Product: The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (Region 2) (1999)
Rating: 5.0
Romantic vs. Realist
After viewing both the TV mini-series (at least half a dozen times) and (recently) Luc Besson's treatment of the Joan of Arc story I've decided that I thoroughly enjoy them both, and will watch them both again and again, for different reasons. The mini-series was (obviously) a romantasized Joan, beautifully coiffed (and with perfect makeup), with a suburban, year 2000 American demeanor;(mostly looking confused and/or helpless/hopeless). Romance is wonderful and I enjoy that in my life. On the other hand, Besson's Joan (Jovovich) looks to me like I imagine a peasant girl would actually look in the 1420's. (Bathing didn't really get popular until the 1600's, and even then was rather sporadic.) Jovovich as Joan has the fervor of a zealot with the slight tinge of the lunatic. That's what I would expect of a teenage peasant girl in 1420, hearing voices, seeing visions, expecting to save her country from invaders. The problems I've read concerning the realism and controversial graphic violence in the movie confounds me, and I suspect that anyone who has a problem with it is so locked into the 21st century point of view that they can't conceptualize a time that was different. (Like 30 years ago in America). War is and has always been nasty and ugly and unbearable and should never be romatisized. On another note, Besson's treatment of color and scope remain remarkable, the color and cinematography impecable. Neither film is for everybody, but then what film is?