From the far reaches of the Milky Way Galaxy, It's Retro Nerd Girl with a film review for you.
Today I'll be reviewing the movie The Fifth Element released in 1997.
Starring:
Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman
Directed by:
Luc Besson
Genre:
Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) Rating:
PG-13
Budget:
$93,000,000 (estimated)
Current IMDb Rating When Reviewed:
7.7
The Synopsis is:
Every 5,000 pure evil returns to our solar system to destroy the Earth. It’s up to struggling cab driver Korbin Dallas to find the five elements that can save the universe.
Story:
I guess you can say that the story for the Fifth Element was influenced by many prior works.
The first influence is Valérian and Laureline, a beautiful French space opera comics series, created by writer Pierre Christin and artist Jean-Claude Mézières from 1967 to 2010 chronicling the adventures of two agents through space and time. It was highly influential in European pop culture and media.
The writer and director of this movie, Luc Besson was also influenced by it and began writing the script when he was sixteen in 1975 as a way to escape his lonely childhood.
Besson was also influenced by the series of graphic novels called “The Incal'' written by cult film director Alejandro Jodorowsky and illustrated by comic artist Jean Giraud otherwise known as "Moebius" first published in 1980.
The Incal was Jodorowsky's way to create an epic story from recycled concepts he did with Moebius for his failed attempt to adapt the book Dune that was written in 1965 into a film in the mid-1970s. This was documented in the movie Jodorowsky's Dune in 2013.
Luc Besson continued to work on and modify the storyline for his story for many years. Originally the material was set in the year 2300 about a "nobody" named Zaltman Bleros who wins a trip to a resort on the planet Fhloston Paradise where he meets Leeloo, a 2,000 year old "sand-girl" who has the "beauty of youth".
By 1991 he had a four-hundred-page script that was supposed to be a trilogy. He and Robert Mark Kamen condensed the movie into one and it took Luc 22 years at the age of thirty-eight to finally see his story realized on the big screen.
From a story perspective, if it feels familiar, that is because it's a pretty simple concept at the core of it. It's good against evil. It also includes a love story and has a chase to the finish line kind of urgency in this science fiction adventure.
The dialogue in the context of the story is highly underrated. Anh a testament to that are the many famous quotes from the movie expressing it’s comedy.
Famous Quotes:
- Aziz! Light!
- Multipass!
- Time not important. Life is.
- Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!
- I only speak two languages, English and bad English.
- The boy is hotter than hot. He’s hot, hot, hot!
- Showtime.
- If it’s war they want, it’s war they’ll get.
- I know this music. Let’s change the beat.
- If you want something done. Do it yourself.
- That’s the best show I ever did.
The visual artistic storytelling is the brilliance behind the script with subtexts, comedy and sexual innuendos. It misdirects, leads, and foreshadows, while amping up the threat in a very fun way.
Pacing:
At 2 hours and 6 minutes. It’s a little long, but I hardly felt it. The film has a way of ramping up the stakes bit by bit until the ending climax. It works.
Challenge:
The challenge in the film is called the ultimate evil. I have heard the evil in this film compared to the villain in The Neverending Story in 1984 where it is not actually a person, but evil as an entity. That’s debatable. The Nothing was actually a tool of people in the real world that wanted to turn hopes and dreams into lies in order to control people.
I would compare the evil in this movie to the green orb of evil in Heavy Metal released in 1981, traveling through the universe causing chaos and destruction. In the segment Harry Canyon there is a distinct similarity in the color palette and story as well. The segment is set in New York City where a middle aged cab driver has a beautiful redhead who gets into his cab and pleads with him to avoid capture.
This would coincide with the time Luc Besson was writing his script. The evil that appears in this movie is also an orb traveling through the universe!
Am I mad at it? Heck no. I love it. In fact, I imagine that most often, Taarakians which were a race of warriors in Heavy Metal, would stop new orbs of evil on their traverse before they grow large enough to eventually destroy the universe. What we see in this movie is the chance that they fail. It looks like they failed two times because it's hinted that the moon might have been one of these orbs of evil too.
There are tons of other similarities between the two movies because Mobieus was involved with both movies and I'll go over the particulars as the review continues. It may or may not be a direct borrow from Heavy Metal, but it is nevertheless a striking commonality.
