The Fifth Element **** (1997, Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm, Chris Tucker, Luke Perry, Lee Evans, John Neville, Brion James, John Bluthal) – Classic Movie Review 270

Cult French director Luc Besson, working in an English studio and the then about-to-close London Royal Opera House, exuberantly embarks on Europe’s most expensive film, the 1997 science fiction action epic The Fifth Element. 

And thus cult French director Luc Besson, working in an English studio and the then about-to-close London Royal Opera House in 1997, cheerfully and exuberantly embarked on Europe’s most expensive film, the 1997 science fiction action epic The Fifth Element. He is armed with a lot of cash, a good sense of humour and some top actors, but with only the vestige of a plot, wafer-thin characters and faint traces of a script.

So, apparently, 250 years from now, all will be lost unless the Fifth Element is found. The universe is threatened by evil in the 23rd century. The only hope for mankind is the said Fifth Element, which comes to Earth every 5,000 years to protect us with four stones of the more familiar four elements of fire, water, earth and air.

The evil Mangalores destroy the Fifth Element, but a team of scientists use the remains of its DNA to rebuild the perfect being called Leeloo (Milla Jovovich), who escapes from the lab and stumbles upon taxi driver and former elite commando Major Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis), who helps her escape from the police.

The cheeky borrowings from other sources are many and various. Besson apparently dreamt it all up as a teenager. It’s a kid’s fantasy, and that’s probably where it should best have been left – in the school playground. Everybody rushes around a lot in apparent panic and good actors like Gary Oldman (as Jean-Baptiste Zorg) and Ian Holm (as Priest Vito Cornelius) turn in self-indulgently silly pantomime performances that obviously encourage less talented support players to camp it up outrageously and tediously.

When the film tries to be funny, it becomes juvenile and falls flat on its face, and then it’s only truly amusing if you want to laugh at it. It’s kitsch without showing any real verve or individual style – not like, say, Flash Gordon or Masters of the Universe.

By around half way Besson lets it run riotously out of control in a series of what seem like improvised scenes, allowing his actors far too much indulgence. It looks breathtakingly expensive, so the money is all up there on screen, and the visuals are thrillingly attractive in a lurid, kitschy sort of way.

It certainly has great exuberance and a real sense of daft fun. But that doesn’t make up for a lack of real individual imagination, true invention, uniqueness, special vision, intelligence, grandeur or any gravitas that would have made it more than a sets and special effects triumph. That said, it has a high likeability factor.

Hero Bruce Willis (as Major Korben Dallas) is just Willis going through his amiable motions without stretching himself, though he is certainly very congenial company. And Milla Jovovich is highly decorative and feisty as heroine Leeloo. They make a good team. However, Chris Tucker’s camp turn as D J Ruby Rhod is infuriatingly unfunny.

The film won awards at the British Academy Film Awards, the César Awards, the Cannes Film Festival and the Lumières Awards, and was a hit, earning $263.9 million at the box office on a $90 million budget, the highest-grossing French film at the international box office until The Intouchables in 2011.

It won the BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects, and the Lumières Award for Best Director. It was nominated for seven César awards, winning three: Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Production Design.

Besson began writing the script when he was a bored teenager of 16 but the film was not released in cinemas till he was 38. He hired comic artists Jean ‘Moebius’ Giraud and Jean-Claude Mézières, whose books inspire parts of the film, for production design. Costume design is by Jean-Paul Gaultier.

However, after the film was released, Jean Giraud and Alejandro Jodorowsky sued Besson, claiming The Fifth Element had plagiarised their comic The Incal. Giraud sued for 13.1 million euros for unfair competition, 9 million euros in damages and interest, plus 2 per cent to 5 per cent of the net operating revenues of the film, while Jodorowsky sued for 700,000 euros. The case was dismissed in 2004 as only ‘tiny fragments’ of the comic had been used and Giraud was hired by Besson to work on the film before the allegations were made.

Luke Perry (1966–2019).

RIP Luke Perry, known for roles in Beverly Hills 90210 and Riverdale, who died on 4 March 2019 after suffering a stroke aged 52. He plays Billy in The Fifth Element (1997) and Pike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992). 

The cast are Bruce Willis as Korben Dallas, Milla Jovovich as Leeloo, Gary Oldman as Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg, Ian Holm as Vito Cornelius, Chris Tucker as Ruby Rhod, Luke Perry as Billy Masterson, Brion James as General Munro, Tommy ‘Tiny’ Lister Jr as President Lindberg, Lee Evans as Fog, Charlie Creed-Miles as David, Ivan Heng as Left Arm, Tricky as Right Arm, John Neville as General Staedert, John Bluthal as Professor Pacoli, Maïwenn Le Besco as Diva Plavalaguna, and Inva Mula as Diva’s singing voice.

Korben Dallas (Willis) is a taxicab driver and Besson pursued his profitable obsession with cabbies in Taxi (1998), Taxi 2, Taxi 3, Taxi 4 (2007) and Taxi 5 (2018).

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Film Review 270 derekwinnert.com