Lionheart (1990)
Lionheart, released internationally under several names including A.W.O.L: Absent Without Leave, Wrong Bet, and Leon; is a 1990 American 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 French Foreign 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. The film’s cast and crew included Michel Qissi who appeared in earlier Van Damme films: Tong Po, the villain in Kickboxer and Parades, a Kumite entrant in Bloodsport. Sheldon Lettich helped write Bloodsport, and Double Impact. Lionheart grossed $24.3 million on a $6 million budget.
Plot.
Lyon Gaultier is in the French Foreign Legion stationed in Djibouti, East 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. Lyon’s Legion Commander, anticipating his destination, sends two of this own men to Los Angeles to bring Lyon back to meet court-martial. 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 Eldridge. He volunteers for the next fight and easily defeats his opponent, impressing Joshua, who takes
Lyon to meet Cynthia Caldera, 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.
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 hi 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 Helene in the form of checks, with Joshua claiming that her husband subscribed to life insurance prior to his death. Lyon defeats a number of high-profile fighters, including a dirty-fighting Scotsman, 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:
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he is saved by Cynthia’s assistant Russell but suffers a broken rib. Hélène, who has witnessed the attack, learns the truth about the nonexistent insurance policy, whereupon she 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.
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. 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.
In the film, Van Damme’s rear is exposed 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.
