Le Dernier Combat 1983 doesn't need subtitles
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by Blender Dumbass
Aka: J.Y. Amihud. A Jewish by blood, multifaceted artist with experience in film-making, visual effects, programming, game development, music and more. A philosopher at heart. An activist for freedom and privacy. Anti-Paternalist. A user of Libre Software. Speaking at least 3 human languages. The writer and director of the 2023 film "Moria's Race" and the lead developer of it's game sequel "Dani's Race".
This review contains a heavy dose of my stupid speculation about private life of people I know almost nothing about. Which means I'm making shit up. Don't point to this document as some concrete proof of some film theory or political theory. I have literally no idea what I'm talking about. This review is me dumping my personal thoughts about a movie onto a page. Nothing more than that. ↩ Reply
French 1983 Luc Besson film Le Dernier Combat has 2 spoken words throughout its 1 and a half hour runtime. Both of those words are Bonjour, which I bet you already know the meaning of. The film is about a post-apocalypse future where humans lost the ability to talk. The one time two characters in the film have an exchange of Bonjours doesn't even require the understanding of the word to get the impact. It's about them finally being able to utter a word. It is not about them exchanging information. ↩ Reply
The film is a black and white, cheap movie. The first feature length movie from Besson. And the first collaboration of Besson, actor Jean Reno and composer Éric Serra. The film holds on the actors performances, because there is no dialogue, on Besson's direction, because there is no exposition that explains anything and on Serra's music, which gives it a kick-ass sense of emotionality. ↩ Reply
The main character is this guy played by Pierre Jolivet who starts the movie having sex with an inflatable sex doll. Basically the world went to such shit that women are nowhere to be seen. They are literally a commodity. Which is strange and begs a psycho-sexual analysis. I mean it is Luc Besson we are talking about. ↩ Reply
In a way the main character in this movie is sort of similar to the Joaquin Phoenix's character in Paul Thomas Anderson's 2012 film The Master. He starts the film horny, to the point he fucks an inanimate object. And then gets under supervision of some creep that has women. In Le Derneir Combat it's just one woman. And that character of ours starts to think that he might have a chance. ↩ Reply
While Paul Thomas Anderson specifically draws our attention to how utterly broken the character is, Besson's character is a nice and loving guy, who is kind of handsome, and who you supposed to relate to, to some extent. If Paul Thomas Anderson makes you afraid the main character will get the woman ( probably in some very bad way ). Besson makes you want that character to get the girl. While what strange is, the girl is literally in prison the entire time. ↩ Reply
There are two women in the the entire film ( I mean there are only so many actors the film-makers could afford anyway ) and it is possible that both of them were played by Christiane Krüger. The first woman, the one in the prison of the doctor character ( Jean Bouise ) is shown only in a sensory fashion. You see her hands, her legs... you get a very brief glimpse at one of her eyes. But that's about it. The other woman, which is held hostage by the Fritz Wepper character is shown in a closeup. ↩ Reply
There are 3 possible readings from this showcase of the female characters: ↩ Reply
1 ) Besson was making a movie about a guy who realizes that he needs to save these women from the prison. Toward the end, he confronts an entire gang of gangsters and releases all of them from the command of their abusive boss. The film ends when he enters one of the rooms that was previously under the command of said boss. And finds that second woman. ↩ Reply
2 ) Besson makes a psycho-sexual male-fantasy film where the reality of the world is so grim, that there is a literal excuse for keeping women hostage. ↩ Reply
3 ) Besson communicates his personal insecurities when it comes to women. He wants to respect them and wants them to be free ( as shown by the ending ) but he is a nerd. It was his first feature film, he wasn't yet rich or anything. And as we all know Besson is a fatty boy who is a nerd of marine biology. Not the kind of person that would believe he has a chance with a woman. So this prison thing was his brain's solution to the problem. As we can see with the first lady. The main character isn't trying to rape her. He gives her gifts and tries to be nice and everything. To actually get her consent. But she is still held in prison controlled by him and that other dude. There is like a cognitive dissonance in the air. ↩ Reply
Subsequently with films like Nikita, Lucy and Anna Besson shows an incredible tendency toward bad-ass female characters who fight for their own freedom. As if to say Besson's films show that he is, to some extent, a feminist. At least now, when he has money, and after he was married 4 times. Maybe his insecurity simply disappeared when he got laid. Even the next film he did ( Subway ) already has a rather free-spirited leading lady. ↩ Reply
I think that Besson ( without realizing it ) shows us a clue towards male psychology which can explain and perhaps even prevent certain disasters that happen today in the world of politics. ↩ Reply
I've heard arguments that Kamala Harris was out-voted by Trump due to a strong "anti-male" agenda of the political left. As if to say that strong stands on feminism greatly amplifies sexual insecurities in young men. If we have phenomenons like Incels ( men that are really bitter, to the point of absolute insanity, because they believe they can't get laid ), we might have a spectrum of Incel-hood where the sexual insecurity is not as strong, yet is there. ↩ Reply
