A Dvd Review: The Messenger - The Story Of Joan Of Arc International Version

OnkyoFanatic

Many compare this to Braveheart in terms of an epic-scale production complete with massive battlefield sequences historically cemented in some kind of fact; and indeed it does play like that Mel Gibson picture so well-documented in film aficionados' minds. But the biggest problem I have always had with The Messenger -- and don’t get me wrong, I have always enjoyed it since seeing it theatrically and then re-running it on a VHS incarnation that just looked horrible after multiple watchings -- is the fact that I just don’t believe in the time piece set forth by the production company....and I just don’t believe John Malkovitch's rendition of the French King for some reason...he has no accent, nothing to suggest that he is PLAYING the King of France....he just sounds and acts like Malkovitch and it doesn’t really seem to fit at all...I mean, is this how the King of France during the time period documented here would have talked or acted? I didn’t buy any of it. And the way the soldiers are talking to each other and amongst each other doesn’t really seem to fit either...I understand we are supposed to suspend disbelief in these historical based films, but this seemed to be stretching it too far.

I picked up this DVD yesterday as it has been on my random, kind of "offbeat" want list section for some time (I have been itching to replace my cable-recorded VHS version) and noticed that the only version being sold of this title is labeled "The International Version" which equates to this: in America, the film is known as The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc but worldwide it debuted and was known as simply Joan of Arc; what it adds is some extended time to the USA theatrical cut.

At any rate, Columbia/TriStar has done an admirable job of bringing this rather obscure, again offbeat title to DVD. Of course, I wished for a Superbit release with DTS audio, but after my prayers of issuing the Roy Scheider cult classic Blue Thunder in a Superbit version went unanswered, I figured this wouldn’t receive the treatment either. What we have here is not shabby at all, though, with a very, very good audio and video presentation and a **** load of extras. The film concentrates on one of the most often overlooked characters of world history, Joan of Arc, who was burned by the English for being a witch; our favorite leading lady from The Fifth Element turns in a dramatic, extremely passionate and overtly over the edge performance as an older Joan who desperately wants to fight for France because "God told her so." The film begins like any of these historical epics from Hollywood, explaining the time period we're in and what is happening to France during this period....basically, England is kicking their **** and the country is struggling to find a leader. They find it in John Malkovitch, who ends up being crowned King later on, but not until he is confronted by letter after letter from this girl who claims to have been given a message by God that she must lead the French army to victory and that she can bring fire back to the spirits of the men. Before all this, though, the film sets up the plot by showing the young Joan as a little girl in her village -- and again, things are HIGHLY implausible here as the nuns and villagers are all speaking very very good English....highly unlikely (and I understand that if the filmmakers didn’t do this, we'd be subjected to subtitles for the whole film, but really.... isn’t that more effective as evidenced by Das Boot?). An invading English army made up of brutal soldiers attacks the village, raping the nuns and killing them while Joan watches from behind a door. From this point on she becomes absolutely hell bent and obsessed with finding God, going to church, praying, pleading with her local clergy to let her be "one with Him." Watching the brutal killing of her sister, a nun in the village, has somehow connected Joan to "visions" she receives of Christ who, through the visions, seems to have a mission for her. She believes she sees a sword lying in a field which she equates to needing to help the French army fight the English.

The film then explores the struggles of the French army against the English, and their leader, a pre-King John Malkovitch (who again seems to act nothing like a King of this time period, from this country, would act; this really detracts from the enjoyment of the sequences and takes the viewer out of the film....the makers could have done a bit more historical homework here in my personal opinion) who is, as aforementioned, receiving letters from this peasant girl who swears she can help the army fight England to the death. While his advisaries warn him to the opposite fearing she is an assassin, Malkovitch agrees to see the girl to find out what she wants and how she is going to go about helping France. Enter an older, even more hell bent and passionate Joan, who gallops into France absolutely livid on destroying the English to save France -- immediately, she engages in battles with the English army with the French army behind her, constantly revving them up to clash in fight after fight; she screams, yells, commands and seems almost bloodthirsty as she leads the men into the fields. She continues to tell the men that God is telling her to continue engaging the English and that France will be victorious...in fact, everything she seems to do is motivated by a message from God. She then even predicts that Malkovitch will become King of France, and indeed he does when the troops return home from a victory over the English in one of the wars. Fed up with being told she is only a "girl" by the men she is commanding, Joan cuts her hair down to a buzzed style that all the French soldiers are wearing, making her look like just "one of the guys;" this is later explored as she is accused of herecey.

Joan's obsession with leading battle after battle against the English becomes too expensive and too risky for Malkovitch and France; he seems rather more interested in taking baths with his wife and finding a peaceful solution for dealing with England, and eventually turns his back on Joan, refusing to send her extra troops for the battles they're fighting. Infuriated but still fighting, Joan continues engaging the English until she enrages them to the point that they want nothing more than to either kill her or capture her for ransom. After taking an arrow to the chest which almost kills her, Joan is thought by the English to be dead and is eventually captured by them in one of the battles. Once chained up in one of their chambers, the film takes on a different direction and concentrates on the belief that Joan was a witch because of these "voices" she heard from God.

