The Fifth Element (1997)
Directed by Luc Besson
In 2257, a taxi driver is unintentionally given the task of saving a young girl who is part of the key that will ensure the survival of humanity.
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Bruce Willis stars for imaginative French filmmaker Luc Besson in this English-language futuristic saga that deserves a place on the same shelf with such other innovative trend-setting films as Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien, Blade Runner and Brazil.
This is one fantastic space opera from French filmmaker Luc Besson, who doesn't have much to envy to George Lucas... besides the fact that the "Star Wars" creator thought of all this 20 years ago.
The Fifth Element is a junk-heap melange of Blade Runner, Total Recall, Star Wars, Splash, Die Hard, StarGate, Scarface, Diva, the Star Trek series, and God knows what else.
The "Star Wars'' movies look deep, even philosophical, in comparison, but never mind: We are watching "The Fifth Element'' not to think, but to be delighted.
In some sequences there is that grunge look that harks back beyond "Star Wars" to John Carpenter's "Dark Star" (1974), which may be the most influential least-known movie of the past couple of decades.
There's an "Indiana Jones"-style prologue set in an Egyptian crypt; a quick-cut transition from past to future out of "2001"; a "Blade Runner"-style cityscape (lightened up a bit) with deep-canyoned streets filled with flying automobiles; and a "Star Wars"-like death star that takes the form of a roiling lava-globe, headed straight for Earth.
"The Fifth Element" from Columbia TriStar is almost literally a comic-book adventure, a comical sci-fi fantasy that may seem vaguely familiar to you because it was clearly inspired by the opening segment of the 1981 animated film, "Heavy Metal," which in turn was inspired by the "Heavy Metal" comics.
While it doesn't go for the dark dystopic look, it does borrow liberally from the European Heavy Metal magazine's visual style (and most specifically, from the artist Moebius).
Even when the film is idling, Dan Weil (who's worked with Besson since "The Big Blue")-- leading a design team that includes Jean "Moebius" Giraud (illustrator of "Metal Hurlant," aka "Heavy Metal," magazine) and Jean-Claude Mezieres, illustrator of the Valerian, Agent Spatio-Temporel graphic novels --and costumer Jean-Paul Gaultier ("The City of Lost Children") make sure plenty is going on visually.
The director, working from a comic book-type script that he co-wrote with Robert Mark Kamen (and which bears a certain resemblance to one of the segments of Heavy Metal), injects a ton of offbeat, sporadically-effective humor into the movie, frequently causing The Fifth Element to cross over the line into self-parody.
In some sequences there is that grunge look that harks back beyond "Star Wars" to John Carpenter's "Dark Star" (1974), which may be the most influential least-known movie of the past couple of decades.
After all, when a toon flick has the audacity to reference the 1974 masterpiece Chinatown, it's clear that the lowest common denominator is nowhere to be found.
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Here the editing is smooth and cleverly intercuts different scenes and dialogue for a nice effect (it reminded me a little of Orson Welles' F for Fake ).
Production designer Dan Weil has envisioned New York as a kind of city-state that seems to pay homage to Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" in which all manner of vehicles move through the air in deep, deep canyons created by immensely tall skyscrapers in the Beaux Arts style.
Like "Metropolis" (1926) or " Blade Runner ," it offers such extraordinary visions that you put your criticisms on hold and are simply grateful to see them.
From this film, in various ways, descended not only “Dark City” but “ Blade Runner ,” “ The Fifth Element ,” “Alphaville,” “ Escape From L.A. ,” “ Gattaca ,” and Batman's Gotham City.
Witlessly stealing from every sci-fi movie that's made a buck, from Metropolis to Independence Day, Besson seems to think plagiarism is okay if you make a dumb joke about it -- like having a fat virago sport Princess Leia's buns.
( Metropolis was such a movie, and so was Blade Runner, Batman and The Crow.)
None of this is to carp, but only to note that The Fifth Element makes no bones about cribbing from every bit of science fiction foofaraw that's come before it, from Metropolis to Blade Runner and beyond.
She's pursued by Zorg (Gary Oldman in his worst performance), a corporate mogul in the pay of the bad guys; Cornelius (Ian Holm, juggling a role that combines the priest in The Exorcist, Obi Wan Kenobi, and Moe of the Three Stooges), keeper of the cheesy cult that's supposed to enact the Stargate-like ritual that saves the universe; and the usual government morons.
In Tobe Hooper's Lifeforce, knockout model Mathilda May seduced men with a mere gaze before sucking their souls out through their mouths (bummer!), and in the dorky Species , knockout model Natasha Henstridge put the make on average joes before dispatching them in gruesome, tongue-through-the-skull fashion.
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She gives the role a bit of gusto and a wide-eyed outsider feel (like Daryl Hannah in Splash ).
The whole thing plays like the stateroom sequence from A Night at the Opera as choreographed by George Jetson.