The film opens in Egypt in 1914 where a Professor is uncovering the hieroglyphics that state that every 5,000 years when 3 planets eclipse each other, a black hole opens a doorway letting an ultimate evil through, spreading terror and khaos. The way to defeat it is to have four elements surrounded by a fifth one at this specific site. If evil stands there instead of good, life in the world, or perhaps the universe will be destroyed. The film doesn’t directly explain the stakes. It is mainly implied that life itself would end. “Light turns to dark. Life to death. Forever.” So that would be the end of the struggle between good and evil.
The discovery is aborted as aliens called the Mondoshawan have come to take the five elements because “war is coming” and the stones are not safe anymore on earth. The war that they were referring to was World War I which began in 1914 and ended in 1918 and then World War II followed from 1939 to 1945. The end of the 5,000 years is coming up in about 300 years, so the Mondoshawans promise that they will keep the elements safe until their return to this site on earth in time to save it.
In 2263 when the military confronts the evil orb, they think that it will be easy to destroy by launching ammunition at it, but to their dismay, the orb grows larger. The message is “evil begets evil”.
It’s a pacifist stance that demands that the characters find a non-violent way to defeat the evil.
Evil also has an effect on people. The movie doesn’t tell us if evil is making people evil, but it may be doing just that without knowing that they are being influenced. But one thing we can gather from the visual storytelling is that the orb can and when it gets directly into the mind of someone it wants to completely control, there is a visible black goo that oozes from their frontal cortex. Many viewers have tried to speculate what that goo is, but the conclusion is simply, it’s the byproduct of the orb’s influence.
It also seems to have It happens twice in the film but it also happens to two people who have questionable morals. The first time was when a war mongering general wanted to destroy the orb without trying to figure out what it was. It could have had a group of orphans at the core of it. So he was easy for the orb to control.
As well, we discover that a rich unscrupulous mogul by the name of Zorg has been given the assignment from the orb posing as a client, “Mr. Shadow” to collect the stones. When the orb wants to increase the intensity of the search for the stones, it makes a phone call to Zorg. This is where we get a visceral visual of how it controls people by getting inside their minds. The black goo oozes down his forehead as well.
Zorg presents a great challenge in the story. He hires millions of citizens and has businesses in many industries including being one of the most sought after arms dealers. First he makes a deal with violent Mangalore warriors to get the stones which are in a box. He asks for the box but there are no stones in it so he breaks his deal with them and sets them up to kill themselves by not telling them about a conveniently placed self-destruct button. As well he kills his own henchman for failing to complete his mission. He’s savagely vengeful, expecting everything he wants with no exceptions. One thing that is very interesting about him is that he is fully capable of doing his own dirty work and sets out to do just that when the time comes.
Being a mogul doesn’t make him a bad person. There is so much that a person can do to help society by being the employer of so many people, but with Zorg he loves the power of being needed. Part of the intrigue about this character is that he believes that creating khaos is providing something for people to do and keeping the economy going pretty much admitting that perhaps some of his methods of wealth is through khotic means, causing disasters to have the public depend on him for the answers. Now that is truly evil!
“Now take this empty glass. Here it is: peaceful, serene, boring. But if it is destroyed [Pushes the glass off the table. It shatters on the floor, and several small machines come out to clean it up] Look at all these little things! So busy now! Notice how each one is useful. A lovely ballet ensues, so full of form and color. Now, think about all those people that created them. Technicians, engineers, hundreds of people, who will be able to feed their children tonight, so those children can grow up big and strong and have little teeny children of their own, and so on and so forth. Thus, adding to the great chain of life. You see, father, by causing a little destruction, I am in fact encouraging life.”
What I love about his character is that in his world, he’s the main subject, and in many ways we are all used to a bad guy that is motivated by his own reasoning. However, in this case, Zorg is the orb’s henchman and never directly interacts with Korben Dallas who is arguably the main protagonist of the story. He’s just a force working behind the scenes the whole time. I adore that.
The next level of challenge in the story are the Mangalores who I explained before are warriors with a cause of their own. The federal government scattered their people so now they are out to gain weapons for their revenge. It’s most likely that there are Mangalores scattered across the universe.
