The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc
by Luc Besson
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway, John Malkovich, Milla Jovovich, Tch?ky KaryoDirector: Luc Besson
DVD: 2 Layers, Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 2.35:1
Running Time: 158 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-04-04
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures
Movie Reviews of The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc
Movie Review: An entertaining movie with an unfortunate message
Summary: 3 Stars
For such a historical figure, I expected a bit more coming into the movie. Don't get me wrong, I loved the movie simply because of the story, the action, and the time-period. Unfortunately, however, Joan of Arc - the catalyst for legendary events in French history, the end of a war, and the first person anyone thinks of when there is even the slightest mentioning of burning at the stake - really deserves more.
First, the positive aspects of this movie probably outweigh the bad. The scenery, style, and medieval genre is represented well. The film has a very powerful feel, and properly displays how thoughts, beliefs, and energy can be controlled and swayed by the power of religion. Such greatness has been accomplished through religion, but this film also shows the gritty realism of widespread death that has been brought about from religious intolerance.
The bad, however, is two-fold: acting and influence.
Joan of Arc was probably not a hyperventilating, over-reacting, deranged, incompetent military leader. If I were French I would hate this movie. It basically paints Joan of Arc as a vindictive, revenge-driven, screaming harpy. The fact that Milla Jovavich seems to have read an "Acting for Dummies" book written by Jim Carey - where facial contortions and eyeball bulging trump conveyance of emotion through acting - definitely didn't help either.
Whereas Joan of Arc was tried for heresy, to me the people who made this movie should be charged with something similar. There is nearly no mention of Joan's military prowess, her benevolence, or her true religious devotion. The fact that there is almost an insinuation that she was speaking to the devil, rather than Jesus, is almost blasphemous.
There's also the character I like to call "Creepy Jesus". It's almost as if everyone involved really wanted to show religion as an ugly part of humanity, the possibility of visions being realistic or divine, or that there is inherent value in religion. There could not have been a weirder actor chosen for the character of Jesus, and there surely couldn't have been a more negative portrayal of religion.
The Messenger covers most of the historical details decent enough, entertains the audience quite well, but it's just painfully obvious that the director was interested in psychoanalysis of Joan, her actions, her visions, and religion in general.
Summary of The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc
1999 may be remembered as the year of Joan of Arc: NBC created a miniseries in her honor, Carl Dreyer's long-lost The Passion of Joan of Arc was discovered in a mental hospital, and Facets re-released Jacques Rivette's Joan the Maid. Luc Besson rounds out the corpus with his stylistic and vaguely heretical grand-scale feature, The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc.Besson (La Femme Nikita, The Fifth Element) challenges established notions about the Maid of Orleans as he creates a decidedly more human heroine than have previous biopics. The story line is the same--a young, illiterate peasant girl convinces the dauphin of France to give her an army, and she leads them to victory in Orleans, only to be burned at the stake for heresy--but Milla Jovovich, in the title role, is a woman possessed. Her influences are less than heavenly; as a child she witnesses the murder of her sister by the English, a death caused by the sister's giving her hiding place to young Joan, which causes an intense desire for revenge. Yes, God still speaks to Joan, but even this is undermined, as Dustin Hoffman, playing The Conscience, questions her motives.
Cinematically, The Messenger is stunning, with fantastical sequences of Joan in communication with higher powers. Yet the graphic violence (scenes include random decapitation and a dog gnawing on a body); the uneven accents, which make it difficult to tell who is fighting on which side; and the rewriting of lore may make this version of Joan of Arc appeal only to Besson fans. Jovovich is convincing, and while at times the film may drag (at times you wish they'd hurry up and burn her), it is a remarkable and insightful retelling of a well-known piece of history. --Jenny Brown
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