Dustin Hoffman turns in a strange, but very compelling role, as Joan's actual internal conscience talking to her, making her wonder if she actually heard those voices from God and saw those things like the sword magically appearing in a field suggesting she fight the English for France....Hoffman's "conscience character" speaks to her actually making the viewer believe she made all this up in her head and that perhaps indeed, during these times, her behavior could easily be seen as witchcraft. The English want to burn her for such "crimes," but the Church steps in to try and save her. Because she is so fanatical and simply "gone" by now, not knowing whether to listen to her own thoughts or conscience, she does not cooperate with the clergy, demanding that what she did was for the love and word of God...even though there is a tremendous amount of evidence suggesting none of what she said she experienced actually took place.

In terms of acting, the lead Joan role is handled passionately well, Malkovitch turns in a somewhat (in my mind anyway) inaccurate portrayal of the King of France and Faye Dunaway plays Malkovitch's mother in law who is full of tips, suggestions and advice for the King regarding Joan. The film is really not in the caliber, in my opinion, of Braveheart or Gladiator, but it is definitely noteworthy and entertaining enough to warrant a place on your DVD collection shelf if you are into these kinds of epics.

OnkyoFanatic

THE DISC:

Columbia/TriStar has released the "International" version of The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc in a single disc package with the typical housing and marketing layout for the studio's "Special Edition" DVD releases; of course, with the recent takeover by Sony, this may have been different would the film have come out in recent times. Along with a plethora of extra materials and an HBO "Inside Look" at the making of the film, the transfer to DVD is presented in a beautiful-looking 2:35:1 widescreen transfer that has, according to Columbia, "digitally remastered" in anamorphic treatment (as has the audio, digitally remastered, that is). There are very, very slight instances of dirt and grain in the background of some of the scenes when the bright blue sky during the battle sequences are going on -- but you have to look very hard for it. Otherwise, this is truly a nice transfer from Columbia, and years ahead, of course, of the recorded VHS version I had to suffer with and compare this to. The only glitch I seemed to notice (and this may have just been my ultra sensitive eyes) was that compared to the 4:3 pan and scan version I used to sit through of this title, the "focus" of this 2:35:1 widescreen image seemed a bit "upright" as if you were constantly "looking up" at Joan's face and the faces of the men in the battles....I am uncertain if this was intentional by the filmmakers and just wasn’t seen on the full screen version or if this was some kind of "angle"/"focus" abnormality on the transfer, but it got a tad bit distracting sometimes.

The audio on the disc comes, primarily, as a two-channel Dolby Surround mix, but there's the option to change that to a backup Dolby Digital 5.1 track in the menu; why Columbia opted to make the Dolby Digital mix as the one you need to "switch" to was weird, but once its on, you wont be disappointed -- I went into this thinking it was going to be just another run of the mill, somewhat dated sounding, front-focused affair...but on this so-called remastered 5.1 surround mix, you are treated to a VERY forward and aggressive dialogue track which makes all conversations and talking in the film extremely easy to hear...which is VERY refreshing as I usually find the opposite on almost all titles. The center channel seems to come booming from the front soundstage while there are good usages of the discrete surround channels during some battle sequences -- arrows and weaponry used during this time period are rendered with pretty aggressive sonic effects. Overall, the mix is not that overtly "open" or "hot;" but when scenes call for discrete jolts -- such as when weapons are launched behind the listener or above the sweet spot -- the track gets loud and raunchy and sounds very, very nice for a Dolby Digital mix. Blindfolded, I would be hard-pressed to know if this was a DTS track or Dolby Digital one at a certain volume pressure.

Other scenes worth mentioning are when Dustin Hoffman's voice is speaking to Joan toward the end of the film and you can hear the voice echo and reverb into the surround channels very, very softly....score is supported with some good panning from left to right between the surround channels as well....wind blowing effects and the flashback sequences when Joan is hallucinating and such are rendered aggressively through a surround system on this track. In sum, I really found no reason for Columbia to release a "Superbit" version of The Messenger; of course, with Sony at the helm, is this now a moot point? But seriously folks, the Dolby Digital audio and anamorphic remastered video look and sound impressive on this disc.

Recommended.

Skynut

Nice write up.
I am glad when people do this so I can figure out which movies might be worth purchasing.

OnkyoFanatic

Hey Skynut!

Thanks so much for reading the review, man! It makes it that much more worthwhile writing them! Thats why I do them -- to inform home theater/DVD junkies which titles are worth renting/buying and which have good audio/video transfers, etc...thanks a lot again for reading and commenting!