Steineded How sad is this?

Hulkeasexo it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Bluebell Alcock Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Stephanie Schell The 1948 version of Joan of Arc with Ingrid Bergman is an excellent movie, and is also pretty family-friendly. I ire Ingrid Bergman's great acting abilities. She can cry on cue, and shows great emotion at every moment she is focused on. Joan is a fourteen year old girl who is hearing voices from Heaven. She is supposed to lead God's Army against Orleans and crown the Dauphin, Charles VII, as King of . She does succeed in conquering Orleans. When her army prepares to march against Paris, King Charles sells his country to England. Unfortunately, Joan is then arrested, sold, and subjected to horrible trials that are political, though she is accused of being a heretic and a witch. She was only doing the will of God.There were a couple of faults in this movie. For example, Joan's hair should have grown if she was really on trial for five months. Also, some of the Latin words during the coronation ceremony were mispronounced.The film elements were appropriately simple. The camera followed the action, which usually had Joan at the forefront. There was very little blood shown, and there was nothing too graphic, even when Joan was burned at the stake. Extreme closeups of Joan's face were effective in displaying her emotions. Wide shots were employed to show the action scenes. I liked that the movie was in color, as opposed to many movies made in the 1940s that were black and white.Watch this for a refreshing, holy, and inspiring film for the whole family to take in.

moonspinner55 Director Victor Fleming's final film, an independently-produced adaptation of Maxwell Anderson's play "Joan of Lorraine", with Ingrid Bergman reprising her stage role as Joan of Arc, the Maid or Orleans. The opening shots--with chiming bells, rows of tall candles, and a painted shaft of light coming down on the basilica--coupled with a heavy narration and heavenly choir telegraphs the audience in no uncertain what they're in for. Our French heroine, a fifteenth-century farmer's daughter who receives Divine Word from God that she is to save by leading the Dauphin's army against the English, is a wonderful character for an actress to portray, yet Bergman doesn't do anything but make speeches in a fevered monotone. She approaches the role as a duty, and we can't read any mystery in her face because Fleming's direction (and his handling of Ingrid overall) is far too straightforward. The thinking seems to be that the ornate costumes (which won an Oscar) and the background detail will carry the star, but Bergman isn't even convincing in the earliest scenes, praying at a shrine which seems to be set up in the woods. The Technicolor process is rather poor, while the action sequences are noisy and perfunctory. Heavily tampered with for its general release in 1950, the picture was cut from 145 minutes down to 100 minutes (this review is based upon the latter). "Joan of Arc" has an appropriately moral tone and solemn air, but it forgets to be cinematically exciting while recounting history. ** from ****

locksley69 1948's "Joan of Arc" is disturbing to many people who see it now because it is not ashamed of depicting the Catholic Faith by downplaying the significance of Christianity in the daily lives of the people, high and low born alike.Later versions such as the yawn-producing milquetoast CBS miniseries of 1999 starring Lee Lee Sobieski (convinced by her production team that Joan was no saint but only a schizophrenic political pawn) and the horrendously rotten version that came out the same year "The Messenger". In that film Milla Jovovich played Joan AS an imbecilic madwoman through the conniving of her estranged husband Luc Besson to successfully destroy her career.Victor Fleming takes Joan's story at face value, directing Bergman in her portrayal to respect Joan as a true and virtuous soul, using direct quotes from the trial records. Rivalling Miss Bergman's portrayal of innocent sanctity is the magnificently obese Franis L. Sullivan as Pierre Cauchon (in English "Peter Pig"), count-bishop of Beauvais, an utterly worldly prelate who is bent on serving the secular power more than the spiritual order he is supposed to represent. His title "count-bishop" brings into sharp focus the dictum of Christ that no man can serve two masters. Because he is aligned with England as a count, Cauchon had to flee his diocese of Beauvais as Joan's army approached. Cauchon seeks revenge for such a humiliation.There is a certain staginess to this production betraying its origins as a Broadway play written by Maxwell Anderson. Once the viewer understands that fact the willing suspension of disbelief should set iin so that this motion picture may be enjoyed for its story rather any technicalities."Joan of Arc" sets the purity of Catholic teachings against the evil actions of men who pervert those teachings to bring about selfish ends. We see also that the pope, in this case Martin V, had little or no knowledge about what was going on in Rouen, the town in which Joan was tried. The film also makes plain that Joan's appeals to the pope were utterly suspensive but were overruled by the English-paid court of clerics trying her.Joan of Arc, a young woman who was given a divine mission, proving yet another dictum of Christ's. Some people find it odd, in fact an affront to God, that someone would assert that God is on "her side". They forget that God is always on the side of justice. Wherever injustice appears in human dealings, God is against it. It is the duty of a true Christian to fight any injustice against his neighbor, indeed, to give his life for his friends to save their lives or their souls at the expense of his own.This is what Jesus did. Joan humbly followed in her Master's footsteps.

Andrew Schoneberg A very poor film translation of a stage play--rather than being tailored to the movie medium, this is very stagy, overly talky. The dialogue is arty and artificial. Everyone is obviously acting, giving a performance, though Bergman is radiant and her performance is ionate and sincere.All of the exteriors (outdoor shots) which feature close ups of the lead actors are obviously shot on a sound stage. Some beautiful outdoor footage is used occasionally for establishing shots or transitions between scenes, but Bergman never leaves the soundstage. On the positive side, the film is beautifully photographed, many individual shots are works of art, masterfully lit and composed. However, the camera moves only when necessary to follow the actors, the shots are static, adding to the staginess of the production. Which reminds me of CB DeMille; you could get a good idea of this film by saying it's like a DeMille film, only with more high art pretensions and less spectacle (no cast of thousands here).The most outstanding aspect of 'Joan of Arc' is the music, it's prominently featured, good and loud, and it deserves to be--it's gorgeous. The DVD has no extras at all, though the image and sound are excellent--a very good restoration job. A commentary track would have been very welcome; my guess is this was a challenging production, possibly with a long production period (three cinematographers are listed). It was a commercial failure, at least in part because of public condemnation of Bergman's personal life. I believe director Victor Flemming died soon after production. Lots of meat here for an interesting commentary or two.