![]() Besson's Joan is not Catholic she is not even Christian. ![]() a debate between Joan and her conscience." 1 Besson's Joan is conflicted, to use the pop-psychological categories that underpin the film, but she is no religious nut. According to Besson, this scene defines the film: "In the first history book I read, I got the idea (for the film). Doubt plagues her and she only gets help in the last half hour of the film when Dustin Hoffman, dressed up like Obi Wan Kenobi, suddenly materializes as her conscience/therapist. Joan is afflicted with something akin to post-traumatic stress syndrome after seeing her sister murdered by the English. She rides into battle not to save France but to resolve her personal problems. Joan tells the war-weary peasants to "start rebuilding their lives." Joan organizes a kind of public works project to bring the people "together" and "give them hope." The CBS Joan appears to be running for public office. Joan loves children and sets up a soup kitchen for them in war-torn Vaucouleurs. Joan rides into battle but frets over the bloodshed. Rather than striving to present us with a more compelling, more interesting, or even a more accurate Joan, the CBS producers tried to create a more likeable Joan. I don't mean her costume, even though it dwarfs her and makes her look like a kid in her father's football uniform. But Gernon failed to take a good look at Joan herself. To my inexpert eye, Gernon did his job: costumes, battle scenes, and most of the details look accurate. The production team itself, according the Gernon, "did a terrific amount of research. Plenty of research by lawyer Michael Miller-as long as "six to eight weeks"-went into the initial script. On the excellent CBS web site ( ), Executive Producer Ed Gernon describes how hard the production team worked to get the historical details right. Something for everyone-that is what Joan's story offers and that is what TV is about.īut CBS producers were not aiming at audience appeal alone. What probably appealed to CBS executives was Joan's ability to bring together three tried and true cinema genres-the woman's film, the combat movie, and the courtroom drama. Still, Joan's fans are too few to prompt CBS to devote four hours of prime time to the warrior saint. A quick search of the Internet reveals at least a dozen Joan web sites, most devoted to defending the "real" Joan. Why then did both CBS and Sony Pictures decide to tempt fate and make Joan films? Joan does have a devoted following. All (with the exception of Dreyer's film) have been critical or financial disasters. ![]() There have been at least 20 movies about Joan, five of which are well known and available either from video rental stores or foreign cinema dealers like Facets in Chicago: Carl Dreyer's silent film, The Passion of Joan of Arc (France, 1928) Victor Fleming's Joan of Arc with Ingrid Bergman (USA, 1948) Otto Preminger's Saint Joan (USA, 1957) and my personal favorite, Jacques Rivette's Jeanne la pucelle (France, 1993). Neither was the first attempt to film the life of the Maid of Orleans. In November 1999, Sony Pictures premiered its $60 million Joan epic, The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, directed by Luc Besson and starring the ex-model and sometime rock singer Milla Jovovich. In May 1999, CBS aired a four-hour miniseries entitled Joan of Arc, starring teenaged Leelee Sobieski. Still, 1999 saw the release of two films devoted to the life and martyrdom of the 15th-century saint. It wasn't even the anniversary of her canonization. It was not the quincentennial of the birth, death, or rehabilitation of Joan of Arc.
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