The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999)

educational stanpoint

If you are teaching comparison and contrast from a factual story versus a dramatized movie version---this is it. As a high-school teacher for English foundations, I try my best to expose my students to the literature their peers in regular English classes receive. I must utilize movies as a visual aide supplement to help them connect with the characters, setting, dialogue... I strongly recommend using this dvd to support your curriculum to teach on all levels of student learning (auditory, kinesthetic, visual). December 24, 2008

Definately worth watching movie

Milla Jovovich, personally, is an actress I like a lot, so my review is slanted right from the start. But the movie is really well filmed, in my opinion. Excellent war scenes with medieval war devices seldom seen in any other movie. A number of the aspects of warfare and armaments in The
Messenger were portrayed quite accurately and a few military historians, including Kelly DeVries, have commented on such. It had great visuals, in my opinion very good acting on everyone's part. Milla Jovovich's acting was superb in my opinion, and why the knee jerk negativity from people parroting everyone else saying "she's a model, she can't act" is just too lemming like to avoid being sadly humorous. I've watched it three times over the last few years and I own the DVD. Very good cast. The general and his troops were excellent. It's so typical of French history, too, lose most of your battles, finally find someone who leads you to victory, and then betray her and let your enemy burn her at the stake. I think at least a few of the negative reviews are from French apologists. November 7, 2008

Horrible and Inaccurate

This movie is historically inaccurate in so many ways. I wouldn't even give it one star unless Amazon made that little a requirement of the rating process. Not only does Joan not have a sister (who is VERY brually murdered in this film), but the prince is far too old.

They also make her look like an insane heretic who is quite possibly in league with the Devil. Then, they have her kill in this film. According to legend, she led an army, but never took a life. She was a standard bearer, but not a soldier.

This is a horrid portrayal of Joan of Arc and possibly written and directed by someone/several people without a soul(s). She looks like a lunatic. August 7, 2008

An entertaining movie with an unfortunate message

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. May 13, 2008

not perfect...but still great

this movie has a totally warped view of joan of arc...not inaccurate...but still strange. the action is top notch, and the story-telling is amazing, but this cannot break free of it's anti-religious creaters. this is a great movie...but not everyone will think so. January 12, 2008

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