We all know the story, the history and all that. This movie is not really that story that we know. For some reason they decided to put a kid as the lead, and i am trying to figure out why. Now, the french are a little obsessed with their jean of arc. There are several movies that depict her story and some are better than others. This one is an oddball. It reminds me of a weird movie whose name i cannot recall but it was equally horrible. There is an artistic style or so id like to think, of using kids to depict stories. There are several movies like that i've come across.
Now does it work. No, usually it does not and neither does it work here. Joan was young yes but also not a child (in medieval society she was well an adult at 19 when she died) and she was quite savage on the battlefield and extremely religiously devout; way above cult level. This movie takes this away. There is no battlefield, no gore, no fighting no religion. The only scenes of something like that are her standing with a 5" prop sword in some sand dunes getting captured and we are done with all that. Fast forward to the trial.
The movie is about the trial, her trial and that is where it bogs down badly. The cast is not good. I am not a native speaker but i can still sense the forced speech and wooden delivery. The decor is not authentic.. it is too clean, too low budget, really reminds me of a school play. The real trial is quite well documented and it was quite a fiasco. They literally executed a national hero over a power struggle with the church on convenience charges. It is difficult to imagine how you could mess that up; the script literally writes itself off any history book! Instead, the made up their own story. Everything is so shallow so calm so mundane.
For a movie that wants to go into Joans convictions and beliefs and her commitment to those, it really does not deliver there. I do not care about her as presented. It does not capture the viewer, but rather bores it to an absolute state of coma. There is overuse of drawn out face zoom scenes, starring into the abyss scenes and random dudes in C grade medieval outfits standing or walking about with no impact to the story. It is not filler even, they tried to show something but did not achieve what they were hoping to do. If joan was not in the title, you cannot tell this was a movie about her. That's how bad they gutted her.
The ending is equally flat, the final conversation between her and her handler (he might have been a priest but it is hard to tell; a wooden doll could have acted better) and guards had me reaching for the coffee bottle just to stay awake until the credits. The final scene was a total relief. It is over. This footage is over. Saved by the credits.
Mundane, wooden and dazed. You take the best parts of Joan, remove them, bury the movie in some horrible flat trial with horrible dialogue and bad acting, have a totally flat and emotionless ending and you get this movie.
3/10.
Now does it work. No, usually it does not and neither does it work here. Joan was young yes but also not a child (in medieval society she was well an adult at 19 when she died) and she was quite savage on the battlefield and extremely religiously devout; way above cult level. This movie takes this away. There is no battlefield, no gore, no fighting no religion. The only scenes of something like that are her standing with a 5" prop sword in some sand dunes getting captured and we are done with all that. Fast forward to the trial.
The movie is about the trial, her trial and that is where it bogs down badly. The cast is not good. I am not a native speaker but i can still sense the forced speech and wooden delivery. The decor is not authentic.. it is too clean, too low budget, really reminds me of a school play. The real trial is quite well documented and it was quite a fiasco. They literally executed a national hero over a power struggle with the church on convenience charges. It is difficult to imagine how you could mess that up; the script literally writes itself off any history book! Instead, the made up their own story. Everything is so shallow so calm so mundane.
For a movie that wants to go into Joans convictions and beliefs and her commitment to those, it really does not deliver there. I do not care about her as presented. It does not capture the viewer, but rather bores it to an absolute state of coma. There is overuse of drawn out face zoom scenes, starring into the abyss scenes and random dudes in C grade medieval outfits standing or walking about with no impact to the story. It is not filler even, they tried to show something but did not achieve what they were hoping to do. If joan was not in the title, you cannot tell this was a movie about her. That's how bad they gutted her.
The ending is equally flat, the final conversation between her and her handler (he might have been a priest but it is hard to tell; a wooden doll could have acted better) and guards had me reaching for the coffee bottle just to stay awake until the credits. The final scene was a total relief. It is over. This footage is over. Saved by the credits.
Mundane, wooden and dazed. You take the best parts of Joan, remove them, bury the movie in some horrible flat trial with horrible dialogue and bad acting, have a totally flat and emotionless ending and you get this movie.
3/10.