The Fifth Element (1997) Retrospective/Review

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with the video when I was growing up Star Trek and Star Wars were the titans of Science Fiction these were the shows and movies which came to mind whenever I thought about the genre but just as I have a lot of nostalgia forward track and Wars I also have a lot of nostalgia for a certain Sci-Fi Action Adventure flick with a much different flavor foreign French filmmaker Luke Besson was a huge fan of Science Fiction but While others often cripped from the likes of azimov Clark and Bradbury Besson enjoyed homegrown graphic novel works like a metal her loan which later became heavy metal in the U.S and Valerian and Laurel line among others with these Inspirations in mind Besson began writing the screenplay for a sci-fi movie in his teens about a lowly construction worker named zaltam blairos who wins a trip to the resort Planet flosston Paradise where he then falls in love with a 2 000 year old alien woman called Lilo over time the story shifted and changed eventually coalescing into the rough outline of what would later become The Fifth Element however the initial script was over 400 pages long despite its huge length and large required budget the project attracted interest from Gammon film company in the early 90s while Besson developed the script further at one point considering turning his massive script into a Trilogy of movies he also hired legendary French comic book artist Jean Gerard AKA Mobius and Jean-Claude messieres to create the look of the film as the artists continued to work on the look of the film Besson retooled the story according to their artwork it was thanks to messier's drawing of a New York taxi cab that zaltan blairos later changed to Corbin Dallas became a taxi driver as opposed to a construction worker unfortunately at the time no Studio was willing to finance the film's huge 100 million dollar budget and so the project stalled however after the critical and Commercial Success of besson's film Leon the Professional Besson tried shopping The Fifth Element around again albeit on a reduced budget of 90 million dollars this more refined version did attract interests from Sony under their Columbia Pictures label and Besson worked with writer Robert Mark Cayman to bring the script down to a tighter 120 Pages for the lead role Besson initially had two names in mind Mel Gibson and Bruce Willis while the former declined they offer Willis showed interest in the film before development stalled after remounting the project with a reduced budget basson assumed he'd be unable to afford Willis Willis however asked to read the script anyway and a few hours later told Mason he'd be happy to reduce his salary in exchange for a cut of the box office by the following day Bruce Willis was cast as the protagonist Corbin Dallas for the crucial role of lilu besan wanted a more Unknown actress allegedly auditioning over 300 hopefuls an initial front-runner was Elizabeth Berkeley but eventually ukrainian-american actress Mila Jovovich won the part her original audition was actually received quite poorly as Jovovich was clearly nervous but later that day Besson had a chance encounter with Jovovich at a hotel where she convinced the director to give her a second audition this audition was much more successful and Jovovich joined the cast as lilu to play the villainous Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel zorg Besson approach to Gary Oldman the actor and director had become friends while working together on Leon the Professional and Alderman won the role of zorg without an audition years later Oldman would reveal he didn't especially like the script for the fifth element or the finished film he took on the role as a favor to Besson who was producing oldman's film nil by mouth to play the celebrity DJ Ruby Rod Besson first approached Rock and pop Superstar prince prince however turned the offer down due to scheduling conflicts the son's next two choices were Chris Tucker or Jamie Foxx while Besson did like Fox Tucker's slender build made him a better fit for the character's gender fluid appearance rounding out the main cast was the late great Ian Holm as the priest of Vito Cornelius other notable members of the cast included actor and part-time professional wrestler The Late Tommy Lister Jr as president lindenberg another sci-fi veteran Brian James is General Monroe and the late Luke Perry as Billy British comedy fans will also notice comedian Lee Evans as fog as well as MacDonald Arnold of red dwarfame as a New York police officer at the time The Fifth Element was the most expensive French film ever made though it was filmed mostly in England at Pinewood Studios this was with the exception of the opening in Egypt which was filmed in Mauritania and some of the flosston paradise scenes which were shot at the Royal Opera House in London for the various New York scenes a full-scale taxicab was built on a huge gimbal rig this meant there was no need for the actors to fake being thrown around by the g-forces in the chase sequence while Bruce Willis was comfortably secured in his seat mili Jovovich was free to move around which for some shots was quite dangerous this was typical of Jovovich throughout production as she embraced performing as many of her own stunts as possible even if this often left her quite bruised she also performed most of her fight scene with the mangalores with the exception of the backflips and hand Springs which were performed by a trained gymnast Djokovic also had to learn the Divine language which was invented by Luke Besson though it was mostly gibberish as opposed to a functioning constructed language like Klingon in order to get comfortable with the language