The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc
Encyclopedia
The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc is a French/American historical drama film directed by Luc Besson
. The screenplay was written by Besson and Andrew Birkin, and the original music score was composed by Éric Serra
.
The Messenger portrays the story of St. Joan of Arc
, the famous French war heroine of the 15th century and religious martyr
, played by Milla Jovovich
. The story begins with young Joan witnessing the atrocities of the English against her family, following her through her visions, to her leadership in battle, through doubt (with Dustin Hoffman
playing a character credited as "The Conscience"), and finally to her trial and execution.
Coincidentally, a miniseries, Joan of Arc, was made for television at the same time as Besson's film.
Many years later, at Chinon
, the Dauphin and soon to be King of France Charles VII
receives a message from Joan, requesting an army to lead into battle. Charles VII thinks he should let her come, but his advisors say she may be an assassin. The king's mother-in-law, Yolande of Aragon
says Joan should be seen because the people believe she could save France from the English.
Joan arrives at Chinon, and right away Charles VII is warned again that she could be an assassin. Charles VII comes up with the plan to let someone else pretend to be him; that way if she is an assassin she will kill the wrong man, and if she is truly sent by God she will know who the real future king is. Joan stands before the throne, but tells the man sitting there, the young Jean d'Aulon, that he is a good man but is not Charles VII. The court chamberlain Trémoille, who had just earlier announced Jean d'Aulon falsely as Charles VII, tells her that the real Dauphin is among the crowd and to go pick him out by herself.
Walking slowly through the crowded room, she finds Charles VII in the corner; Charles' three senior knights (the Duke of Alençon
, Gilles de Rais
and La Hire
) put their daggers to her throat. Joan tells Charles "I have a message from the King of Heaven for you, and you only", and in a private audience, explaining her visions, declares that she is to lead the French Army to victory against the English, and predicts that only then will he become the King of France.
The royal court, still reluctant to give Joan an army to command, wants additional proof that she has been sent by God. A specially appointed group of women first proceeds to verify her claim of maidenhood. The testing continues as they question whether her knowledge of warfare is good enough to command an army. To additional demands of extraordinary kinds of proof she replies that she did not come to perform tricks; the fact that she had travelled through enemy territory in her journey to Chinon without being killed should have sufficed.
Joan, clad in armour and equipped with a long white banner, leads the French army to the besieged city of Orléans
which was under the military command of Jean de Dunois
, the Bastard of Orleans. Joan arrives with her attendant Aulon and the senior knights the Duke of Alençon, Gilles de Rais and La Hire. Standing in front of a rough model of the city and its surroundings, Joan points to the Boulevard des Tourelles, suggesting an attack there. Dunois and the other senior knights say her plan is reckless and makes no sense, and Dunois even admits that they are not used to taking orders from a girl. An infuriated Joan slaps a chuckling La Hire, and, with the help of Aulon, cuts her hair short like a man's. She has a letter to the English transcribed politely requesting their surrender. The English Captain shouts out the response: "Go fuck yourself!"
The commanders show their skepticism of Joan's leadership by starting next morning's battle for the stockade at St. Loup without her. By the time she arrives on the battlefield, the French soldiers are already retreating. Furious with her soldiers' disobedience, she ends the retreat and leads her army into another charge. Her horse leaps into the fort and she lowers the drawbridge, allowing her army to rush inside and take it. Afterwards, the French salvage an English trebuchet
to the delight of the French knight Xaintrailles, who claims it as his own. With the fort taken, they find the Tourelles, a small but impressive stronghold commanded by Sir William Glasdale, that will be much more difficult to take. Joan gives the English another chance to surrender, which they refuse.
Dunois and the senior knights begin tactical planning in St. Augustins church, before the Tourelles fortifications. However, Joan hastily leads the French soldiers to the Tourelles where the prepared English defenders inflict heavy casualties on the French attackers. While climbing a ladder to the fort, Joan gets shot in the chest with an arrow. The siege is brought to a halt by the order of an enraged Dunois; Joan pulls out the embedded arrow herself and collapses. The seriousness of her wounds causes great concern within the French army. She rises before the troops the next morning, and to their delight, leads them in a second attack. An English siege tower falls and the drawbridge is broken, granting access to the outer fort. An improvised battering ram of a cart filled with logs is brought to bear on the great door of the inner fort. They break in; amid the slaughter of the final stand, Joan has another vision, this one of Jesus screaming and bleeding violently from the head. Joan feels conflicted with the victory, uneasy about all the deaths that took place. She even prevents an English prisoner from being executed.
