A Film Analysis of Leon: The Professional

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This is a movie about a professional killer, or "Cleaner", named Léon played by Jean Reno, and his unlikely interaction with a 12-year old girl, Mathilda played by Natalie Portman. Mathilda's family is murdered by corrupt Drug Enforcement Agents (DEA) lead by Agent Stansfield played by Gary Oldman. Agent Stansfield, is portrayed as a drug addict, mentally unstable and an overtly violent and corrupt law enforcement team leader.
This movie follows the relationship of the two main characters from the time Léon saves Mathilda's life against his better judgment. This event causes both of their lives to take a detour that ends up giving meaning to both of their existences. She is trapped living in a dysfunctional family environment with an abusive father and step-mother, a hateful step-sister and her quite little brother with only a dismal outlook on her future. She is a precocious young girl who's life seems to have several parallels with the Cinderella story. Léon is a stoic, uneducated and an unremorseful killer that is totally unemotional and unattached to the world around him. He becomes the prince that saves her.
Mathilda lives on the same floor in an apartment building that Léon lives. When Mathilda's abusive father steals from a drug dealer, Stansfield, who is also the DEA agent, Mathilda's entire family is murdered in a very brutal assault at their apartment by the DEA /drug dealer team. Mathilda was not at home at the time but witnesses the results of the massacre as the team is still in the apartment searching for the drugs. She cleverly pretends to ignore the carnage in her own apartment as she passes by it and approaches Léon's apartment door. She begs him to open the door in a quiet, panicked voice several times as ...

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...ing his team members Tony hesitates to reveal Léon's location. He is torn between his loyalty to Léon and the risk of angering the psychotic DEA agent that will surely kill him. According to the book, The Moral of the Story: An Introduction to Ethics, German philosopher Immanuel Kant "...would condemn an act of using someone as a tool...". He believed that everyone should be treated as they would want to be treated. Although Tony's culture and chosen profession may be considered deviod of morals to the standard public, he did have a moral code about giving up a fellow mob member. His choice to reveal Léon's location was not an easy decision. Kant also believed that "humans usually know what they should to do, and that sometimes it's the opposite of what they want to do: Our moral conflicts are generally between our duty and our inclination..." (Rosenstand, 2012).

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