The film doesn’t go into detail, but you could imagine a whole other story just dealing with their history. I am also fascinated by their culture of honor. Would they be more like Star Trek’s Klingons? Hollywood, you have a movie or series on your hands!
They strike a deal with Zorg to get 4 crates of weapons, but since they failed their objective he double crosses them. Barely escaping with their lives, they seek out a way to intercept the stones so they can negotiate with Zorg again. But after blundering that mission too, they decide to take hostages on a cruise ship to negotiate their terms. When all is lost, they decide to destroy everything for their honor without regard for life.
Perhaps Besson was making a statement about terrorists through the Mangalores because Zorg says “I don't like warriors. Too narrow-minded, no subtlety. And worse, they fight for hopeless causes. Honor? Huh! Honor's killed millions of people, it hasn't saved a single one.”
Another flaw for the Mangalores is that they never fight without a leader, which makes them easy to defeat. With the oddest mixture of comedy, our protagonist, Korben Dallas dispatches the leader of the Mangalores, Aknot, which sends the warriors in shock and confusion. That is another aspect of their culture that is so fascinating, making you wonder, why can’t they think for themselves? I like the Managalores because I am curious about them. But as a challenge, they are written to always fail which is sad for them. They just can’t win. Are they a good challenge? Oh yes. They achieve a lot of mischief in the story that sets the protagonists back several times in the film. Thumbs up for the Mangalores!
Empathy:
The empathy in this film is pretty strong. It’s debatable who the protagonist is, but I think at least the main one is Major Korben Dallas who has retired for only six months from the military which ruined his marriage. He wasn’t home much so his wife left him for his lawyer. So when we first see him he is going through the paces of his life as a cab driver, with a bit of a cynical outlook on everything.
Luc Besson liked the idea of having his protagonist be a cab driver in honor of his dad who worked a second job as a taxi driver to support Luc while he went to art school. Isn’t that so sweet? He has put a cab driver in all of his films.
He was not only a space commando but a highly decorated member of the Elite Special Forces unit of the federated army having saved the planet several times from impending doom. If we had met Korben as a Major, we would already know what to expect from him, but meeting him as a man holding down a civilian job, we don’t realize what a badass he is. We get a glimpse of this in Korben’s apartment at the beginning of the film by his trophies and his unseen friend Finger alludes to Korben saving the world as if it has happened before or foreshadows exactly what is to happen.
It’s only until later after seeing him in action that we understand the connection. From a writing perspective, I thought that presenting his identity in stages was brilliant.
This helps us learn about his backstory slowly and eventually care about this character. He’s already gone through a shift in perspective through tragedy. It’s either going to get better from here or worse for Korben.
Korben never encounters Zorg, but when the mogul fires a million employees, Korben is among them. However, the film sets the two up to oppose each other equally. Zorg is the henchman and Korbin is the champion, while the ultimate evil is the main baddie and the fifth element is the main opposition to stop it. You can witness this visually as Zorg can be seen with circles in his background, while Korbin is framed around rectangles in his backgrounds.
Among his unseen callers is his nagging Mother with a very thick monotone NY accent who lives on the lunar surface. She was a delightful comedic addition to the film, breaking up Korben’s recurring theme of loneliness.
“Korbin sweetheart. You got broken fingers? You can’t punch my number? Seventeen messages. And don’t tell me your machine is broken again. Those things are good for 1000 years. You wouldn’t even feed your white pussy cat a croquette, who you obviously love more than me.”
The calls of both Finger and his mother are like punctuation on the boring haze of his depressed existence. An exclamation point comes to mind.
That all changes when a gorgeous young girl literally drops into his cab’s passenger seat. LeeLoo, "Leeloominaï Lekatariba Lamina-Tchaï Ekbat De Sebat"
She is a supreme being, the ultimate warrior created to protect life and the fifth element that is needed to stop ultimate evil from succeeding. I remember seeing the scene where she tells Korben she is the fifth element and I was totally confused as to how that would make sense, but eventually it does.
Although LeeLoo can certainly fight her own battles, she is vulnerable because she is a fish out of water. In 1914 we saw LeeLoo in a status chamber where she had been for about 5,000 years. In 2263 the Mondoshawans were attacked by the Mangalores as they were bringing back the five elements to earth. There were no survivors but only the remnants of a hand. From that hand, scientists were able to organically print LeeLoo’s body, and consciousness. She is from a different time and only speaks the divine language so she has to learn English and human history throughout the course of the film.