The English army regroups on the other side of the river, and the French and English armies move to face each other on a large open grassy field. Joan rides alone towards the English and shouts out to them that this is their chance to surrender and return to England. English archers move forward, which prompts French archers to ready themselves. Mounted English knights then move forward, and then suddenly turn, and slowly ride away. The English infantry follow suit. Sir William Glasdale, aghast, is left with no choice but to retire from the field himself. The French cheer; Joan has freed Orléans.
Informed of the victory, the Duke of Bedford, regent
for the still underaged King Henry VI of England, says he wants Joan of Arc burned. Joan returns to Reims
to witness the solemn, splendid and emotional coronation of Charles VII of France. Her military campaigns continue to the walls of Paris
. Her 10,000 reinforcements never arrive, and the siege to take back the city is a failure. She tells King Charles VII to give her another army, but he wants her only to go home, explaining that he now prefers diplomacy over warfare to achieving France's aims and that her services are therefore no longer required. Convinced by Yolande of Aragon that Joan has become a political nuisance, Charles conspires to get rid of Joan by letting her get captured by enemy forces. She is taken prisoner by the pro-English Burgundians at Compiègne
. She briefly meets the Duke of Burgundy who sells her to the English.
When Joan is transferred to Rouen
, a French city still under English occupation, a mysterious bearded man in black robes and hood, dubbed "The Conscience" in the script, suddenly appears, and as suddenly vanishes, after questioning her visions, her motivations, and beliefs. Charged with the serious religious crime of heresy stemming from her dubious claim of receiving visions and signs from God, she appears in an ecclesiastical court proceeding that is clearly being forced upon the Christian church by the English occupational government. She refuses to take an oath, declaring it runs contrary to her beliefs. Her defiance causes uproar in the courtroom, and Pierre Cauchon
, the Bishop of Beauvais, decides that the case should be heard privately. The English tells Cauchon that the church must quickly condemn and execute Joan for heresy because English soldiers are afraid to fight while she remains alive. The Bishop demurs, expressing his concern about the possibility of wrongfully condemning and executing a Christian girl who might have truly received visions and signs from God.
Joan's "Conscience" appears in her cell and continues to question her. He shows her dramatizations of mundane circumstances leading to a sword appearing in a field, and then a miraculous evocation of a shining sword descending from the heavens to the strains of an invisible angelic choir and orchestra. Of all the possibilities, you chose this one, he says. About to be burned for heresy, Joan is distraught that she will be brought before God without having given her confession
, and the Bishop Cauchon plays upon this, requiring that she sign a written recantation of her visions and signs from God before he can hear her confession. The "Conscience" tells Joan that she has just signed away God's existence and that she has abandoned God. The relieved Bishop shows the signed written recantation to the English and tells them that Joan can no longer be burned as a heretic and that now only the English government, and not the Church, can turn her into a martyr.
The frustrated English devise another way to have Joan executed by the church instead of by them. English soldiers go into Joan's cell room, rip her clothes and give her men's clothing to wear. They tell Cauchon that she conjured a spell to make the new clothing appear, which suggests that she is an evil witch who must be burned immediately. Although suspecting that the English may have forced the new clothes on Joan, a disappointed Cauchon nonetheless abandons Joan to her fate, reneging on his promise to hear her confession. The "Conscience", however, offers to hear her last confession: her signs were only what she wanted to believe and were not sent by God; she had fought in the name of revenge for her sister's death; she admits that she had been selfish and cruel. Joan is slowly burned alive in the marketplace of Rouen.
The real Joan was executed on May 30, 1431 at only 19 years of age.
", and only few critics did not particularly feel one way or the other. However, Yahoo! Movies
writes regarding her role in The Messenger that "Jovovich received respectable reviews from impressed critics who were unable to fathom that the girl with the commanding screen presence came from the emotionally vacuous modeling world."
Rotten Tomatoes
gave the film a 36 percent freshness rating among T-meter critics, while its survey of top critics yielded only 5 percent positive reviews. Its consensus report is "The heavy-handed narrative collapses under its own weight."