at milajovich regularly conversed with Besson in the language the costumes for the movie were created by Fame designer Jean-Paul Gautier the costumes like the general look of the film were designed to be colorful and Sleek as opposed to the gritty lived in future aesthetic which was so popular with Sci-Fi movies at the time the visual effects were supervised by Mark Stetson known for his Acclaim to work on Total Recall who worked in tandem with digital domain despite significant advances in digital effects at the time Miniatures and matte paintings were used extensively throughout in combination with CGI all of the spaceships seen in the movie were created as Miniatures as well as Corbin's New York taxi cab and several police vehicles much of New York itself was built in several large-scale Miniatures the dense traffic was created digitally using complex simulations similar to the techniques used for the aerial battle in Independence Day the music was composed by long time Besson collaborator Eric Sarah Sarah used an Eclectic mix of Orchestra Electronica and World music for the film one of the most complex pieces was of the Opera performance while the diva character was played by actress maywen levesco the actual singing was performed by invamula in the movie she's supposed to be an alien so she's able to do the things that a human couldn't do so I had to compose things that that were impossible to sing so when I gave her the score but it's impossible I say yeah I know it's impossible but we have Samplers and all these machines that we can do what we want there was some phrases I thought were impossible and she could do it she was amazing after Decades of development and three years of production The Fifth Element premiered at the Cannes Film Festival before its wide release on the 7th of May 1997. like the best exemplars of the Sci-Fi genre The Fifth Element is a film which utterly transports its audience to another world this film is a visual and audio Feast with a thoroughly Unique Style tone and atmosphere I've always loved the visual effects of this era of filmmaking the combination of large-scale Miniatures and CGI holds up very well but what sets The Fifth Element apart is its vibrancy one would think leaning in the opposite direction from the gritty lived in future of Star Wars and Blade Runner and so on would make the Fifth Element seem cheap and artificial however The Fifth Element still feels grounded and tactile while also being vibrant and garish it really nails that comic book look which made Mobius and messier's work so stunning The Art Direction may have helped cement the fifth element's look in style but it's Eric Sarah's outstanding score which creates the film's unique tone and atmosphere many orchestral elements are present but the tracks are more string heavy than brass with percussion mostly being driven by Electronica and texture being provided by ethnic vocals love it or hate it The Fifth Element should be commended for running in a totally different direction to many mainstream Sci-Fi movies of the day rather than drawing on the familiar pools of the azimov Clark Bradbury Gibson and K dick as Star Trek Star Wars Blade Runner and alien did the fifth element's mix of eurorowski and heavy metal as seen through the lens of Luke Besson still feels fresh to this day the Diva dance sequence is the perfect example of the film's Bold creative choices resulting in something utterly brilliant the song itself is an absolute Banger the design of the diva herself feels ripped right out of a Valerian comic book the fight choreography is equal parts Jackie Chan and Three Stooges conventional wisdom tells us these things put together should not work but it absolutely does all that being said despite the stylistic weirdness The Fifth Element is at its core quite a traditional Hollywood action Blockbuster the decision to cast to Bruce Willis is an inspired one having shot to super stardom as John McLean he's the perfect Everyman hero for the audience to relate to in this mad Adventure hell the film even pulls its own die-hard scenario in the second act but while Willis brings his A-game it's Jovovich who steals the show was lilu to be perfectly honest the character she's given to play is pretty thin despite the entire story literally revolving around her character lilu is quite passive for huge portions of the film being led around by either Corbin or Cornelius in spite of that shortcoming however jovovich's Talons shine through she weaves an innate vulnerability in childlike curiosity into her performance which makes lilu both sympathetic and Charming pairing her with the cynical salt of the earth Corbin Dallas makes for the perfect Odd Couple elevated significantly by Willis and jovovich's great chemistry multipass you know this multiple Dallas my wife you know how it is bump into each other sparks happen yeah she knows it's a multi-pass yeah anyway we're in love but it's the physical side of things which she handles exceptionally well taking on the various chases and fight scenes with a commitment and confidence she would like to utilize as Alice in the Resident Evil movies in general all of the cast are on top form I've always felt as though Ian Holm is The Unsung Treasure of the movie as Cornelius unlike Corbin who has his military experience to fall back on Cornelius bumbles around it aimlessly clearly way in over his head on the mission to save the universe and home lends the character the perfect combination of Gravitas and humor meanwhile Gary Oldman hams it up wonderfully as zorg a lesser actor would be overshadowed by such a ridiculous costume but Oldman still manages to come across as Skin crawlingly dangerous when it comes to Chris Tucker's Ruby Rod however I can understand