Joan of Arc

Last May while in New York City attending shareholder meetings I had and evening free and took in the play Saint Joan. I never paid much attention to the story of Joan of Arc but was familiar with the name and did not know she was canonize in the early 20th Century. With this exposure I traveled to Rouen, Normandy to witness and understand who she was and where she perished. Over the last few months I have read and studied Joan's life.This extremely well done film of 8 Academy Award nominations with winner of three is very close to the story many do not know. Like many of the films of this period it was shot in vivid color and placing the DVD into a Btu-ray machine enhances this characteristic. The cinematography is over the top as many films of this era with a cast second to none. The script parallels the story handed down to us from the 15th Century and the Hundred Years War.Ingrid Bergman's spellbinding performance as Joan should have earn her and Oscar for Best Actress for this is a very difficult part to play. The only fault here is that a 33 year old is cast to play an 18 year old. Other than that she was superb! She easily transforms from an innocent child, leader of men, to the final victim and martyr. This beautiful woman has more close-ups in this film that belays her real beauty.This is a film all Christians should see to understand the history of the time and the faith Joan instilled on the French people. It also provides one with the sense of man's conflict with God and this conflict of material wealth and privilege which is not enduring. If you are interested in this story, I highly recommend this film and a trip to Rouen to feel her spirit at the square she was burned.

A splendid color restoration of Joan of Arc with Ingrid Bergman. Although Kino doesn't have all the extras provided by Criterion, this doesn't matter. After all, I settle for the film alone.For the film itself, there isn't much I can add to it that people don't know. It is well acted, it has a great performance by Ingrid Bergman, it is well directed by Victor Fleming, and it has a beautiful color cinematography. Although shot in beautiful technicolor, the film doesn't fall into the superficially spectacular. The story focuses more on Joan's internal struggle as she faces lack of belief from others, disappointment, and then, betrayal from those she trusted. In spite of this, the film did not bore me at all. On the contrary, it moved at a fast pace. Even when showing the Battle of Orleans, the film didn't slide into the merely spectacular. The film is worth watching and this restoration is excellently done.

An absolutely exquisite restoration of this 1948 film. The colors are so bright and sharp that it looks breathtaking. The film itself is a beautiful religious story of St. Joan beautifully portrayed by Ingrid Bergman. The huge cast is superbly directed by the great Victor Fleming. Definitely worth having in your library.

Victor Fleming was a very accomplished filmmaker in the Technicolor era. His most famous works are Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz, both released in the same year of 1939-- arguably his greatest year, and he won for Best Director for GTTW. He did make exciting black & white films with Spencer Tracy before and after including Captains Courageous (1937, Spencer's first Oscar win) and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941). Therefore, more people should watch Joan of Arc, his Technicolor-enriched portrait of talented actress Ingrid Bergman playing the legendary woman and fallen fighter for France.It contains a top notch cast, some impressive action, fantastic-as-usual color cinematography and that classic Golden Era Hollywood style of direction that Victor Fleming helped make classic. Even though Fleming could easily be somewhere in the top 25 of greatest filmmakers, younger generations often only see The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind, so hopefully Joan of Arc can get proper viewings and analyses from young filmmakers and anyone interested in the life and legend pertaining to SAINT Joan of Arc.There is a reason why in The Rocketeer (1991) the director filming the swashbuckling film in the second act is named "Victor" (as well as the last name, Berg, being an allusion to Spielberg LOL). The DVD and blu-ray are fantastic restorations of this epic historical drama. -G

This DVD is the full length English language restoration of the classic 1948 Joan of Arc film with Ingrid Bergman and Jose Ferrer. Korean subtitles from this licensed version can be suppressed on setup for showing on standard U.S. DVD players. Bergman is absolutely superb as Joan. What she says with her eyes, her head and arm movements, and her interactions are more powerful than words. Yet the script is also powerful, making Bergman a very plausible French army leader who in actuality became a heroine of France today. As far as I have been able to detect, the film, although partly fictional, is faithful to what is historically known about the life of Joan of Arc, including characters, places and events. A map, shown early in the film, is useful orientation to events that span France. While Joan had nationalistic objectives, she was driven by religious visions and inspiration that led to improbable leadership of a ragtag army of peasants that was victorious in difficult battles including a well portrayed battle at Orleans, turning the tide in the 100 Years War. While she was burned at the stake in 1431 for heresy under charges brought by a bishop, efforts by French Catholics brought her recognition as a declared saint in 1920. She would have drawn a salute from General Patton, who commanded the U.S. Third Army upon some of the same ground 500+ years later, for her courage, loyalty and leadership. Director Carl Theodor's interpretive efforts in this film result in a story that could be used for leadership study today. The U.S. importer or distributor of this film deserve a word of thanks for making the product available at reasonable cost. To me, the film has an inspirational quality that is infrequently seen in Hollywood products.

The film was beautifully acted and directed, a work of art.

Good product, delivered timely

This edition of the film is not restored as other reviews have stated and it is only 100mins long, the quality of the picture is very poor and is no better than a Korean edition that was released, I believe the other reviews are referring to the Region one NTSC edition of the movie which is also 145mins long and a lot more expensive.Buyer beware!

Got this for my mum because she is a fan of the film.

very poor quality Korean subtitles that can't be removed