Product: The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (Region 2) (1999)
Rating: 5.0
A psychedelic and believable Joan of Arc
I liked this movie very much. It works well on many levels:Visually it is stunning - a virtuoso work.The acting is terrific, not in the sense that it carries you away but in the sense that you enjoy watching the actors. It is a theatrical movie in the best sense of the world. The beauty, passion and fierceness of Joan just emanates out of Jojovich's face and voice. The scheming queen played by Dunaway is a joy to behold, as is, as always, Malcovich playing the prince of uncertain age who will become the future king of France. Dustin Hoffman, having the unique role of Joan's conscience, is splendid.I found the movie very humorous and also very French. Many actors speak with a French accent which I think is a very clever device. You cannot separate the life of a person from the culture in which this life evolved and I found the movie reflected well on some of the special tidbits of the French soul.Now the more difficult question about how close this movie portrays Joan of Arc. I think the important question is not how realistic the story is, but rather how true it is. First of all reality as a person lives it is not reality as realistic movies show it to be. This movie is full of strange surrealistic events seen through Joan's eyes and a long and wonderful section at the end visualizes Joan's thinking: her debating with her own conscience. If you want to understand or communicate your vision about a person, particularly a person as unique as Joan of Arc, you cannot stick to historical testimony alone. Certainly, the director Luc Besson took huge liberties with this movie, showing Joan from the inside, but I think they were well taken. Having Joan act out of a revenge motive and casting doubt on the divine origin of her "voices" may disturb a conservative religious mindset, but is refreshing and believable at least to me. I want to think that Joan herself would recognize herself better in this movie than in other supposedly more historically exacting pictures. Should we ever meet her in the afterlife, in which she undoubtedly believed in, it will be interesting to know how she herself will judge all the stories told about her.Joan of Arc may not have been a saint, but her tragic and short life is as close as reality can get to a miracle. In that sense Besson's "The Messenger" tells her story in a masterful way. This is one of the best films I have seen, and one I have already enjoyed seeing several times. (Except for the horrible and terribly memorable violation scene in the beginning which I jump over every time...)