some viewers who find him extremely annoying as the comic relief sidekick to the badass Action Hero I suppose it comes down to Personal Taste but I really like the character the prince inspired combination of dampness and sexuality is another interesting choice for this kind of character and Tucker is at the height of his comedic Powers when delivering a flurry of great lines seriously confessed to me by the way I have a recording of a talented voice even though the film has a generally brisk Pace it's also quite cluttered plot wise the amount of characters and factions their various motivations their shifting alliances the hunt for MacGuffin it's all a lot to keep track of however it seems the movie is aware of this to a certain extent and actually mind this for some comedy it seems like every time Corbin answers his phone checks his mail or answers the door Trouble Follows soon after the larger Cosmic conflict of the movie between good and evil is esoteric but effective even though very little of this conflict is defined in detail it works on a sensational level the bigger ball of evil named Mr Shadow is a pretty scary Villain at times The Opening space battle and phone call with zorg enters some suitably lovecraftian territory the idea that merely hearing Shadows Voice or staring at it too long will cause a person to go insane or physically bleed from the head is very unsettling it's a conflict built more on thematic ideas rather than detailed mythology which facilitates the conclusion playing out as it does even though lilu being shocked at Humanity's history of warfare and her severely weakened State inside the temple feels contrived the ending still comes to a moving climax Corbin and lilu are both lost people Corbin feeling aimless and dejected as a lowly cab driver and lilu feeling overwhelmed by this new world and her Quest even though Corbin's character is given a lot more focus in agency The Love Story between he and lilu still works Corbin fighting to overcome his cynicism and depression and lilu desperate for someone to see her as a person and give her a reason to go on rather than simply fulfilling the purpose she was made for I need you I need you very much I love you [Music] The Fifth Element isn't some piece of transgressive deconstructionist filmmaking but it's still heaps of fun action-packed and brimming with eye candy not to mention gloriously cheesy and sentimental this is a story of good versus evil where love literally conquers all and I honestly love that about the movie in weaker hands The Fifth Element could have been a saccharine mess but instead it's a vibrant romp reveling in an avant-garde style which is just as sickly as it is dazzling upon release The Fifth Element was met with quite mixed reviews from critics some commanded his ambition and style While others named it as one of the worst Sci-Fi movies of the year in the Years following its release the film has achieved cult status in some circles while winding up on so bad its good lists in others audiences at the time seem to be more positive however which was certainly reflected at the box office the film grossed 263 million dollars against a 90 million dollar budget making it the highest grossing French film ever at the time it remains popular on home video to this day recently being remastered in 4k also in recent years Luke Besson returned to the Sci-Fi genre with an adaptation of valerian and loreline in Valerian in the city of a thousand planets in many ways Valerian was an attempt at replicating the success of the fifth element which was heavily inspired by the Valerian Series in the first place while it's even more vibrant and spectacular as The Fifth Element thanks to huge advances in visual effect technology The Narrative isn't as strong in some scenes there is more visual imagination in single shots than contemporary Blockbusters have in their entire run time unfortunately the film is let down by the leads who feel fatally miscast unlike Willis and Jovovich in The Fifth Element Dane Dehan and cara de la veg despite their respective talents don't have the Charisma to guide the audience through the film's episodic plot that being said the film does such a great job at translating this delightfully pulpy sci-fi Universe to the screen that it did get me to read the books which are fantastic while it may not have replicated the success of the fifth element of the box office or as a film like The Fifth Element Valerian the city of a thousand planets opened my eyes to sci-fi territory I hadn't ventured into before and I think that's why the Fifth Element endures at its heart it may be quite a traditional Hollywood Blockbuster but it feels fresh and exciting it comes at the Sci-Fi genre from a totally different angle combining sights and sounds images and music in a way no other creative team thought of doing up until that point and in spite of all of its flaws that makes the Fifth Element something truly special show everything thank you for watching if you like my videos be sure to like subscribe and share to stay up to date on all of my new uploads if you want to help the channel grow jump over to my patreon where you can see videos early uncut and AD free speaking of which I'd like to say thank you to all of my patrons and members now appearing on screen with an ultra thanks to Stacked Tom dusk Colin Camille Patrick Fleming will Martin Matthew Camille Edmark star Dylan Thomas lilac yanet Howard Craig akarovic and caging G have a good one and as always live long and prosper

Channel: Rowan J Coleman

Views: 160,699

Keywords: the fifth element, retrospective review, criticism, rowan j coleman

Id: BGQHBJjAi2g

Length: 18min 35sec (1115 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 09 2023