5/10
Under-funded and over-ambition Part 2
29 November 2010
What I said regarding Part 1 is still irrelevant for Part 2. Both films lack the ability of conveying the magnitude of events in France at that period. The relief of Orleans is said to have been an engagement involving around 15,000 soldiers but at no time do you feel it is more than a skirmish. When Joan, with a half-dozen soldiers in support, shouts up at the walls of Paris for its surrender I can only surmise that arrows were shot at her because no rotten fruit was available! Yes I know she probably had an army behind her but that's not the impression the viewer gets. Such events as heroic leaders leading mass armies into battle may have been clichéd by films like El Cid but they still stir the spirit. This film never does. The war of words that follow with her imprisonment and trial by the English lacked any intellectual substance. Interestingly the film does not portray the English as the villains.This is reserved for the duplicitous French noblemen. France created St.Joan and clearly accepts the blame for her demise which is the only message this film conveys.
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