The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc

Rating:
Summary: Compelling and moving
Review: I do not know how historically accurate this movie is, but I sat glued to the screen for the whole movie. This movie is not for people who want to see Joan of Arc as a simple saint, and it probably will not please many Christians. Although it is clear that Luc Besson thought that Joan truly believed she was a messenger from God. The issues raised by this movie are not simple, but are extremely moving. What is Good and what is Evil? Is any war a just one? Why did she believe in the goodness of the King of France who eventually sold her out to the English? The movie is as much about the God and Man as it is about Joan of Arc. Was it her destiny all along to be burned at the stake, just as it was Christ's destiny to be crucified? The movie seems to suggest so. Some other reviewers didn't like Milla Jovovich's acting. I thought she was excellent.

Rating:
Summary: Most Beautiful Movie Version of her Story
Review: A very well made historical film about a very controversial character. Excelent acting.

Rating:
Summary: Would you follow her?
Review: There have been few more charismatic characters ... and few more enigmatic. The story of a simple peasant girl who shapes a nation is the stuff of legend. The trouble with legends, of course, is that they're so well known, you tamper with them at your peril. Luc Besson exposes himself to peril from two major sources: some of his telling of the Joan story is simplistic; and the actress who plays Joan (Milla Jovovich happened to be Besson's wife) lacks the complexity and emotional sophistication to carry it off.

Joan of Arc is a story of French politics. As the English threaten to dismember both the nation and most of its peoples, France is neutered by the power struggle between the Dauphin and the Duke of Burgundy. The Dauphin, rightful king-to-be, but effete and vacillating, oversees a court in which the powerful seek to escape responsibility for the coming debacle. Orleans will soon fall, and after that, France.

And then Joan appears, fulfilling a legend that a virgin shall save France. She has visions, has been given a divine message. The Dauphin hears her, she relieves Orleans, she inspires France to resist, and the English threat is dissipated. But, she's served her purpose, she's an embarrassment to many, a threat to some, and it comes as no surprise when she is presented to the English and burned at the stake - for nearly 600 years, a reminder to the French just how ungodly the English can be!

It's an amazing story of inspiration, of the welding of self-belief, of the transformation of a defeated army into one which could believe in itself. It's a story about national identity and national pride. And it's a story which became essential to the French psyche after the horrors of German invasion in 1870, 1914, and 1940. Significantly, Joan was not canonised until after the First World War.

So how does Besson tell the story? He presents Joan as a blissful, if dysfunctional child ... until the day an English chevachee burns her village. She mutely watches as big sister is murdered and her corpse raped by an English dog of war. That would make most people pretty angry with the English! It's pure Conan the Barbarian.

Joan's sanity implodes. She's even more desperate to embrace the Church and daily confession, having her mind corrupted by the sort of suggestion and loaded questioning social workers are taught to avoid. Here's a young lassie, suffering Post Traumatic Shock, who develops a fixation about visions and thinks she's part of the legend and an instrument of revenge. It's logical, it makes sense ... but it comes across as a bit trite and contrived. Besson knows that good box office isn't based on childhood psychological drama unless it can be given popular appeal by some big, big battle scenes.

And the battle scenes are superb! This is seriously good, gritty, mucky, filthy, muddy, blood and gore stuff. It is beautifully choreographed and very well shot. Your major memory of this film will be its battle scenes.

Besson has a superb caste, and they play their parts well. But, after the battle is over, and Joan is sacrificed to the English, the film loses its dynamic and its grip. Milla Jovovich just doesn't have the emotional breadth and acting command to carry off the part. She's whiny. The court scene is elaborate melodrama, the politics simplistic, and some of the characters become obvious caricatures. The last quarter of the film is enlivened only by the appearance of Dustin Hoffman.

This is a postmodern deconstruction of Joan. The medieval argument was whether she was the instrument of god or the devil (your answer depended on which side of the Channel you lived). The contemporary argument centres around whether Joan truly believed in her voices, was she manipulated, did she play a dynamic role or was she simply a pawn played in the larger game. The crucial factor is not Joan's authenticity or honesty, but the way she inspired the French soldiers and raised morale.

And Jovovich grates. Her voice is piercing. She plays the role breathlessly, delivering a fragile pastiche of neuroticism as she struggles to grasp the passion of Joan and her single-mindedness. If you'd been a French soldier in the 1420's, you wouldn't have followed her up a dark alley never mind through a breach in a castle wall. She does not inspire, and the film comes unpicked because of that. The script is a bit threadbare in places, in any case. And the action gets a bit congested, especially when it comes to the intellectual bits. But you do remember the battle scenes.

It's a shame really. There is some excellent stuff here, but it lacks ooomph! and you keep trying to imagine someone else playing Joan and how much better it could have been.


Rating:
Summary: "Whatever!"
Review: I decided to give this movie a try despite the many negative reviews. Boy was I sorry! This film is a travesty so save your time (and your money if you're thinking of buying). Milla Jovovich simply doesn't have the acting ability to pull this role off, plain and simple. She portrays Joan as a wild-eyed nut case and somehow it's hard to generate much sympathy for her in the end. Add to that the ridiculous dialogue (somehow I can't see 13th century people using the 21st century expression "whatever!") and you have a mess of a movie. The sets and costumes are fairly good and the battle scenes reasonably realistic but that's about all I can say for it.
Go elseware for the story of St. Joan!