Presenting a more weighted average, Metacritic
counts 54% of professional reviews rating the film favorably, citing the majority of reviews as being "mixed or average". Out of 33 professional reviews on display, 12 are positive, 18 mixed, and 3 negative.
s, one for Costume Design and one for Best Sound, and was further nominated for six more Césars for Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Film, Best Music Written for a Film, and Best Production Design.
The film further won two Lumiere Awards for Best Director and Best Film, was nominated for two Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards for Best Costume Design and Best Production Design, and won the Golden Reel Award
for Best Sound Editing.
The film's trailer was nominated for a Golden Trailer Awards
for Most Original Trailer. One Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Worst Actress for Milla Jovovich.
Luc Besson
Luc Besson is a French film director, writer, and producer. He is the creator of EuropaCorp film company. He has been involved with over 50 films, spanning 26 years, as writer, director, and/or producer.-Early life:...
. The screenplay was written by Besson and Andrew Birkin, and the original music score was composed by Éric Serra
Eric Serra
Éric Serra is a French composer. He has often worked on the movies of Luc Besson.- Biography :Éric Serra's father Claude was a famous French songwriter in the 1950s and '60s, and, as such, Éric was exposed to music and its production at a young age. His mother died when he was just seven years old...
.
The Messenger portrays the story of St. Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc
Saint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...
, the famous French war heroine of the 15th century and religious martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
, played by Milla Jovovich
Milla Jovovich
Milla Jovovich December 17, 1975)is an American model, actress, musician, and fashion designer. Over her career, she has appeared in a number of science fiction and action-themed films, for which music channel VH1 has referred to her as the "reigning queen of kick-butt".Milla Jovovich began...
. The story begins with young Joan witnessing the atrocities of the English against her family, following her through her visions, to her leadership in battle, through doubt (with Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
playing a character credited as "The Conscience"), and finally to her trial and execution.
Coincidentally, a miniseries, Joan of Arc, was made for television at the same time as Besson's film.
Plot
Joan, as a little girl, confesses her sins in church two or three times a day. The priest asks after her family; concluding all is well at home, he decides she is only unusually religious. She skips out of the church, glad to be forgiven by God and Jesus. Wandering away from her village, she has a somewhat violent and supernatural vision. She returns to find her village burning. Her sister, Catherine tries to protect her by hiding her inside a closet before the English arrive at their house. The Englishman sees Catherine and forces himself on her but she valiantly fights him off. Frustrated he takes out his sword and stabs her in her stomach, pinning her to the wall. Catherine's now lifeless body is further desecrated and raped repeatedly as Joan watches in horror. She survives the attack, and goes to live with her distant relatives; she confesses to the priest that she wants to forgive her enemies, as the Bible teaches, but she cannot.Many years later, at Chinon
Chinon
Chinon is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France well known for Château de Chinon.In the Middle Ages, Chinon developed especially during the reign of Henry II . The castle was rebuilt and extended, becoming one of his favorite residences...
, the Dauphin and soon to be King of France Charles VII
Charles VII of France
Charles VII , called the Victorious or the Well-Served , was King of France from 1422 to his death, though he was initially opposed by Henry VI of England, whose Regent, the Duke of Bedford, ruled much of France including the capital, Paris...
receives a message from Joan, requesting an army to lead into battle. Charles VII thinks he should let her come, but his advisors say she may be an assassin. The king's mother-in-law, Yolande of Aragon
Yolande of Aragon
Yolande of Aragon, , was a throne claimant and titular queen regnant of Aragon, titular queen consort of Naples, Duchess of Anjou, Countess of Provence, and regent of Provence during the minority of her son...
says Joan should be seen because the people believe she could save France from the English.
Joan arrives at Chinon, and right away Charles VII is warned again that she could be an assassin. Charles VII comes up with the plan to let someone else pretend to be him; that way if she is an assassin she will kill the wrong man, and if she is truly sent by God she will know who the real future king is. Joan stands before the throne, but tells the man sitting there, the young Jean d'Aulon, that he is a good man but is not Charles VII. The court chamberlain Trémoille, who had just earlier announced Jean d'Aulon falsely as Charles VII, tells her that the real Dauphin is among the crowd and to go pick him out by herself.
Walking slowly through the crowded room, she finds Charles VII in the corner; Charles' three senior knights (the Duke of Alençon
John II of Alençon
John II of Alençon was the son of John I of Alençon and Marie of Brittany. He succeeded his father as Duke of Alençon and Count of Perche as a minor in 1415, after the latter's death at the Battle of Agincourt.He saw action as a young man at the Battle of Verneuil on 17 August 1424, and was...
