Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (Spanish) Luc Besson Digital Life VHS

Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (Spanish)
starring: Milla Jovovich, John Malkovich, Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway, Tchéky Karyo
directed by: Luc Besson

Used Price: $15.00

Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780767844680
Format: Color, Dolby, NTSC
ISBN: 0767844688
Label: Sony Pictures
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Release Date: September 05, 2000
Running Time: 148 minutes
Sales Rank: 93606
Studio: Sony Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: November 12, 1999

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Editorial Review:

Amazon.com:
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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Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- 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 ... Read More

Rating:

- 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.

Rating:

- 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 ... Read More

Rating:

- 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.

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