This plays a big role in her personality. She’s new to the world showing us a bold bewilderment, fascination and a joyous innocence.
What makes her special is that she may have been engineered. By whom, we aren’t told. It could have been the Mondoshawans. Humans have 40 DNA memo groups, she has 200,000 tightly packed with infinite genetic knowledge. The film often refers to Leeloo as perfect, which is debatable, but she is perfect for Korben because he falls in love with her instantly.
There is a lot about Leeloo that is not explained in the film. I think that she can read minds. This would explain how the film stops a beat for her to look into someone’s eyes just before making a move. This is how she knows how to escape the lab in New York, this is how she knows Korben is safe, and how she knows that Zorg was going to try to kill her at the Diva’s hotel room.
The love story between Korben and Leeloo is really cute and believable. Even Though there is a considerable age difference between the two, Korben changes when he’s with Leeloo. He’s nervous and mesmerized whenever he is around her. He’s in a glaze of admiration when he talks about her.
Heck, even the audience falls in love with Leeloo by the end. She’s so adorable and it just puts a smile on my face to see how fascinated she is with something as simple as the transportation identification card called multipass.
“Leeloo Dallas MULTIPASS. MUL-TI-PASS!”
“Yes multipass, multipass, she knows it’s a multipass. Leeloo Dallas, she’s my wife.”
Korben is drawn to protect her because of her vulnerability which actually pays off in the end when it is Korben’s love for her that saves the day. The kiss between them is foreshadowed by an earlier scene where Korben tries to kiss her while she is sleeping. In that case it was without her permission and he was reprimanded for it.
She is the fifth element, but even though she’s in position, it doesn’t work. What is the fifth element is humanity’s love whether it's the love of two people or something in general, but love is the fifth element.
She emits the light of creation or the divine light that brings light to the farthest reaches of the universe.
Her contact on earth is Vito Cornelius who is among a sect of priests who look after the Egyptian site that housed the elements before they were taken by the Mondoshawans in 1914, generation after generation. He is the only one who understands what’s happening besides his trusty assistant. He tells the government about the situation, and tells them that he is their contact, but they constantly exclude him from what they are doing. He should have been there when Leeloo was reconstructed in the lab. That would have shortened the story and excluded Korben. It was a convenience I have always wondered about.
Conelius refers to the Monowshawans as the guardians of the stones, and there is no real telling how long they have been doing so, which is quite fascinating to me. Like the Mangalores, their culture is hinted at in a way that makes them not only a mystery but there is so much room to imagine so much more. A series about these guys could be fun to watch. How did they become the protectors of the stones? Did they create life on earth and how does Leeloo factor in it? Did they engineer Leeloo or is she from another planet? Are humans the result of their tampering? Why is earth the center of the battle between good and evil? What do they look like underneath their bulky armor and why can't they create something more efficient to move around in? There are so many questions and yet it doesn’t take away from the film for me because what they needed to serve in the story. More information can be useful at another time, but at this time we got what we needed.
I do believe that the Mondoshawan delivers one of the most powerful messages in the film when they say, “Time not important. Only life important.”
The Mondoshawans are smart so they basically sacrificed 3 of their own as well as the fifth element on their trip to earth, knowing that they would be attacked. They gave the stones to the Diva, who stored them in her stomach. Eew! As a diversion, she has a chest that appears to be where the stones are hidden.
The Diva is an interesting character physically towering over everyone, but also has a mysterious presence in the film as to how she is aware of the cause. She too has some psychic abilities and it looks like she can actually speak to people telepathically. It’s totally possible that Leeloo and the Diva could have entire conversations in silence if they had ever actually met.
The Diva’s performance is a very iconic moment in the film that impacted viewers. A few things are happening in that scene. The first half of the performance stops all of the exciting adventure to take in the beauty of art. Korben witnesses the performance in awe, showing us that he is feeling something and allowing it to happen, he is also bonding with the Diva because he feels as if she is singing to him, which she is. From a storytelling element, he can’t just be an ordinary audience member because of what he has to do in the story. It’s a detail that can often be overlooked because it’s followed by lighthearted music during an action scene. This is one of my favorite moments in the film because finally we get to see Leeloo show off some of her superior fighting skills as the protector of the universe. I loved it.
