Lionheart (1990 film)

Lionheart (also known as AWOL, Leon, Full Contact, A.W.O.L. Absent Without Leave and Wrong Bet) is a 1990 action film directed by Sheldon Lettich, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and co-starring Brian Thompson, along with Harrison Page, Deborah Rennard, Lisa Pelikan, and Ashley Johnson. Van Damme plays a paratrooper legionnaire. When his brother is seriously injured, he returns to Los Angeles to enter the underground fighting circuit to raise money for his brother's family.

Lionheart
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySheldon Lettich
Produced byEric Karson
Ash R. Shah
Written byS. N. Warren
Jean-Claude Van Damme
Sheldon Lettich
Starring
Music byJohn Scott
CinematographyRobert C. New
Edited byMark Conte
Production
company
Wrong Bet Productions
Imperial Entertainment
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • August 1, 1990 (1990-08-01) (France)
  • January 11, 1991 (1991-01-11) (North America)
Running time
105 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$6 million[1]
Box office$24.3 million[1]

The film's cast and crew included two people who had appeared in an earlier Van Damme film: Michel Qissi (a good friend of his) and Sheldon Lettich. This was the second time Qissi played a villain in a Van Damme film, the first being notably as Tong Po in Kickboxer (1989). Lettich helped write one of Van Damme's breakthrough films, Bloodsport, along with another Van Damme film, Double Impact. The film grossed $24.3 million on a $6 million budget.

Plot

Lyon Gaultier is in the French Foreign Legion stationed in Djibouti, North Africa. After his brother, who lives in Los Angeles, is set on fire during a drug deal gone bad, Lyon receives a letter from his sister-in-law Hélène begging him to come see his dying brother, who has been calling his name in agony. Lyon escapes the Legion in a daring breakout and sets off across the desert, until he reaches a dockyard on the coast, where he finds work aboard a tramp steamer headed for the United States.

Arriving in New York City with no money to cross the country to Los Angeles, Lyon is attracted to an illegal street fight being run by a tramp named Joshua. He volunteers for the next fight and easily defeats his opponent, impressing Joshua, who takes Lyon to meet Cynthia, an unscrupulous organizer of underground fights for the rich elite. Cynthia agrees to sponsor Lyon, dubbing him "Lionheart" and setting him up in a no-holds-barred fight against Sonny, a fighter known for heavily taunting his opponents. Lyon defeats and humiliates Sonny, then leaves with Joshua to find a phone booth to call Hélène, fending off an attack by a local street gang. Joshua calls in a favor from Cynthia, who gets them both across the States to Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Lyon's Legion Commander, having been denied cooperation from the LAPD, has sent two of this own men there to bring Lyon back to meet court-martial.

By the time he reaches the hospital, Lyon's brother has died. Though his murderers were apprehended, Hélène was left penniless, with a stack of unpaid medical bills and little daughter Nicole to look after. Lyon and Joshua track down Hélène's address, but as Lyon tries to speak to Hélène, she angrily rejects his offers for much needed financial help, admonishing Lyon for deserting his brother and unjustly blaming him for her late husband's involvement in the drug business.

Lyon decides to help Hélène and Nicole without their knowledge. Through Cynthia, he joins the local street fighting circuit and has the profits delivered to his relatives in the form of checks, with Joshua posing as an insurance agent to pretend that the money comes from a life insurance policy Hélène's husband had supposedly signed. Lyon defeats a number of high-profile fighters, including a proud Scotsman who sports a dirty fighting style, a wrestler in a raquetball court, and a martial artist in a shallow swimming pool. Seeing as Lyon is not keeping his winnings and spurns her repeated advances, Cynthia grows suspicious of Lyon and jealous towards Hélène and puts her assistant on Lyon's trail. Similarly, the two Legionnaires sent after Lyon stake out Hélène's apartment and eventually try to capture Lyon: he is saved by Cynthia's assistant but suffers a broken rib. As Hélène has witnessed the attack, Lyon and Joshua reveal the truth to her about the nonexistent insurance policy, whereupon Hélène finally acknowledges Lyon as Nicole's uncle.

Cynthia arranges for Lyon to fight with Attila, an undefeated combatant whose style includes giving his opponents the illusion of a fighting chance, only to permanently disable them with callous finishing moves. Cynthia agrees to hand Lyon over to the Legionnaires after the fight. In order to skew the odds, she shows potential betters an altered tape of Attila which makes him look like a poor fighter, while she bets her entire fortune on Attila. Realizing Lyon is hurt, Joshua unsuccessfully tries to talk him out of the fight.

