The Fifth Element

The Fifth Element

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The Fifth Element is 20 years old and is one of my all time favorites with a wonderful blend of eye candy, action, laughs, and international talents. I watched it again today on blu-ray, this time with a fact track on, (please someone bring back pop up video!). When I first saw this film, it captured my attention with over the top performances, cool alien species, a great soundtrack, and has always kept me wondering if someone would make a followup or perhaps now a reboot, (Besson had condensed 3 transcripts into 1 to make this film). With the passing of years and loving watching it again, I am glad no one has touched it, some movies mean so much more if they are left alone. Writer/director Luc Besson has a new film coming out soon, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, which appears to be very much in the same genre of The Fifth Element. Bruce Willis has always been my favorite movie star, movies like this were made for performances like his and the same can be said of many of the cast.

This was both Milla Jovovich and Chris Tucker’s 5th movie each and had multiple references to the number 5 throughout. Much of the crew worked with Luc Besson on his previous films, so the trust and cooperation between them helped make a successful stand alone science fiction film. Composer Éric Serra blended electronic with opera, certainly also check out his soundtrack for GoldenEye (1995 starring Pierce Brosnan). Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound Effects Editing losing to Titanic (1997 directed by James Cameron). The artist Prince was considered for the role that went to Chris Tucker, Ruby Rhod, who stole scenes with his wardrobe, hairstyle, and fast talking mouth. The movie is a treat for dreaming of future technology such as the spaceships, surgical reconstruction, and the flying cars (which were inspired by Valérian and Laureline, a French science fiction comic 1967-2010 which is the director’s next release).

1997, 14A, 2h 6m
Distributor – Sony/Columbia
Budget – $90 million

Cast & Crew

Writer and director Luc Besson made Léon: The Professional (1994 with Jean Reno) and after made The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999 also starring Milla Jovovich). He most recently made The Family (2013 with Robert De Niro) and Lucy (2014 with Scarlett Johansson), but began writing The Fifth Element when he was 16 (he was 38 when the film hit theatres, premiering at the Cannes Film Festival). Cowriter Robert Mark Kamen also cowrote with Luc Besson, Transporter (2002 starring Jason Statham), Taken (2008 with Liam Neeson), and Colombiana (2011 with Zoe Saldana). Bruce Willis had just been seen in Last Man Standing (1996 with Christopher Walkin) and would next be seen in The Jackal (1997 with Richard Gere). Milla Jovovich was previously in Dazed and Confused (1993 written and directed by Richard Linklater) and would later star in Ultraviolet (2006) and 6 Resident Evil films (2002-2016). Ian Holm was known for Alien (1979 directed by Ridley Scott) and would later appear in at least 4 The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit films (2001-2014). Gary Oldman had also appeared in Besson’s Léon: The Professional and would next appear opposite Harrison Ford in Air Force One (1997).

Links
IMDB – 7.7
Box Office Mojo
Wikipedia

Spoilers

(please do not continue reading if you have not seen the movie and do not want to read a spoiler)

The Egyptian scenes at the start of the film helped inspire me to want to go see hieroglyphs first hand (I did!) and seeing Luke Perry there made me think of him on Beverly Hills 90210 (1990-2000, a favorite of my sister’s) and he is currently seen on Riverdale. The costumes of the friendly aliens there were so cumbersome that it took multiple people 20-30 minutes to put one on and they needed monitors inside them for the actors to be able to see where they were going. A small detail mentioned in the fact track (why I love special features) is that the number of spikes on their backs determined their seniority. In addition to the world building, Luc Besson also created the language that Leeloo speaks (400 words), and a lot of the props from the film are on display in the Gaumont Museum in Paris. The set on the cruise ship was built on the Pinewood studio in London (famously known for the James Bond series) and an explosion filmed on it was one of the largest on a set (one take got out of control, the set needed to be evacuated, and took 20 minutes to extinguish). It always fascinated me that Korben Dallas and Zorg never meet, although they are the lead hero and villain. Bruce’s best reactions were sincere as the director did not tell him what Milla was going to say to him when they first met and it was his first time hearing the opera on set. Why I love this film is it seems to create fresh reactions with me, even though I have seen it multiple times, and I hope you enjoy it too.

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