Recently, my husband and I watched the 1994 film The Professional (or Leon, The Professional), extended director’s cut. He picked it out of a list of 50 best movies to watch. I’d never watched it and neither had he.
Although, about two thirds of the way through, he thought that maybe he had watched it, but he thought it had been titled “Matilda.”
Which made me think about the 1996 film Matilda, based on the popular children’s book written by Roald Dahl in 1988.
You see, both films had very similar setups for their young heroines, although the movies themselves were very (VERY) different.
Both Matildas had parents that were not interested in them, were self-centered and even cruel. In The Professional, the young heroine is told to go get food (it seems that is a regular task for her) for the family; in Matilda, the main character is always tasked with making dinner for her parents. There are similarities in the parents, too, but that may have just been that they were made in the 1990s (the parents fighting, the New York accents, the tank-style undershirts the father’s wore over their beer bellies.) In Matilda, though, the girl only has an older brother; in The Professional, she is the middle child of three.
In both movies, the parents don’t seem to care if their daughter goes to school, although in The Professional, the girl runs away from school and the parents don’t seem to question her being home, while in Matilda, the parents actively deride going to school and think it’s a waste of time. Corruption play a big part in both plots, although The Professional is the more violent (drugs and murder) as it is meant for an adult audience, although, what happens in Matilda (corrupt car deals and the school punishments) would be horrible for a child to endure.
In The Professional, Matilda rebels by swearing and smoking (it is a movie for adults), while in Matilda, Matilda rebels by going to school and loving to read books (kind of a backwards take, but it is a Roald Dahl story for children) and eventually takes revenge on her family in non-bloody ways.
In The Professional, is is the neighbor, a hit man (or a cleaner), who rescues the young girl and trains her to be a cleaner, so she can take vengeance against the men who killed her 4-year old brother (she doesn’t really care that they shot her abusive parents or older sister.)
In Matilda, it is her kind, book-loving teacher that eventually saves her (the whole point of the story leads to her being adopted by the teacher).
I find it interesting that both films have young girls named Matilda with similar characteristics and situations. I would guess that the screenwriter of The Professional read Roald Dahl’s tale, and created a similar character in a gritty adult film. After all, if just looking at the films, The Professional came out first, but the book predates both films.
I think the characters of Matilda in each of these films illustrates an important aspect of audience in storytelling. Thought these characters are very similar (even down to their straight dark-brown bob haircut and big brown eyes), their circumstances are what set the stories apart and what makes it appropriate for the audience (adults or children.)
Have you watched these movies? And have you noticed the similarities in these Matildas (as well as their differences)?
Tara Moeller 