, Gilles de Rais
Gilles de Rais
Gilles de Montmorency-Laval , Baron de Rais, was a Breton knight, a leader in the French army and a companion-in-arms of Joan of Arc. He is best known as a prolific serial killer of children...
and La Hire
La Hire
Étienne de Vignolles, called La Hire, was a French military commander during the Hundred Years' War. His nickname of La Hire would be that the English had nicknamed "the Hire-God" . He fought alongside Joan of Arc in the campaigns of 1429...
) put their daggers to her throat. Joan tells Charles "I have a message from the King of Heaven for you, and you only", and in a private audience, explaining her visions, declares that she is to lead the French Army to victory against the English, and predicts that only then will he become the King of France.
The royal court, still reluctant to give Joan an army to command, wants additional proof that she has been sent by God. A specially appointed group of women first proceeds to verify her claim of maidenhood. The testing continues as they question whether her knowledge of warfare is good enough to command an army. To additional demands of extraordinary kinds of proof she replies that she did not come to perform tricks; the fact that she had travelled through enemy territory in her journey to Chinon without being killed should have sufficed.
Joan, clad in armour and equipped with a long white banner, leads the French army to the besieged city of Orléans
Orléans
-Prehistory and Roman:Cenabum was a Gallic stronghold, one of the principal towns of the Carnutes tribe where the Druids held their annual assembly. It was conquered and destroyed by Julius Caesar in 52 BC, then rebuilt under the Roman Empire...
which was under the military command of Jean de Dunois
Jean de Dunois
John of Orléans, Count of Dunois was the illegitimate son of Louis d'Orléans by Mariette d'Enghien.The term "Bastard of Orléans" John of Orléans, Count of Dunois (French born "Jean Levieux Valois des Orléans" better known as Jean d'Orléans, comte de Dunois, also known as John of Orléans and...
, the Bastard of Orleans. Joan arrives with her attendant Aulon and the senior knights the Duke of Alençon, Gilles de Rais and La Hire. Standing in front of a rough model of the city and its surroundings, Joan points to the Boulevard des Tourelles, suggesting an attack there. Dunois and the other senior knights say her plan is reckless and makes no sense, and Dunois even admits that they are not used to taking orders from a girl. An infuriated Joan slaps a chuckling La Hire, and, with the help of Aulon, cuts her hair short like a man's. She has a letter to the English transcribed politely requesting their surrender. The English Captain shouts out the response: "Go fuck yourself!"
The commanders show their skepticism of Joan's leadership by starting next morning's battle for the stockade at St. Loup without her. By the time she arrives on the battlefield, the French soldiers are already retreating. Furious with her soldiers' disobedience, she ends the retreat and leads her army into another charge. Her horse leaps into the fort and she lowers the drawbridge, allowing her army to rush inside and take it. Afterwards, the French salvage an English trebuchet
Trebuchet
A trebuchet is a siege engine that was employed in the Middle Ages. It is sometimes called a "counterweight trebuchet" or "counterpoise trebuchet" in order to distinguish it from an earlier weapon that has come to be called the "traction trebuchet", the original version with pulling men instead of...
to the delight of the French knight Xaintrailles, who claims it as his own. With the fort taken, they find the Tourelles, a small but impressive stronghold commanded by Sir William Glasdale, that will be much more difficult to take. Joan gives the English another chance to surrender, which they refuse.
Dunois and the senior knights begin tactical planning in St. Augustins church, before the Tourelles fortifications. However, Joan hastily leads the French soldiers to the Tourelles where the prepared English defenders inflict heavy casualties on the French attackers. While climbing a ladder to the fort, Joan gets shot in the chest with an arrow. The siege is brought to a halt by the order of an enraged Dunois; Joan pulls out the embedded arrow herself and collapses. The seriousness of her wounds causes great concern within the French army. She rises before the troops the next morning, and to their delight, leads them in a second attack. An English siege tower falls and the drawbridge is broken, granting access to the outer fort. An improvised battering ram of a cart filled with logs is brought to bear on the great door of the inner fort. They break in; amid the slaughter of the final stand, Joan has another vision, this one of Jesus screaming and bleeding violently from the head. Joan feels conflicted with the victory, uneasy about all the deaths that took place. She even prevents an English prisoner from being executed.
