Speech of the Week #30

Hey guys, welcome to a column here on YDKS Movies entitled Speech of the Week! For now on, every Monday I will post a new scene from a movie that features a speech of some sort being given. After all, there are a lot of famous scenes in film where characters give an influential speech of some sort. Then again, there are also a lot of scenes where characters give a speech and it just comes off cheesy and lame. In this section, you will see both kinds. That's right, people, I'm giving you the good and bad of film speeches all wrapped up in one great big package. I hope you all enjoy.

Leon: The Professional is one of my favorite movies of all time. It's incredibly entertaining, heartbreaking and beautiful all at the same time. In this movie, Jean Reno plays an Italian hitman who ends up training 12 year old Matilda (a young Natalie Portman) how to do hits herself. In the American version of the film (which was simply entitled The Professional), the relationship between Leon and Matilda was strictly platonic. However, in the international version, Matilda falls in love with Leon and attempts to seduce him.

This scene (which was cut from the American version... you know, because we can't take the idea of a 12 year old falling in love with an older man) shows Matilda trying to seduce Leon. Throughout the movie, one can see how Leon is more of a child-like character and Matilda is more of an adult. Therefore, it seems likely that she could actually seduce him. However, Leon says no and gives his reasons why. The speech he gives is really sad and simple. To me, it's one of the more powerful scenes from an already incredible movie and it is a shame it got cut from the original American version due to it's un-PC nature.

Watch it below (if you're not a prude).