Customer Reviews

Joan of Arc [VHS]

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

For my birthday I received the new DVD of Victor Fleming's 1948 Technicolor production of "Joan of Arc" starring the ever radiant Ingrid Bergman. Image produced the DVD and the UCLA film archive spent years restoring the film and putting in all the footage trimmed from its original 146 minute release. Many of us saw a shortened and doctored print of this film on television growing up. I did not know than that the film had not only been cut down, but additional footage, including the maps showing Joan's journey had actually been added along the way. This edited version was released on VHS by Sterling Video and on Laserdisc by VidAmerica. Both editions have been unavailable for some time. I managed to rent the Laserdisc after reading another review that said it featured the "shorter version". It corresponded to what I remembered watching on TV so it dawned on me that I had never seen the entire film. I assumed the rest was probably lost and I never would, but thanks to the painstaking efforts of the UCLA film archive with help from the Motion Picture Academy, private collecters and even (according to the insert) a film museum in the Netherlands, we have the complete film magnificently restored. Ingrid Bergman turns in a wonderful perfomance along with Jose Ferrer, Cecil Kellaway and host of other well known faces from that time. George Zucco even has a small part as captain of a border guard and for once does not play a heavy. Ingrid Bergman caught some flak at the time for playing against type herself as her own personal life came under scrutiny. Despite this she was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award. The film won three Oscars including a special award to producer Walter Wanger, Cinematography and Costume Design. It was also nominated for Supporting Actor-Jose Ferrer, Art Direction, Film Editing and Score. Thanks to Image entertainment for bringing yet another classic gem to DVD! Make some popcorn and enjoy the show. Thanks!

I enjoy good movies by good actors. It is somewhat of a hobby. I was a little boy the last time I saw this movie, and I would do just about anything to see it again!!! Ingrid Bergeman made a SPECTACULAR performance in this EPIC ADVENTURE that people of all ages should see. If you are interested in the type of acting and performing that is superior to "modern Hollywood," then you need to see Ingrid at her best! I would put in a plea to the producers to re-release this film to a deserving audience!

First of all, let me begin by saying this is not "A" Joan of Arc movie, this is "THE" Joan of Arc movie--unexcelled and unsurpassed by any movie made before it or since. Millions of dollars and painstaking attention to detail were invested in this grand epic to ensure that it was truthful and true-to-life down to the minutest detail. The events, clothes, and portrayals were all garnered from the the current records and historians of the day (for example, we have the entire transcript of Joan's trial). Ingrid Bergman dutifully and extensively studied St. Joan in an attempt to accurately capture her mulit-dimentional personality--unlike modern portrayals which are either inconsistent with the historical records (showing Joan to be crazy) or flat, wooden, one-dimensional portrayals.
Fans of this movie will shudder to know that the studio almost destroyed this great film by butchering it to death. It was a misguided attempt to get more people to come to the theater to see it. There was nothing wrong with the film in it's original incarnation. It simply was released at a time when Ingrid Bergman was unpopular in the American press due to things in her personal life. The studio's cutting and re-editing of this film almost caused us to lose it in its original form for all time. Prints had to be brought in from overseas to restore it.
I know I've been waiting for years for this great classic to be restored and re-released and I'm finally glad it has been.

Ingrid had always wanted to play Joan of Arc and it truly became her show. This is a stupendous film and Ingrid is a radiant Joan, giving an extremely moving performance. Everything about this film is beautiful: Ingrid, of course, the photography, costumes, and an excellent quality film with a cast of great actors.
I have only one fault with this film. It is NOT a completely restored original-length. There is one scene missing from the DVD. It is the scene in which Joan is captured. The DVD shows she was captured and brought before the Duke of Burgundy. She is on a brown horse with her hands tied behind her. That is all. It does not show HOW she was captured. That scene was omitted from this DVD. Here is the omitted scene: -After the battle of Rheims, she rode out to defend the town of Compiegne against a new offensive by the Duke of Burgundy. She commanded a successful sortie against the Burgundians but was outflanked by English reinforcements and forced to retire. Protecting her rearguard while they retreated over a bridge, she was forced into a field, where she was pulled from her horse by a mob of Burgundian soldiers who were keen not to hurt her, as they hoped to claim the ransom money.
-What a shame this scene was omitted from the DVD. However, it is a great historical film. With Ingrid Bergman as Joan, it is a must see.

Review by Diane C. Bonacci

For those who own or who have seen the "butchered" version of this 1948 classic, RUN, don't WALK to your nearest video store and get the newly restored, uncut version!!!

The art of film preservation has done a SPECTACULAR JOB on all counts!! The film is in its original 146 minute version and will disappoint no one. As one of the other reviews mentioned, this is THEEEE Joan of Arc movie of ALL Joan of Arc movies. No one can surpass Ingrid Bergman in her portrayal. This is the way movies were meant to be made.

Victor Fleming, who directed Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz, directed this with equal finesse and this ranks among his finest work. He died shortly after the film's release. He would be proud to see that, now, with the original restored version, it has withstood the test of time just like "Wind" and "Oz".