The English army regroups on the other side of the river, and the French and English armies move to face each other on a large open grassy field. Joan rides alone towards the English and shouts out to them that this is their chance to surrender and return to England. English archers move forward, which prompts French archers to ready themselves. Mounted English knights then move forward, and then suddenly turn, and slowly ride away. The English infantry follow suit. Sir William Glasdale, aghast, is left with no choice but to retire from the field himself. The French cheer; Joan has freed Orléans.
Informed of the victory, the Duke of Bedford, regent
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...
for the still underaged King Henry VI of England, says he wants Joan of Arc burned. Joan returns to Reims
Reims
Reims , a city in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France, lies east-northeast of Paris. Founded by the Gauls, it became a major city during the period of the Roman Empire....
to witness the solemn, splendid and emotional coronation of Charles VII of France. Her military campaigns continue to the walls of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. Her 10,000 reinforcements never arrive, and the siege to take back the city is a failure. She tells King Charles VII to give her another army, but he wants her only to go home, explaining that he now prefers diplomacy over warfare to achieving France's aims and that her services are therefore no longer required. Convinced by Yolande of Aragon that Joan has become a political nuisance, Charles conspires to get rid of Joan by letting her get captured by enemy forces. She is taken prisoner by the pro-English Burgundians at Compiègne
Compiègne
Compiègne is a city in northern France. It is designated municipally as a commune within the département of Oise.The city is located along the Oise River...
. She briefly meets the Duke of Burgundy who sells her to the English.
When Joan is transferred to Rouen
Rouen
Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
, a French city still under English occupation, a mysterious bearded man in black robes and hood, dubbed "The Conscience" in the script, suddenly appears, and as suddenly vanishes, after questioning her visions, her motivations, and beliefs. Charged with the serious religious crime of heresy stemming from her dubious claim of receiving visions and signs from God, she appears in an ecclesiastical court proceeding that is clearly being forced upon the Christian church by the English occupational government. She refuses to take an oath, declaring it runs contrary to her beliefs. Her defiance causes uproar in the courtroom, and Pierre Cauchon
Pierre Cauchon
Pierre Cauchon , bishop of Beauvais. A strong partisan of English interests in France during the latter years of the Hundred Years' War, his role in arranging Joan of Arc's downfall led most subsequent observers to condemn his extension of secular politics into an ecclesiastical trial...
, the Bishop of Beauvais, decides that the case should be heard privately. The English tells Cauchon that the church must quickly condemn and execute Joan for heresy because English soldiers are afraid to fight while she remains alive. The Bishop demurs, expressing his concern about the possibility of wrongfully condemning and executing a Christian girl who might have truly received visions and signs from God.
Joan's "Conscience" appears in her cell and continues to question her. He shows her dramatizations of mundane circumstances leading to a sword appearing in a field, and then a miraculous evocation of a shining sword descending from the heavens to the strains of an invisible angelic choir and orchestra. Of all the possibilities, you chose this one, he says. About to be burned for heresy, Joan is distraught that she will be brought before God without having given her confession
Confession
This article is for the religious practice of confessing one's sins.Confession is the acknowledgment of sin or wrongs...
, and the Bishop Cauchon plays upon this, requiring that she sign a written recantation of her visions and signs from God before he can hear her confession. The "Conscience" tells Joan that she has just signed away God's existence and that she has abandoned God. The relieved Bishop shows the signed written recantation to the English and tells them that Joan can no longer be burned as a heretic and that now only the English government, and not the Church, can turn her into a martyr.
The frustrated English devise another way to have Joan executed by the church instead of by them. English soldiers go into Joan's cell room, rip her clothes and give her men's clothing to wear. They tell Cauchon that she conjured a spell to make the new clothing appear, which suggests that she is an evil witch who must be burned immediately. Although suspecting that the English may have forced the new clothes on Joan, a disappointed Cauchon nonetheless abandons Joan to her fate, reneging on his promise to hear her confession. The "Conscience", however, offers to hear her last confession: her signs were only what she wanted to believe and were not sent by God; she had fought in the name of revenge for her sister's death; she admits that she had been selfish and cruel. Joan is slowly burned alive in the marketplace of Rouen.
The real Joan was executed on May 30, 1431 at only 19 years of age.
Cast
- Milla JovovichMilla JovovichMilla Jovovich December 17, 1975)is an American model, actress, musician, and fashion designer. Over her career, she has appeared in a number of science fiction and action-themed films, for which music channel VH1 has referred to her as the "reigning queen of kick-butt".Milla Jovovich began...