Young boys that are a little chubby or a little too nerdy simply give up on girls before even trying, because they believe that they have no chance what so ever. Yet those same young boys still go through puberty as the rest of us, which induces rather strong chemical reactions, forcing those boys to try to outwit their situation. They come up with all sorts of strategies ( fantasies ) that they think might get them laid, despite the girl's supposed un-interest in them. ↩ Reply
Basically, if you believe nobody will consent. You will start fantasizing of rape. ↩ Reply
Yet if you take one of those boys and introduce them into a real consensual sexual situation, they suddenly flip the other way around. It is not like they are evil and sex makes them nice and shiny. They were never evil. They were simply insecure. But this experience of having a consensual partner erases this insecurity. If you believe that despite your chubbiness or nerdiness, there are still girls that might like you very much, you will not need those fantasies anymore. ↩ Reply
If you want to know how it relates to Kamala Harris, it seems like the political left ( especially the feminists ) are too focused on showing people that girls aren't consenting. Movements like Me Too make a case that there is no consent in many of those situations. And if you actually make guys believe that, they turn into incels. Which is what causes the problem in the first place. If you simply say "consent is required" and then provide multiple accounts of where consent was not provided as proofs of evil, you are providing concrete examples for why women will "never consent" to the people with those insecurities. Which just makes those fantasies, the have, stronger. And in the same time makes those people want political representatives that aren't against those fantasies. Which gives us Trump. ↩ Reply
Yet on the other hand, as my stupid theory here goes about Besson, if you give an insecure boy a real proof that consent is in fact totally and utterly possible, that boy drops all of the fantasies immediately. And becomes a sort of feminist. ↩ Reply
Which begs the question: Why the fuck Leeloo and Korben Dallas relationship in The Fifth Elemen is so rapy? ↩ Reply
If you are new to the block, a lot of film critics criticize the depiction of Leeloo as Born Sexy Yesterday. A Hollywood trope ( usually in sci-fi films ) of dumb, baby-like, girls who the main character gets as their love interest. ↩ Reply
If you weren't bamboozled ( like Besson apparently did, motherfucker! ) by the looks of Milla Jovovich in The Fifth Element, the scene where Korben rape-kisses Leeloo is kind of about her teaching him consent. It is trying to be a feminist scene. He kisses her and she immediately pulls a gun on him. Saying something in her alien language, which he later learns means something along the lines "only if I consent to it". And toward the middle of the film, Leeloo is shown to be this badass warrior character that knows Karate and stuff. And she even jokes that she doesn't need Korben's protection. Yet despite all this, the relationship is uncomfortably rapy. As in, Korben is the one who ends up deciding everything. And Leeloo literally behaves like a new-born baby most of the time. ↩ Reply
The two films that immediately surround The Fifth Element, Leon: The Professional and The Messenger are way less rapy than The Fifth Element. The Messenger is a straight up feminist tale of a woman ( Jeanne d'Arc ) that was punished by the church for behaving "too manly". And Leon despite seeming rapy ( due to people's ageism ) is about a little girl who is very motherfucking serious about her shit. Like this fearless child walks into a police station armed to the teeth. Besson gives her absolutely the maddest of respects. And even in the "controversial" relationship with Leon, she is the one that drives everything forward. All he can do, is pretend to be tough, while telling her to drink milk and to stop saying "okay" ( which she immediately rebels against by saying "okay" to ). ↩ Reply
And in the middle of it sits The Fifth Element, which tries to be feminist, but is really not working in that regard. ↩ Reply
If you research a bit about the making of The Fifth Element everything suddenly becomes clear ( if you take my whole theory here as true, of course ). Besson started fantasizing the world of The Fifth Element when he was 16 years old. Before he made Le Dernier Combat. And probably ( given my stupid theory about all of this ) before he ever got laid for the first time. ↩ Reply
Yet the script of The Fifth Element that was ultimately shot and released in 1997 was already written after Besson got laid. I mean he even had a child at that point. So it safe to assume a possibility that the original story for Leeloo and Korben's relationship was way the hell more rapy than it ended up being. You can even theorize that the rape-kiss he goes for was supposed to be this pure moment of magic in the earlier versions. Kind of like in Snow-white. But the new Besson tried to force the story into this feminist tale. Which didn't quite work. ↩ Reply
Somewhere along the lines, after he was 16 and perhaps even after he made Le Dernier Combat Besson went through a change of heart about women. In theory it must have happened right after the release of Le Dernier Combat. The film was in the cinema. Besson was suddenly a proper film-maker. And that newly gained confidence pushed him into trying out with women, which he found out to be not that bad actually. That totally destroyed any previous sexual insecurities. And the Luc Besson, the feminist, was born. ↩ Reply
All of that was still taken out of my stupid ass. Just in case you forgot. ↩ Reply
Happy Hacking!!! ↩ Reply
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