Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, The

RATING: R STARRING: Milla Jovovich, Dustin Hoffman, John Malkovich and Faye Dunaway DIRECTOR: Luc Besson DISTRIBUTOR: Columbia Pictures GENRE: Biography INTENDED AUDIENCE: Adults

SUMMARY: In The Messenger The Story of Joan of Arc, the famous historical figure, Joan of Arc, battles the English soldiers who took over Northern France in the 1400s. After much success, allegedly led by visions and voices from God, Joan is captured by some collaborators, who turn bar over to the English authorities. Religious leaders get her to confess that her visions and voices were a deception from Satan, but they burn her at the stake anyway.

This French-American co-production is one of the strongest secular humanist movies made in recent years. Ifs also one of the silliest Only its production qualities save it from being a complete disaster The most egregious error is that it takes a secular humanist approach to Joan's famous visions and voices from God. ft also distorts the historical record regarding the nature of those alleged visions to support its anti-Christian biases. The character of Joan is so ill-mannered, neurotic and even hysterical in this movie that it's hard to believe that anyone would place their trust in such a quirky leader. The Messenger is also filled with unnecessarily graphic war violence, including a violent rape scene that never took place.

CONTENT: Humanist worldview, with revisionist history, a strong anti-Christian ending, New Age spiritual experiences, and a smattering of Christian content 11 obscenities and 4 profanities; extreme graphic war violence including arms and heads chopped off, depicted rape scene; no nudity; some alcohol use (wine); no smoking, and betrayal.

The true story of Joan of Arc has yet to be made. There's a great movie in this material somewhere. All it needs is a filmmaker with integrity and talent to deal honestly with the spirit of the historical record, instead of distorting that record by applying -his own modem assumptions and prejudices about a fascinating age.

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Nov 19, 1999
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