The Diva also supplies a great deal of advice to Korben, telling him that Leeloo needs his help and his love or she will die foreshadowing the ending.
I’ve already gone through so many characters but the last character that I am going to discuss is Ruby Rhod. He is a character that either you love or dislike because of his outrageous behavior. He’s incredibly modern to be honest and would fit in among today’s celebrities. Originally his physical appearance and promiscuity was modeled after Prince, but louder and strikingly obnoxious. Even his name is a sexual reference.
His motivation is providing an exciting show for his audience from 5 to 7pm.
He is the complete opposite to Korben Dallas. Much like social media stars of today, a new kind of shock jock, trying to keep his content, HOT, HOT, HOT!
Technical:
It was the most expensive movie ever produced outside of Hollywood for it’s time at $80 million. One of the most striking things about the film is how bright and colorful it was. This was something that Luc Besson demanded for the production, going against the trope of dark and dimly light spaceships and planets.
The rendition of New York City that appears in the story is a breathtaking positive look at the future. All of the buildings were fabulous little miniatures up to twenty feet tall and eighty feet long, taking nine months to build at 1/24th scale.
Another lovely feature in the film were the flying cars done by the visual effects team at Digital Domain which included personal references to the members.
Many of the employees can also been seen in the background in a lot of those scenes to fill out the world. I loved that and it made me want to live in this version of the future. It looks like a fun place.
Although the look of New York City looks unique, it looks familiar too and that is because it was used similarly in at least three other films prior, Metropolis 1929, Heavy Metal in 1981, and Bladerunner 1982.
Jean-Claude Mézières along with Moebius, began collaborating for this movie in the early 1990s and are responsible for the majority of the creative style of all of the designs of the world and characters. Moebius had a big part to play in this and as I mentioned before a lot of his prior works had some similarities.
This caused a bit of drama after the movie was released because Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius both sued Luc Besson claiming that it had plagiarized their collaborative comic The Incal. There are a lot of similarities like, a falling character into a maze of flying cars, and a female character that is a superbeing. The case was dismissed in 2004 citing that "tiny fragments" of the comic were used, and Moebus may have unintentionally plagiarized his own work.
Other impressive factors in the film are the tech pieces in this world. They all had a very practical feel to it rather than a miraculous fantasy tool. There is something about portraying the tech this way that felt so believable. I loved it.
Zorg’s office had a few of them, including some old school buttons and switches to control his robots. I loved that this sick monster kept a little pet on his desk. It was reminiscent of the Flintstones cartoon animals that acted as machines. Later in the film, he is petting the creature. It’s unique designs like this that keep the film light and fun.
The creature designs were also very menacing as the warriors, using mostly practical prosthetics and bodysuits to do the job. Many of the masks had such unique designs that the actors and stunt people had to be quite tall and have sloping foreheads to play them. At some point, to save money on contact lenses and time putting on makeup, the actors used combat goggles to hide the unfinished work. I loved their designs.
Rumor has it that the masks for these characters were recycled for the Neimodians in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999).
Mondoshawan creature designs are so perplexing and indeed unique as they look like mechanical upright turtles. That’s a wild design that makes no sense at all and it makes me smile. How can a human being be inside those things? Where is there a place for the actors to even see? Well the designers thought of that, by putting mini television monitors for the actors to see. It was a complicated suit that took three people about twenty minutes to dress the Mondoshawans.
The wild imaginative costumes was a big part of the reason why this movie in particular was a big influence on me because at one time I was a fashion design student. Jean Paul Gauthier designed the costumes with inspiration through Moebius’ designs to accompany the themes and color palette. A good example of this was Leeloo’s thermal bandage outfit as well as a few other background characters in the film. It was a lot like the design from Heavy Metal in the Taarna sequence, where the female protagonist wears a sexy revealing costume. It’s a striking look where the neck is covered and a stripe of fabric down the center of the chest. I love catching these little details like these.
It’s not confirmed to have inspired the costumes in The Hunger Games 2012 but you can see some very strong similarities.
