About the Movie “Leon: The Professional."
The movie “Leon: The Professional” was released in 1994. It was the French crime thriller which was later dubbed in the English language. The story revolves around two characters ‘Leon’ a hitman and a 12 years old young girl ‘Mathilda’ who was a depressed child. The characters depict situations where they had gone through different mental stages. This paper analyzes ‘Leon’ and ‘Mathilda’ human behaviors in the film and relates them to psychoanalytical theories developed by theorists, i.e., Jung and Freud.
Describing the behavior of Movie Characters: Leon & Mathilda
In this film, the character of Leon was played by Jean Reno, who was a brutal hitman. Natalie Portman played a role of 12 years depressed kid named as Mathilda. Mathilda had grown up in a dysfunctional family where parents ignored their children for the sake of earning money through illegal means. The adverse impact could be seen in Mathilda personality who skipped her school every single day. Due to the abusive attitude of her parents, she started smoking and became a socially isolated child. Mathilda was leading a purposeless life, and the sole love of life was her brother.
The character is the true depiction of a depressed, neglected and ignored child. Mathilda’s family was killed by corrupt Drug Enforcement Administration agent when she was out for shopping. The character witnessed the brutal tragedy after returning to home. The female character asked neighbor ‘Leon,’ who was a merciless hitman, to help and give a place to live. Leon, after showing reluctant attitude, allowed Mathilda half-heartedly to share the space.
Although, Leon was the socially isolated person who killed others for money, however, he showed the positive side of his personality in the movie. Leon helped Mathilda in every possible way and trained her to hold weapons so that it would become easier to take revenge from her brother’s murderer (Hooton, 2015). In the beginning, Leon got irritated with Mathilda’s presence that reached to the state where the evil side wanted to kill her but at the end of the film, the female character changed Leon personality. Leon soon realized and understood the fact that the evil deeds never gave true satisfaction and happiness. If a person wants to achieve eternal peace and happiness, then one should sacrifice own's happiness over others.
Psychoanalytical Theory
Freud developed a psychoanalytical theory in which he discusses that human personality is formed by the conflict and balance among three fundamental structure of human mental stages: ID, Ego, and Superego. The theorist also explains the five stages of psychosexual development in human beings. The Freud’s psychoanalytical theory suggests that human personality develops after undergoing the five developmental stages (Tubert-Oklander, n.d; Guntrip, 1961). The most relatable stage with ‘The Leon: The professional’ movie is the Latent and Genital Stages. Freud explains that in the latent stage of human development, people start suppressing their Ids and developing superego where they start developing social relationships outside their families. On the other hand, in the genital stage, a person takes an interest in the opposite sex, and if able to successfully manage and create balance among human mental stage then a person leads a well-balanced and healthy life. Both Leon and Mathilda did not enter into the latent stage before they met each other. However, Mathilda id stage was witnessed when she showed her intimate feelings for a man who was three times older than her. Leon was in the ego stage when showed reluctant attitude for Mathilda’s feelings.
Jung was another theorist who developed psychoanalytical theoretical concepts. The movie is the depiction of Jung's Archetypes. The archetypes include persona, animus, anima, the shadow, and mana (Tympas, n.d.).. All these archetypes are relatable with the movie characters. Leon depicted mana personality in which he defeated the evil "murderer of Mathilda's family." The hero did not drive through his sexual desires throughout the film. Mathilda represented a symbol of purity yet innocence as she fell in love with a three times older man. Leon carried a persona in which positive side of the personality did not show up to the real world. In personal life, he was soft hearted yet sensitive person.
However, Leon dark side had been disclosed to the world. Leon represented anima where his soft-hearted side of personality had been shown. Mathilda personality depicted animus aspect when she decided to take revenge from the murderer. For that, Mathilda asked hitman to train like a man. The hitman profession showed Leon “the shadow” aspect of personality. The hero nurtured and supported the girl till the end. Leon care and nurture depicted the motherly side of the personality. If Leon did not meet Mathilda, then he would have led a brutal and ruthless life and remained in the ID stage or other Jung’s negative archetypes like ‘the shadow.’ On the other hand, Mathilda would have committed suicide and never developed an ego and superego mental stages where decisions have been taken on certain logical grounds.
References
Guntrip, H. (1961). Personality structure and human interaction: The developing synthesis of psychodynamic theory. London: Hogarth Press.
Hooton C., (2015) Remembering Leon: The Professional, just a perfectly-balanced movie. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/remembering-leon-the-professional-just-a-perfectly-balanced-movie-a6731866.html
Tubert-Oklander, J. (n.d.). Theory of psychoanalytical practice: A relational process approach.
Tympas, G. C. (n.d.). Carl Jung and Maximus the confessor on psychic development: The dynamics between the 'psychological' and the 'spiritual'
