Movie Review: Joan of Arc

The 1948 version of Joan of Arc with Ingrid Bergman is an excellent movie, and is also pretty family-friendly. I admire 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 France. 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.