The performances are stellar, the battle scenes terrific, the musical score outstanding and the cinematography in GLORIOUS TECHNICOLOR is unbelievable!!! This is film preservation at its very best, Hollywood movie making at its best!!!

Trust me....would that all films would have the happy ending of restoration and uncutting as this one has!!!

This is a true classic and I'd give it 20, 30 or 1000 stars!!!!!
They don't get much better than this!

If you have been disappointed by the 100 minute video of JOAN OF ARC in the past, you will be delighted with this original version. This is the same version that I saw in 1949, immaculate and with nothing added or subtracted.

Anyone who knows anything about Saint Joan of Arc is deeply disappointed by the 100 minute video version which cut many parts essential to understanding Joan's complicated story. The full length version fills us in on the historical background through clever dialogue, portrays faithfully scenes from the trial in Joan's own words and best of all draws us in to the exciting, courageous and saintly life of one of history's unique figures. The brilliant colors and exquisite costumes make the film a visual feast! Ingrid Bergman's captivating performance reflects the profound affection that the actrice felt for Saint Joan.

We are in 1429, period of the "Hundred Years War" between France and England... The story follows the well-known outlines of the short life of the 15th century French saint, Joan of Arc...

Guided by divine Voices, the visionary daughter of a plowman, Joan (Ingrid Bergman), wearing men's clothes, leaves Domremy her village town in Lorraine and takes her long journey to Chinon to meet the Dauphin Charles VII (Jose Ferrer).

Inspired by God to free France from the ravages of the invading English, the peasant girl persuades the indecisive Dauphin to recruit an army and run out the ruthless invaders clearing the way for him to be crown King of France...

Joan leads the French Army to victory over the English forces at Orleans and stands proudly besides her king - as she promised - at his coronation in Rheims' Cathedral...

The Maid's followers believed that she came from God and the Burgundians and English were stricken with fear at her success... But Charles was tricky, ambition and deceitful in his goals... A counterplot was at work as a mean truce is suddenly signed with England, frustrating Joan's zeal to rid France of the enemy...

In an ironic twist of fate, the Maid of Lorraine becomes a political prisoner... She is closely guarded and kept in irons, and is tried as a witch by an English-dominated church court...

With no council to aid her, except her Voices, we see the intrigued illiterate girl, pitted against Bishop Pierre Cauchon (Francis L. Sullivan) trained in all the complexities of legal exhausting questioning...

We may ask ourselves how so many ideas and intuitions are to be found in a person so simple as she was saintly... Joan is, above all things else, the wisdom of a good people... She is the people of France, the plain people of the countryside of Lorraine which is sweet and clean through the courage and faith of the people as much as through the smell of woods and orchards...

Ingrid Bergman portrays with deep conviction her role as the delicate innocent virgin who raised the spirit of the French to hope for better times... She curbed savage England and stopped the spoiling and burning of France... Bergman's smiling face invoked spiritual revelation, the required light of a charismatic true heroine...

One night I looked in the TV guide and saw that Joan of arc was playing and I also saw the reviews on the television so I watched it. It really was marvelous and it taught me a lot about what her life was like. "Two thumbs up!"

Victor Fleming's Joan of Arc, even in this beautifully restored version, isn't much to write home about. Maxwell Anderson's play was creaking at the timbers even in 1948, and the screenplay remains resolutely theatrical despite one good battle scene. Ingrid Bergman is okay in her quiet moments, but handles her big declamatory scenes with extreme clumsiness - it's one of those performances where you can all too easily spot where she's marked her script, and too often it's more about hitting artificial cues than giving a fluid or convincing reading. If anything, you find yourself wondering why her nose looks so big all the time and marvel at how the more inspired Joan is, the more Swedish she sounds. Instead, the film belongs to Jose Ferrer, making a remarkable debut as the weak and feminine Dauphin. It's watchable enough, but there's a cosy feeling about the film: even the burning at the stake seems more photogenic than horrendous. Still, it's fun to see Dennis Hoey playing something other than Inspector Lestrade for a change!

Joan of Arc, the Patron Saint of France and a young girl long revered by the French as the saviour of their country in the Middle Ages is certainly a lofty character for any actress to try and portray on screen. Many versions of this extraordinary girl's life have been put onto film stretching right back to the silent era but as so little is really known of her character and what she actually looked like; each of these screen interpretations is at best a partial recreation of this incredible young girl. The Victor Fleming 1948 version for RKO starring Ingrid Bergman in one of her most famous roles is still one of the best known versions and it certainly has gathered both its admirers and critics over the years since its initial release. The chief criticism of "Joan of Arc", centred around its sound stage bound appearance and the fact that Ingrid Bergman was 33 years of age when she portrayed the teenage peasant girl who led the French armies to victory. Despite these obvious failings I feel the film still has much to offer and Ingrid Bergman in a role she had already played on stage gives a wonderfully sincere and restrained performance as the young maid who saved France from England's occupying forces only to be later burnt as a witch.