Ruby Rhod’s gender bending costumes are very 2010’s to 2020’s to the costumes that are used today for most performers so in many ways the film was way ahead of its time.
Fhloston Paradise Cruise was such a cool idea that perhaps one day humans could have an off world luxury experience like this and that is precisely why I said that I would not mind living in this future.
The spaceship, which looks like a supped-up cruise ship, was an incredibly detailed model that weighed over five hundred pounds.
One lo-fi hack was the background in space. The stars were created by poking holes in a sheet of black fabric. It’s an old trick that works rather nicely.
Another memorable feature of the film were the many, many explosions. I’m a big fan of good explosions in an action feature film and this movie delivered! One of the biggest indoor explosions ever filmed was in the Fhloston main hall, taking twenty-five minutes to put out.
I also have to marvel at the editing style for this film. There were many scenes that were occurring at the same time that mirrored or completed each other.
The score by Éric Serra was unique featuring a beautiful orchestral theme of mystery and twinkling melodies giving us a feeling of something celestial and supernatural. It’s beautiful in a very soft understated way. It never blares, but is sometimes just hanging back in the peripheral.
The other music featured used sounds that were a mix of the familiar with a twist of opera and dance, middle eastern influences and trip hop. One stand out was the song that Diva Plavalaguna sings which is from a real operatic aria "Il dolce suono", AKA “The Mad Song” from the opera Lucia de Lammermoor. It is sung by the titular character, Lucia just after she murders a man she was forced to marry)on their wedding day and she is fantasising that she has married the man she really loves. It has been notoriously noted that this is one of the most difficult arias.
Inva Mula sung the song but when she first saw the music sheet, she thought that it not humanly possible to sing because of the fast shifts in notes. She had to sing the song in segments and then they were stitched together as one composition. When the film came out, it astounded audiences worldwide. Singers struggled to cover the song, however, the code was cracked and lots of singers can now sing the challenging song. The other cool thing about the song is how it goes from being an aria to a dance song making the scene ICONIC!
Performances:
The film is very male oriented, but it was visually pleasing and sexy. Part of the reason for that was the cast. The film has an interesting cast of both well known actors, beautiful elite models straight off the runways and people with unique physical features.
Jean Reno and Mel Gibson were considered for the role of Korben Dallas. Luc eventually wanted Bruce Willis but it didn’t look like he would take the role because he was worried about taking big risks after starring in films that had been poorly received. After reading the script, he agreed to do it.
Bruce plays a type of character on screen, it’s not always him playing himself, but close. He gives all of his performances a naturalistic approach and Luc Besson played into this well to get a fantastic performance. The scene where Korbin first encounters LeeLoo in his cab was improvised with Bruce not knowing the divine language she is speaking. Those moments of him looking at her with a perplexed look on his face are real. Bruce had no idea what she was saying. As well, when the Diva sings the entire audience had not seen her before and Bruce’s reaction of wonder is real.
I think he’s excellent in this, giving us a protagonist that is inspired by love. You can see how much he’s smiling which a lot of Bruce’s characters don’t typically do and he’s so gentle with Leeloo. At one point Bruce even told the actress playing Leeloo not to “break” her head during the filming because it’s just a movie.
This movie has been dubbed as Die Hard in space and it certainly reminds me of that after the second half where there is more action and Bruce performs as a classic action hero.
One thing I enjoy about Bruce’s performance is that although there are lots of funny characters around him and he’s basically playing the serious opposition for the comedy to work, Bruce inserts subtle funny moments in his performance that really puts a smile on my face.
Elizabeth Berkley and Julia Roberts were strongly considered for the role of Leeloo. Ultimately, Ukrainian model actress Milla Jovovich beat out over 3,000 women. Prior to that she appeared in Dazed and Confused (1993) and had a bright career as a model since she was twelve and eventually became a supermodel by the time she appeared in this movie. Luc hired her because she had physically fascinating and transformative abilities. Nothing was more transformative than when he had to have her brown hair dyed bright orange red which damaged it. By the end of the film she wore a wig, which worked ok but does look a little wiggy in a few scenes. There was something about her dedication to the project that really came through in every scene she is in.
