| Review by Darkwolf:
If you switched the film off in
horror at the spectacular rape scene, which occurred within the
first 8 minutes, then I suggest you watch again.
You may forward-wind this part
but do not miss the point! The point of this scene is that this
is where the young Joan, forced to witness the rape of her
sister at the hands of the British, broadened her view on God.
Up until then, the young Joan,
'called' from before her birth, experienced the Christian god
only as a god of love, the same god many of us were prone to
believe he was as well. Joan frolicked in the fields, played
with the winds, danced with the butterflies, and felt and
experienced all that was good, all that was light, all that was
love.
Then things changed. In her
angry confusion, she, like most of us, lashed out, rejecting
this god - of love. She beat at her chest, flailed wildly in the
winds no longer her friends, and screamed her anger out to a
heaven that had turned its ear against her - seemingly. Joan -
called as she was - persevered in her angry trial of god. She
found him again - at the communion cup she was forbade to drink
from because she was too young. As the wine belched forth from
her young lips not used to the god's nectar, she understood that
Jehovah was also a warrior god.
In that moment she understood
The One, the unity, the concept of Ying/Yang, possibly the
greatest mystery of spirituality --that light and dark are the
same. She understood god's shadow side. She realized that her
anger towards god did not make him love her any the less, nor in
any way did her previous one-sided understanding of him make him
any less the god he was.
Within 10 minutes an entire
theology is transformed before our eyes in this remarkable
portrayal of one of the worlds greatest visionaries. A theology
with which many of us have grappled with - unsuccessfully. Joan
did not throw her god away. She reembraced him.
And the taunting of what might
be perceived to be the 'devil' in her final hours, was nothing
but the crone aspect of God. He had appeared to her initially as
the maiden aspect - in a guise that was easy to relate to, and
then the mother aspect, also in a guise that was not too
difficult to grasp. But when he appeared in his cronal way,
lines become blurred.
The film brings to the fore the
concept of 'calling'. What is a calling? Psychologists and
religious philosopher's battle with this notion. What is the
criteria one would apply to affirm such? Does Joan's calling to
her Christian god make her calling any the less valid in terms
of our Pagan precepts? When the people were no longer inspired
by fighting for the 'King of Heaven' and marched instead out of
love for Joan, did this make her calling any less valid? Was she
simply a charismatic cult leader?
Whatever, Milla Jovovich's
performance is outstanding and the difficulties and the
overcoming of these that the men of that time faced in terms of
having to accept female leadership inspiring. I definitely did
not see the film for the battle scenes.
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