Western Civilization_ Volume B_ 1300 to 1815 - Jackson J. Spielvogel [38]
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FILM & HISTORY
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Joan of Arc (1948)
The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999)
Joan of Arc is one of history’s best-known figures. Already by the time of her death she was a heroine, and in the nineteenth century, the French made her into an early nationalist. The Catholic Church recognized her as a saint in 1920, and a dozen films have been made about her short life. Born into a peasant family in Domrémy, France, Joan believed that, beginning at age thirteen, she had heard the voices of Saints Michael, Catherine, and Margaret telling her that she would play an important role in the liberation of France from the English invaders. Joan made her way to the court of the dauphin, the heir to the French throne, who agreed to let her accompany the royal army to Orléans, where she supposedly played a major role in the liberation of the city. In keeping with her prophecies, she then accompanied the dauphin to Reims, where he was crowned as King Charles VII. Although the king sought to end the war by negotiation, Joan continued to fight until she was captured by the Burgundians, allies of the English. Sold to the English, she was put on trial as a heretic in a French ecclesiastical court dominated by the English. Worn out by questioning, she renounced her voices but shortly afterward recanted and reaffirmed them. The English authorities then burned her at the stake as a relapsed heretic. Historians agree on many facts about Joan but differ in interpreting them; so too do movie producers.
Joan (Ingrid Bergman) prepares for battle.
Sierra Pictures/The Kobal Collection
Based on a play by Maxwell Anderson, the 1948 film version of Joan’s story was directed by Victor Fleming. The movie follows the main historical facts that are known about Joan (Ingrid Bergman). Joan’s voices are accepted as an important part of a spiritually determined young woman: “What I am commanded to do, I do.” The film does deviate at times from the historical record: one member of the ecclesiastical court is shown opposing the trial, which did not happen. The dauphin ( José Ferrer) is presented as a weak individual who nevertheless accepts Joan’s offer of help. The movie ends in typical Hollywood fashion with a dramatic burning at the stake as Joan dies in a glorious blaze of heavenly sunbeams: “My victory is my martyrdom,” she proclaims at the end.
Joan (Milia Jovovich) rides into battle.
Gaumont/ The Kobal Collection/Jack English
The Messenger, directed by Luc Besson, presents a more contemporary and fictionalized approach to Joan (Milia Jovovich). The brutality of war is rendered in realistically bloody detail. Joan’s early life is reworked for the sake of the movie’s theme. The movie introduces revenge as a possible motive by having Joan witness the rape and murder of her sister by an English mercenary—she must kill the English to avenge her sister’s death. After this traumatic incident, her voices become more strident—God needs her for a higher calling and she must answer that call. Joan becomes both a divinely and a madly driven person. Joan convinces the dauphin (John Malkovich) to support her, but after he is crowned, he is quite willing to have her captured by the enemy to get rid of her. After her capture, Joan is put on trial, which is one of the most accurate sequences of the film. But in another flight of fancy, the movie shows Joan wrestling mentally with a figure (Dustin Hoffman) who acts as her conscience. She is brought to the horrible recognition that maybe she did not fight for God, but “I fought out of revenge and despair.” Besson raises issues that he does not resolve. Was Joan possibly mentally retarded or even insane? Were her visions a calling from God or a figment of her active imagination? Was she a devout, God-driven