As the fight proceeds, Attila recognizes Lyon's rib wound and takes full advantage of it. When Attila appears to have won after repeatedly knocking down his opponent, Joshua begs Lyon to give up the fight and offers to split the winnings from his bet against Lyon. This angers Lyon, who summons his remaining strength to defeat Attila with a series of impressive kicks, knees and brutal punches. Lyon pummels Attila senseless but spares him, leaving Cynthia ruined and his family cared for with his own winning stake. The Legionnaires take Lyon into custody but, acknowledging the bond with his family and being impressed by his strength and determination, they finally relent and let Lyon rejoin his family and Joshua.

Cast

Production

Director Sheldon Lettich had co-written Bloodsport, the film that turned Van Damme into a star. They had become friends and Van Damme was impressed with a short film Lettich made, Firebase, and agreed for Lettich to direct.[2] The director later recalled

Lionheart was a defining film for Van Damme because I did not shy away from giving him considerable amounts of dialogue and character development throughout the film. I trusted him to pull this off, whereas before nobody else believed he could do much more than just deliver some fancy kicks and simple one-liners. Lionheart was the first movie to demonstrate that Van Damme was more than just a flash-in-the-pan "Karate Guy" who would never rise above simplistic low-budget karate movies.[3]

In the film, Van Damme shows his backside in one scene. While we were filming the scene in Lionheart where he takes a shower in Cynthia's apartment, he asked me if he might casually "drop his towel" and show off his butt for a brief moment. My reply was "Sure, if you're willing, why not? We can always use a different take later if we decide it's not a good idea." So we did one take where he casually lets the towel drop away, and then we later decided to go ahead and put that shot in the movie. Well, that became a very memorable moment for the ladies in the audience, and for the gay guys as well. Showing off his butt (clothed or unclothed) almost became a signature trademark of his after that.[3]


Alternate Versions

Like "Kickboxer", in addition to the various titles this film sports, there are also many varying versions and edits of the complete film. It seems that the most complete and uncut version is the R18+ version of "Wrong Bet" that was available in a special double VHS boxset with the original and uncut R18+ version of "Kickboxer". This was only available in Australia and New Zealand and was distributed by Palace Films and The Movie Group in the late 1980s and early to mid 1990s. Every other version of the film, including the more widely known "Lionheart", is an edited and shorter version. The violence is toned down, certain scenes were re-edited and shortened and random lines were cut. This makes "Lionheart" feel like it flies by in terms of pacing and narrative. The closest version available is the original Australian release of "Wrong Bet" on DVD. However, even this version is yet another shorter edit.

Reception

The critical reception for the film was negative.[4][5][6][7] On the film aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, it holds an approval rating of 31% based on 16 reviews.[5] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[8]

Box office

Lionheart performed well at the box office, debuting in 3rd position in the US with sales of about $7 million.[9] The film dropped to 7th in its second week,[10] and to 9th in its third.[11] The film earned $24.3 million worldwide on a budget of $6 million.

Director Sheldon Lettich says the film became very popular among his fans:

People love the characters. They're particularly fond of Lyon's motor-mouthed, self-appointed "manager," Joshua. Van Damme's female fans seem especially enamored of this film because it was the first (and possibly the best) to showcase JCVD's softer, more compassionate side. In Lionheart he's not fighting for revenge or to "honor his Sensei," or any of the usual motivations that are typical for these sorts of movies; he's fighting for his family. He's getting himself bruised and bloodied in these brutal street fights so that his little niece can get a new bicycle.[3]

References
  1. "Lionheart". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved December 26, 2018.
  2. Q & A with Sheldon Lettich By Marco A. S. Freitas (Guest Post)
  3. Evan Sathoff, "Badass interview: Talking Jean-Claude van Damme with LIONHEART director, Sheldon Lettich", 5 Feb 2015 accessed 20 June 2015
  4. Wilmington, Michael (1991-01-11). "Karate-Themed 'Lionheart' Is a Swift Kick in the Teeth". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-08-23.
  5. "Lionheart". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  6. "Lionheart". Entertainment Weekly. 1991-01-18. Retrieved 2010-12-01.
  7. "Lionheart". Washington Post. 1991-01-14. Retrieved 2010-12-01.
  8. "CinemaScore". cinemascore.com.
  9. Broeske, Pat H. (1991-01-14). "Home Alone in 9th Week as No. 1 Film : Movies: 'Godfather Part III' takes dramatic slide from second to sixth place in its third week out. 'Awakenings' is in second". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
  10. "'Home Alone' Fends Off Yet Another 'Intruder' : Box Office: Vietnam War film opens to mediocre business as comedy remains on top for 10th week. After four weeks of release, 'Godfather Part III' drops to 12th". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2012-06-04.
  11. "'Alone' Stays at Home Atop Box Office Charts : Movies: The comedy has won 11 consecutive weekends. Its ticket sales have topped $200 million". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2012-06-04.
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