For the role she had intense training in martial arts, ballet, as well you can visibly see all of the cuts and bruises she sustained on the shoot.
Milla who was fluent in four languages added another to her list, by learning and contributing to the development of the divine language of only 400 words along with Luc Besson. The two had conversations and wrote letters to each other in the language.
She was incredibly dedicated, not really trying to maintain any kind of vanity. She surrendered to the part with a raw honesty and as the film keeps saying, she was “perfect” for the role. Iconic!
It’s shocking to see Oscar winner Gary Oldman in a science fiction comedy like this and it was indeed a highlight of the film. He doesn’t like this genre of film, but he only did it as a favor to his friend Luc Besson who helped him finance his passion project, Nil by Mouth (1997), Gary’s debut as a writer and director.
Footage of the actor behind the scenes feature him having a lot of fun laughing and enjoying himself, and the same can be seen on screen. He’s serious, stern, emphatic, a maniac, but he does it with style and grace. Part of the impact of his performance was his very thick American southern accent. He said that he drew inspiration from former Presidential candidate Ross Perot and Bugs Bunny. We’ve all seen him over the top, but never hammy and fun, so this was a real treat to see.
American comedian and actor Chris Tucker plays Ruby Rhod, previously most known for starring in Friday (1995) along with Tom Lister Jr, who plays President Lindberg. Originally Prince was who Luc wanted for the part, however, he declined and I can see why. At that point in Prince’s career he was going in a different direction and he was a performer, but not a big bold character like Ruby Rhod. Chris Tucker however did use Prince and Michael Jackson as inspiration.
Sir Ian Holm played Victor Cornelius in this and I feel like he was so comedic in this, which is excellently placed when needed. I was so charmed by the comedic work he did alongside Chris Tucker, balancing out the scenes perfectly.
Enjoyment:
The film opened at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.
Luc Besson has expressed interest in making a sequel. In an original draft of the script, Zorg then survived the destruction of the hotel with the personal shield built into the ZF-1. However, even after the success of the film Besson decided against it to pursue other interests.
I would love to see something like The Fifth Element Adventures where Leelo and Korben save people all over the galaxy. There are so many other parts of this world that would be fascinating to explore.
At the end of the film the orb stops and becomes Earth’s second moon. This indicates to me that the moon that we are typically used to may have been a previous evil orb that was stopped by the five elements 5,000 years before or even earlier. I always thought that it would be an amazing opportunity to tell another story of the fifth element and as well, there is the option of going even further into the future to tell the story again with new characters and new challenges. That fulfills a trilogy of movies right there.
But the fact that the film is a stand alone film that tells such a good solid story, is perfectly fine too. I actually like the fact that it hasn’t been tarnished by sequels and expanded things, because sometimes, in the wrong hands, it could go terribly wrong and feel like a money grab. A good comic book series could be a thing though. That’s a harmless way to do it.
This movie is a grand epic with shadows of the 1990’s but it also feels timeless too. If you ask most people including the filmmaker, the movie is about love being the fifth element. It’s a widely accepted theory, but accidentally, it could be interpreted to have two more poignant meanings.
Being positioned at the center point doesn’t activate the divine light. When Korbin admits his love, Leelou is motivated to allow the light to flow through her. So it’s not the human body being present, but the human spirit that is the element. It is the soul, the will, the human emotion that releases this divine light. Love just so happens to be the emotion Leelou feels at the moment. If it was just love, then that would mean there is a very slim chance the divine light would always flow.
The other incidental message is the best message in my opinion. Life is important. Yes! The elements for planet earth are earth, wind, fire, air and life, not just human life, but life in general, that is why the Mondoshawans are involved. Life is important. It's a simple statement that is so very much overlooked in the film. In opposition, the loss of life is something that is so trivialized during war and the film lightly discusses that in the conversation between Leeloo and Korben. Leeloo asks why she should save humanity when they have no respect for life as she sees it in the many violent wars on earth.
Life is important so we need to preserve life by any means we can.
I love it. And it’s a wonderful message. Life is important.
My Rating:
9.0
That sums up my review. I hope you liked it. If you did, I’ve got over 100 of these videos, so go on and browse the channel to see more reviews from me like this. Subscribe if you haven’t done so already and hit the bell icon to be the first to be notified of my next video.
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