- Joan of ArcJoan of ArcSaint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the... - Dustin HoffmanDustin HoffmanDustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
- The Conscience - Faye DunawayFaye DunawayFaye Dunaway is an American actress.Dunaway won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Network after receiving previous nominations for the critically acclaimed films Bonnie and Clyde and Chinatown...
- Yolande of AragonYolande of AragonYolande of Aragon, , was a throne claimant and titular queen regnant of Aragon, titular queen consort of Naples, Duchess of Anjou, Countess of Provence, and regent of Provence during the minority of her son... - John MalkovichJohn MalkovichJohn Gavin Malkovich is an American actor, producer, director and fashion designer with his label Technobohemian. Over the last 25 years of his career, Malkovich has appeared in more than 70 motion pictures. For his roles in Places in the Heart and In the Line of Fire, he received Academy Award...
- Charles VII of FranceCharles VII of FranceCharles VII , called the Victorious or the Well-Served , was King of France from 1422 to his death, though he was initially opposed by Henry VI of England, whose Regent, the Duke of Bedford, ruled much of France including the capital, Paris... - Tchéky KaryoTchéky Karyo-Early life:Karyo was born in Istanbul to a Greek mother and Sephardic-Jewish father and raised in Paris, France. He studied drama at the Cyrano Theatre and later became a member of the Daniel Sorano Company, playing many classical roles.-Career:...
- Jean de DunoisJean de DunoisJohn of Orléans, Count of Dunois was the illegitimate son of Louis d'Orléans by Mariette d'Enghien.The term "Bastard of Orléans" John of Orléans, Count of Dunois (French born "Jean Levieux Valois des Orléans" better known as Jean d'Orléans, comte de Dunois, also known as John of Orléans and... - Vincent CasselVincent CasselVincent Cassel is a Cesar award winning French actor probably best known to English-speaking audiences through his performances in the Ocean's Trilogy of films and Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan.-Personal life:...
- Gilles de RaisGilles de RaisGilles de Montmorency-Laval , Baron de Rais, was a Breton knight, a leader in the French army and a companion-in-arms of Joan of Arc. He is best known as a prolific serial killer of children... - Pascal GreggoryPascal Greggory-Filmography:* Les Soeurs Brontë by André Téchiné* Catherine de Heilbronn by Éric Rohmer* Pauline à la plage by Éric Rohmer* Le trio en si bémol by Éric Rohmer...
- John II, Duke of AlençonJohn II of AlençonJohn II of Alençon was the son of John I of Alençon and Marie of Brittany. He succeeded his father as Duke of Alençon and Count of Perche as a minor in 1415, after the latter's death at the Battle of Agincourt.He saw action as a young man at the Battle of Verneuil on 17 August 1424, and was... - Richard RidingsRichard RidingsRichard Ridings is a British actor and is best known for his portrayal of Allan Ashburn in the ITV television drama Fat Friends, and for playing Bernard Green in the BBC1 comedy-drama Common as Muck. He trained as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.Ridings was born in...
- La HireLa HireÉtienne de Vignolles, called La Hire, was a French military commander during the Hundred Years' War. His nickname of La Hire would be that the English had nicknamed "the Hire-God" . He fought alongside Joan of Arc in the campaigns of 1429... - Desmond HarringtonDesmond HarringtonDesmond Harrington is an American actor. He is known for movies such as The Hole, Wrong Turn and Ghost Ship. He joined the cast of the Showtime series Dexter in its third season as Det. Joseph Quinn.-Life and career:...
- Jean d'AulonJean d'AulonJean d'Aulon served as Joan of Arc's bodyguard, a position which is often attributed to Gilles De Rais. He served as her squire, or bursar, and was captured at the same time she was. Despite this, he managed to survive, to die in September, 1458.... - Timothy WestTimothy WestTimothy Lancaster West, CBE is an English film, stage and television actor.-Career:West's craggy looks ensured a career as a character actor rather than a leading man. He began his career as an Assistant Stage Manager at the Wimbledon Theatre in 1956, and followed this with several seasons of...
