Léon: The Professional - The Professionalism As a Framework

   Léon: The Professional is written and directed by Luc Besson, starring Jean Reno, Natalie Portman, and Gary Oldman. Léon: The Professional is a story of Léon, he is a professional hitman who becomes responsible for a young girl and teaches her the principles of killing. So what will Léon do when he faces the man who killed her family, especially as his feelings toward her develop into something like love? And what will be the impact of this love on her?

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Léon: The Professionalism And Tenderness

    Léon mentions in one of the film’s scenes that the more professional a killer becomes, the shorter the distance between him and his target. That is why the knife is usually the last weapon a hitman trains with. We notice that Léon, at the beginning of the film, passes through a line of guards and a rain of bullets until he reaches his target and completes the mission using a knife. This makes Léon extremely professional. Yet at the same time, Léon shows tenderness toward a young girl living next door to him, and he goes to the cinema to watch Gene Kelly dance and sing: “Love made me see things in a different way.” So how will the relationship between love and professionalism unfold? And what will Léon do in this conflict?

    Léon breaks the rules of professionalism when he speaks to Mathilda and shows her compassion. This leads her to seek refuge with him after her family is killed. Léon’s professionalism does not overpower his humanity, so he lets her in. Mathilda cleverly exploits this when Léon tries to distance himself from her, telling him that he has become responsible for her after opening the door. Their relationship then takes on a professional frame, as Mathilda asks Léon to teach her the principles of his profession. It is notable that when Mathilda fires a gun randomly out of the window to prove her abilities, Léon tells her in the next scene that what she did was not Professional.

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Another Stage Of Léon's Journey

    It is worth mentioning Luc Besson’s use of the scene in which Léon and Mathilda move from one hotel to another as a visual transition indicating the hero’s passage from one stage to another. We first see Léon moving upward, from below to above, then Mathilda appears beside him as the one who calls and pulls him forward.

    Léon begins teaching Mathilda the principles of killing. Here, the difference between Léon, the protagonist, and Stansfield, the antagonist (The Hero and The Shadow or Villain), who killed Mathilda’s family, becomes clear. The Shadow sometimes kills without reason, killing for the sake of killing  itself, while Léon’s core rule is: “No women, no kids.”

    The relationship between Léon and Mathilda continues within a professional frame for a while, allowing love to slowly seep in. It resembles the love between two children; perhaps this is why Léon drinks milk only. Although the film is about a professional killer, most of its scenes take place in daylight, and in cinema daylight is often associated with children. Mathilda is not merely a girl, but an adult trapped in a child’s body, and Léon is also a child trapped inside the body of a professional killer.

Léon Reaches The Midpoint Of The Journey

    Things continue this way until the turning point arrives. In the middle of stories, a shift usually occurs, not a change of subject, but a transformation within the same frame. As a result of the first half, Mathilda suddenly confronts Léon and confesses her love for him. He appears in denial and tries to avoid the moment. It is worth mentioning that Mathilda justifies her feelings by noting that the stomach pain she used to suffer from has disappeared. This is called a psychosomatic phenomenon; when a person lacks an emotional need, the body begins to express that lack physically. The brilliance of Luc Besson lies in choosing stomach pain specifically. Given Mathilda’s relationship with her family, we understand her need for care and love. In psychology, care is considered one of the earliest human needs in the first two years of life, known as the Oral Stage, where a person explores everything through the mouth. Thus, the need for love becomes closely linked to the digestive system, the stomach.

    And to emphasize the narrative shift, Luc Besson again uses the hotel transition scene, but this time not due to a breach of professionalism. Mathilda tells the hotel manager that she and Léon are lovers, not father and daughter. This confirms that professionalism is used as a frame to discuss love. In the second half, the theme deepens, and the turning point signals that what comes next will not be like what came before. We return to Mathilda’s desire for revenge against her family’s killer, and Léon’s conflict with Stansfield’s men, despite Léon previously stating that revenge is useless. Mathilda even offers Léon money for the assassination, showing her understanding that professionalism is the key to dealing with him. However, Léon refuses. Yet Mathilda once again manages to force him into action, this time using one of his own professional tools, a gun. She plays with it in a way that nearly costs her life, until Léon saves her at the last moment, revealing his emotions to her and to himself.

    Previously, Léon had bought her a dress as a gift, and blood was seen running from his hands, only for it to be revealed later that he had been shot. Léon, who once survived gunfire and crossed armed guards to complete his mission with only a knife, is now injured during a mission. This shows that under the influence of love, he can no longer focus as before; Léon is no longer as professional as he once was. The long opening operation scene earlier in the film was meant to emphasize his professionalism, so that we can later understand its decline.

The Past Story Of Léon: The Professional

    Finally, Léon reveals his past wound, which led him to become a hitman in the first place and to hide behind a mask of emotional coldness. His lover was killed by her father due to his rejection of their relationship, and Léon killed the father in revenge. This is why Léon tries to discourage Mathilda from seeking revenge. This scene takes place while Mathilda wears the dress Léon bought for her, and as always, she is the one initiating conversations about love, remember this detail, because it will be meaningful later. Mathilda manages to pull the human being out of Léon, breaking the hard shell of professionalism he hides behind and bringing him back to life. She makes him play, drink, and he even nearly kisses her. Eventually, she convinces him to sleep beside her for the first time, and he does. The next day, Mathilda says that Léon slept deeply like a child. Previously, he used to sleep sitting on a chair, one eye closed and the other open, as he described. Mathilda goes out to buy some home supplies, while Léon moves to the center of the bed, stretching his body as if testing comfort for the first time in a long while.

Léon: The Professional: The Hero Faces The Shadow

    But hatred had the final word...

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    Léon, too becomes someone else. Events always push heroes toward a confrontation with death, literal or symbolic, revealing what even they themselves could not imagine. Léon faces the forces sent to kill him and Mathilda with all his strength and intelligence. For the first time, he is the one who speaks about love, saying that Mathilda made him taste life, and that he only wants to live with her forever and have (roots), a metaphor he previously used for his plant at home.

    Léon succeeds in saving Mathilda but fails to save himself due to Stansfield’s cunning. Yet Léon: The Professional is always prepared for all possibilities. His professionalism, which once led him to Mathilda and helped him protect her, ultimately helps him fulfill her desire for revenge. He hides explosives in his clothing and carries out a trick involving the explosion, one he had previously used in another mission to protect Mathilda. His last words to Stansfield, while pointing to the ring of the bomb in his hand, are: “This is from Mathilda.”

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    Both the hero and the shadow are killed, as if Léon is purifying himself and the world from hatred after planting love in Mathilda’s heart. In the final scene, Mathilda plants Léon’s plant in her school garden. Hatred dies, but love has strong roots. It will grow and bloom within her, just as the plant will grow in the garden.