The man from within is firing, and yelling something very aggressively.
Leon says, “Here’s the ‘ring trick’.” He pulls a grenade out, pulls the pin, and throws it into the apartment. The apartment door explodes outward, and Leon and Matilda walk away.
WTF? This scene turns the movie into “Natural Born Killers”.
Scene 2: What remained of this scene in the theatrical release was only a sliver compared to what was cut out. The remaining scene was so short, you probably don’t even remember it. Matilda is angry at Leon, so while Leon is out working, she tells the hotel concierge that Leon is her lover. Leon goes out and buys her a pink dress and delivers it to her in a paper bag. Next thing you know, they move to a different hotel. When they get there, Matilda is still pouting. That’s the scene you remember.
The rest of it was cut out. At the new hotel, Leon is sitting languidly at the living room table. Matilda isn’t pouty anymore, and she comes out in the new pink dress that Leon just bought her. She asks Leon if he likes it. He says that he does. She insists, “Do you like it?” Leon says that he does. “Say it,” she insists. Leon says that he likes it.
Then, we have several minutes of conversation. Matilda talks about losing her virginity. I’m not sure if she was lying, but she says that the first time, no one likes it. Her first time, she did it just for attention, and she did not like it, either. But, she kept doing it, and she ended up liking it. She is sitting very close to him, trying to seduce him.
Leon takes over the conversation and talks about why and how he came to the US. We heard a little bit about this through Tony. Leon states that he was 19 years old, and over it Italy. He was in love with a girl, and she loved him, too. But, her family did not approve of Leon. So, they met secretly. Her family found out, and a male relative of the girl shot her in the head. He was released from jail two days later, having claimed it was an accident. As retribution, Leon shot that relative in the head, and then immediately boarded a ship to the US. He met up with his father, who was already working for Tony, and he’s been working for Tony ever since.
It ends with then curling up in bed togethe to sleep.
This scene is horrible, too. We understand that this relationship that Leon and Matilda have is not appropriate, but it is also definitely platonic. We understand that from the immature brain of a 12-year old girl, with the experiences that she has had, Matilda thinks this is what love is. We understand that Leon is reluctantly filling a hole in his life with an inappropriately young girl. We understand, as an audience, the facets here. This relationship is well established in other scenes, all throughout the movie. We don’t need the pedophilia rammed down us. Just in my opinion.
Also, it’s better to know that Leon had a tragic past, and now is all alone, and has been for some time, as we have discerned from Tony and from watching Leon. With all this new knowledge about his lover’s family killing her, and then Leon coming to the US to meet up with his father…it was unnecessarily extravagant. In my opinion.
The weird thing about this scene is that, and I realized it immediately, is that in the theatrical release, the entire movie takes place during the day. This scene, though, takes place at night. For some reason, not seeing sunlight in this scene makes it all the more creepy and dark – and not in a good way.
Scene 3: This is much shorter, and much more enjoyable. Leon and Matilda are out at a fancy restaurant. They are celebrating because, apparently, Matilda had her first “job”, and it went well with the “client”. They are joking around a little, but Matilda starts to get a little out of control, and it makes Leon uncomfortable.
Matilda starts drinking champagne, and gets immediately tipsy, and starts laughing loudly for several seconds. She almost gets hysterical, all while Leon looks like he wants to melt into the carpet.
It’s funny. It’s cute. It’s endearing. It shows a glimmer of optimism, and definitely builds the characters. This scene should not have been cut out.
Now I have to go find this director’s cut, and watch the whole thing from beginning to end.
] It’s probably good, though, that Leon dies at the end because otherwise we’d have to decide if his final “I love you Mathilda” is paternal or sexual.