- Pierre CauchonPierre CauchonPierre Cauchon , bishop of Beauvais. A strong partisan of English interests in France during the latter years of the Hundred Years' War, his role in arranging Joan of Arc's downfall led most subsequent observers to condemn his extension of secular politics into an ecclesiastical trial... - Rab Affleck - Comrade
- Stéphane Algoud - Lookout
- Edwin Apps - Bishop
- David BailieDavid BailieDavid Bailie is a British actor, known for his performances on stage, television and film. In the '60s and '70s he worked for both the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he was an associate artist. On TV he played "Dask" in the 1977 Doctor Who serial The Robots of Death, and...
, David BarberDavid BarberDavid Barber is a British television actor, known for his numerous roles in ChuckleVision.- Filmography :*ChuckleVision*Steel River Blues*Merseybeat*The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc *Harry Enfield and Chums...
, Brian PoyserBrian PoyserBrian Poyser is an English actor whose career started in the early 1960s. His appearances include the musical Poppy, the BBC Television Shakespeare , the series Sex, Chips & Rock n' Roll, an episode of Agatha Christie's Poirot, and as the recurring character the Revd Aubrey Stewart in two...
and Dominic Borrelli - English Judges - Christian Barbier and Christian Bergner - Captains
- Andrew Birkin - John TalbotJohn Talbot, 1st Earl of ShrewsburyJohn Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury and 1st Earl of Waterford KG , known as "Old Talbot" was an important English military commander during the Hundred Years' War, as well as the only Lancastrian Constable of France.-Origins:He was descended from Richard Talbot, a tenant in 1086 of Walter Giffard...
- John BoswallJohn BoswallJohn Boswall was a British actor probably best known for playing Wyvern in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest....
- Old Priest
Critical response
Reviews were mixed. While director Luc Besson's and director of photography Thierry Arbogast's cinematography itself was mostly praised in terms such as "brilliant", "beautiful", "eye-filling", "stylish", and "breathtaking", the performance by Milla Jovovich, the level of violence in the battle scenes, modern language used in dialogues, and historical accuracy were the most common topics discussed negatively. Jovovich's performance was a particularly hot topic, earning her a Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Worst Actress, with the majority of reviewers regarding it as hysterical caricature, while a minority felt particularly moved by its "intensity" in portraying "a radical zealot like John BrownJohn Brown
John Brown may refer to:* John Brown , American who led an anti-slavery revolt in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859* John Brown , Scottish physician who taught that disease was caused by either excessive or inadequate stimulationJohn Brown may also refer to:- American :* John Y. Brown, Sr. , U.S...
", and only few critics did not particularly feel one way or the other. However, Yahoo! Movies
Yahoo! Movies
Yahoo! Movies , provided by the Yahoo! network, is home to a large collection of information on movies, past and new releases, trailers and clips, box office information, and showtimes and movie theater information. Yahoo! Movies also includes red carpet photos, actor galleries, and production...
writes regarding her role in The Messenger that "Jovovich received respectable reviews from impressed critics who were unable to fathom that the girl with the commanding screen presence came from the emotionally vacuous modeling world."
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
gave the film a 36 percent freshness rating among T-meter critics, while its survey of top critics yielded only 5 percent positive reviews. Its consensus report is "The heavy-handed narrative collapses under its own weight."
Presenting a more weighted average, Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
counts 54% of professional reviews rating the film favorably, citing the majority of reviews as being "mixed or average". Out of 33 professional reviews on display, 12 are positive, 18 mixed, and 3 negative.
Box office
The film grossed $14,276,317 in the USA, plus $66,976,317 worldwide, with the combined gross of close to $80 million if not creating a profit came near to its production cost of c. $81 million (390 million Francs).Awards
The Messenger won two César AwardCésar Award
The César Award is the national film award of France, first given out in 1975. The nominations are selected by the members of the Académie des arts et techniques du cinéma....
s, one for Costume Design and one for Best Sound, and was further nominated for six more Césars for Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Film, Best Music Written for a Film, and Best Production Design.
The film further won two Lumiere Awards for Best Director and Best Film, was nominated for two Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards for Best Costume Design and Best Production Design, and won the Golden Reel Award
Golden Reel Award
Golden Reel Award may refer to:* Golden Reel Award , presented by the Genie Awards to high-grossing Canadian films...
for Best Sound Editing.
The film's trailer was nominated for a Golden Trailer Awards
Golden Trailer Awards
The Golden Trailer Awards is an annual awards show that honors achievements in motion picture marketing, including film trailers, posters and television advertisements.- Overview :...
for Most Original Trailer. One Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Worst Actress for Milla Jovovich.