Joan of Arc in Film: History, Gender, and Single Story
This paper examines the 1999 film The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc through multiple critical lenses. It compares the film's portrayal of Joan — depicted as erratic, hysterical, and quasi-psychotic — against historical accounts of a composed, faithful, and strategically gifted leader. The paper explores how Joan's message would resonate in contemporary debates over women in combat roles, analyzes the significance of her choice to wear male attire, and applies Chimamanda Adichie's "Danger of a Single Story" framework to argue that reductive, single-perspective narratives distort complex historical figures. Drawing on feminist scholarship, film criticism, and medieval religious history, the paper calls for more nuanced and multi-sourced representations of Joan of Arc.
- Joan of Arc and the Challenge of Charismatic Leadership: Leadership framing and Joan's historical recruitment of soldiers
- The Messenger's Distorted Portrayal of Joan: Film misrepresents Joan as erratic and spiritually ambiguous
- Joan's Relevance to Contemporary Women's Issues: Joan as model for women in modern combat roles
- Cross-Dressing, Evidence, and Historical Misinterpretation: Joan's male attire misread through incomplete evidence
- The Movie vs. Historical Sources: A Comparison: Detailed comparison of film depiction and historical record
- The Danger of a Single Story Applied to Joan of Arc: Adichie's framework applied to Joan's legacy and representation
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What makes this paper effective
- Grounds film criticism in specific historical evidence — citing trial records, witness testimony, and scholarly sources — to build a credible counter-narrative to the movie's depiction.
- Moves fluidly across disciplines (history, gender studies, media theory, film criticism) while keeping Joan of Arc as the consistent focal point.
- Applies Adichie's "Danger of a Single Story" as an organizing theoretical lens, connecting medieval history to a contemporary concern about narrative power and representation.
- Uses Federman's media theory to introduce a broader point about how cultural messages evolve, adding intellectual range without losing focus.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper models comparative analysis: it systematically places the film's specific scenes and characterizations alongside documented historical accounts and scholarly interpretations, identifying precise contradictions rather than making vague claims about inaccuracy. This move — from evidence in the film to counter-evidence in the historical record — is the engine of the argument throughout.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with leadership theory as a framing device before pivoting to a close critique of The Messenger's misrepresentation of Joan. It then widens the lens to consider Joan's contemporary relevance (women in combat), her controversial cross-dressing, a consolidated film-versus-history comparison, and finally applies Adichie's framework to situate the entire discussion within the politics of historical storytelling. Each section builds on the previous one, moving from the specific (the film) to the conceptual (narrative power).
Joan of Arc and the Challenge of Charismatic Leadership
During the Middle Ages, people were taught about leadership primarily through the biographies of great men. Irrespective of the number of mathematical models produced, the discipline must accommodate inspirational accounts of ideal leaders alongside cautionary tales of those who failed. Since Joan of Arc astonishingly recruited French soldiers to join her in battle, the world has repeatedly yielded to charismatic and outsized leaders (Bennis, 2007). A key idea revealed in the film is that the era may have been far more lurid and frenzied than one might imagine. Nothing occurs slowly, despite the tempo often feeling tedious. Joan is initially portrayed as a maniacally cheerful child, capering so merrily through fields that the sheep are frightened (Maslin, 1999).
The Messenger's Distorted Portrayal of Joan
The Messenger (with Milla Jovovich in the lead role) renders a disturbing and distorted image of Joan, inconsistent with the historical record, which describes her as a solid, forceful, and rational peasant girl. She won over soldiers through her powerful faith and earnestness. Her trial before the English demonstrates her piousness, wisdom, and simplicity. More than two decades later, during a trial revision, every witness was eager to pay tribute to Joan's supernatural abilities and virtues. This historical personality stands in complete contrast to how she is portrayed in the film.
The Messenger depicts Joan as a conscientious psychopath suffering from an advanced illness, rather than as the angelic Maid of Lorraine. She is uneasy, hysterical, and harsh in her commands. Her behavior is spastic and erratic, and her on-screen representation shows no natural grace or charm. She is even, at times, shown screaming uncontrollably (Horvat, n.d.).
This appears to be an effect of the occultist mysticism underpinning the entire film. Throughout The Messenger, Joan's "revelations" are accompanied by a tempestuous and horrific atmosphere and unsettling new-age background music, making audiences fearful that something terrible is about to occur. The ambience closely resembles that of horror films, in which evil figures such as ghosts and devils appear. It is never established who the strange "voices" belong to, hinting that Joan has been affected by delusion or a personal demon. History, however, explicitly states that Joan declared at the close of her trial that the voices she heard belonged to St. Michael, St. Margaret, and St. Catherine. The Messenger fails to mention any of these names (Horvat, n.d.).
Joan's Relevance to Contemporary Women's Issues
Joan's impact did not perish with her — she left an enduring mark that continues to influence debates around women's issues. Were Joan to exist in contemporary society, she would likely engage with the subject of women's exclusion from U.S. Army combat roles. Joan of Arc represents a powerful example of how women are capable of handling such responsibilities; she demonstrated, during the Hundred Years' War, the capacity of women to lead in combat. Though the subject of women bearing arms was controversial in her own time as well, Joan dressed in men's attire to navigate that reality. In modern society, such a step would not be strictly necessary, as women are increasingly being recruited into the military; nonetheless, Joan would have been keenly invested in ensuring that women assume a fully equal combative role (Joan of Arc, n.d.).
References
Adichie, C. (n.d.). Danger of a Single Story.
Barstow, A. L. (1985). Joan of Arc and female mysticism. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 29–42.
Bennis, W. (2007). The challenges of leadership in the modern world. American Psychological Association, 2–5.
Federman, M. (2004). What is the meaning of the medium is the message. Retrieved from
HAJAS. (2006). Primary sources and context concerning Joan of Arc's male clothing. Historical Academy (Association) for Joan of Arc Studies.
Horvat, M. T. (n.d.). A distorted view of the Maid of Orleans. Retrieved from Tradition in Action: http://www.traditioninaction.org/movies/002mr.htm
Joan of Arc. (n.d.). Retrieved from Joanofarcresume.wordpress: https://joanofarcresume.wordpress.com/about/
Maslin, J. (1999, November 12). The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999). Retrieved from NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=980CE3D91F3AF931A25752C1A96F958260
Sowards, J. K. (1994). Makers of the Western tradition. New York: St. Martin's.
Tunzelmann, A. v. (2011, December 15). Why did Luc Besson turn Joan of Arc into an irritating brat? Retrieved from The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/dec/15/luc-besson-joan-of-arc
Yee, C. (2015, February 02). Review: Chimamanda Adichie's "Danger of a Single Story." Retrieved from Borgen Project: http://borgenproject.org/review-chimamanda-adichies-danger-of-a-single-story/
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