Rating:
Summary: The Maiden Rides Again!
Review: Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc) has stirred the imagination of a score of film makers. There are many version of her story, starting with Melies' "Jeanne d'Arc" (1899) imagine, almost from the cradle of cinema; going thru Drayer's expressionist "La Passion de Jean d'Arc" featuring the unforgettable Maria Falconetti (1928) and Victor Fleming's "Joan of Arc" with a very solid Ingrid Bergman's interpretation of The Maiden (1948).

Each version focuses in different aspects of this historical drama. Some are more mystic, some as in the present movie, more inclined to a psychological explanation.
Director Luc Besson has a short but very interesting filmography. We may note "Nikita" (1990) and "The Fifth Element" (1997) as his high points.
He also co-authored the screenplay and co-produced this movie giving it his very personal view point. He tries to depict a Joan of Arc as a girl shocked and haunted by the dreadful scene of the rape and murder of her sister, which evolves into a young woman driven by her visions. If this "visions" are God send or produced by her own mind, is left to the viewer to decide.

The movie is divided in three parts: Joan's child experiences, Joan fulfilling her Mission and Joan subject to judgment by her enemies.
Battles against the English invaders are very well enacted. Realistic and accurate stand at the same height as "Braveheart"'s (1995), but distinctly different.

The cast includes many first rate actress and actors such as Dustin Hoffman as The Conscience, John Malcovich as Charles VII, Faye Dunaway as Yolande d'Aragon, and Richard Ridings as La Hire. Notwithstanding the best performances are given by Milla Jovovich fleshing a believable and sensitive Joan and Vincent Cassel as the tragic Gilles de Rais.
A very good historical based film, even if opinionated on the subject.
Reviewed by Max Yofre.


Rating:
Summary: Challenging yet enjoyable.
Review: This is one film that will make you think. I am a huge Luc Besson fan and here he turns his unblinking eye to the story of Joan of Arc.

This version is told in a much more openminded and contraversial manner. Nothing is as it seems in this once familiar story. There are some great performances here, inluding one by Dustin Hoffman, whom most people did not even know was in this movie.

There is nothing difficult to understand about the film, it is the truth about Joan that is challenging. Here, one is forced to make up one's own mind as to what she was. Good movie, worth checking out.

Rating:
Summary: A Better-Than-Average Film
Review: The film is roughly divided into three segments: Joan's Childhood, Joan's Mission, and Joan's Trial and Death.

I found the lengthy, mystical "Joan's Childhood" portion of the film tedious with some distasteful episodes like the necrophilic rape of Joan's sister. This scene was pukey.

Joan's Trial and Death was irksome. For a film with an essentially realistic presentation during three-quarters of its length, the sudden introduction of Joan's Conscience during its last quarter was a tiresome mystical element. 'The Conscience' kept popping up like a Jack-in-the-Box.

Joan's Mission on the other hand was quite jolly. I enjoyed the battle array, the war machines, and the castles. Kudos to the English and French warriors - they're full of testosterone and bring much needed machismo to the film.

John Malkovich and Faye Dunaway are the film's most competent performers - unfortunately, they're not on the screen as much as they deserve. Milla Jojovich as Joan simply tries too hard. I sighed with relief when she was burned at the stake. It was over at last.

"The Messenger" could have been a better film if the "Joan's Childhood" portion had been cut entirely and the film had ended with the coronation of Charles at Reims followed by a brief afterword on the screen about Joan's trial and death. We do want to see Joan being burned at the stake, of course, and her execution could have been nicely presented behind rolling credits at film's end.

The French and English warriors are the real stars of the film - not Joan - so fast forward through the tedious "Joan's Childhood" portion of the film and enjoy the battle scenes.

* Historical Note: In "The Messenger" Vincent Cassell portrays Gilles de Rais, one of the most notorious mass murderers in history. De Rias, reportedly the tallest, handsomest, and richest man in the France of his day, served Joan with complete devotion. After Joan's death, de Rais retired to his estates, surrounded himself with charlatans, magicians, and sorcerors, dabbled in the black arts, and staged a bankrupting extravaganza about Orleans. At some point, he began sodomizing and brutally butchering the homeless, hungry, and orphaned children roaming the countryside after the wars; scholars estimate the number of children who met death at de Rais' hands to be approximately 400. The bodies of these children were either dismembered and burnt on the hearth, or stuffed in castle nooks, crannies, and latrines. A quiet investigation was conducted by authorities who had received complaints about missing children from heartsick parents. De Rais was arrested for an offense unrelated to his crimes against children but those crimes came to light during his trial and he was convicted. At Nantes, de Rais was burned at the stake before a crowd of hundreds. He's traditionally held to be the inspiration for Perrault's fairy tale "Bluebeard." De Rais' biography is one of horror and can be found at several websties.

Rating:
Summary: Maybe not accurate history, but entertaining nonetheless!
Review: This might not be historically accurate, but my attention was definitely captured during the length of this movie. The dream sequences were very well done and the action sequences were gritty and realistic. This movie gave an accurate portrayal of how brutal the fighting was in that time period. Dustin Hoffman gave a solid performance as the Conscience(or was he the Devil)and gave the movie a very unique twist. Overall this movie was very thought-provoking and led me to research into the actual legend, which is equally, if not more intriguing.