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Goodbye Jesus

Joan Of Arc The Movie


RipVanWinkle

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..The movie I saw was a silent film that was once thought lost, but was found in a mental hospital in England in the 1980's or 1990"s. It was first made in 1918 in England, I think. It is a silent film with captions. When it first came out it was censored. The DVD that I have didn't say why but it's not hard to guess. The pompous asses from the church were the judges. They were all dressed up formally to intimidate.. The script from her trial was taken from a verbatim account. I have read about Joan of Arc years ago, but this movie truly brought home to me what a wretched thing it was. All these men (of course)from the church crowded in the courtroom to watch or participate in the festivities. She, of course. had no attorney, She was only 19 and couldn't read. There she was totally alone defending herself against THE CHURCH. One man verbally supported her and was unceremoniously thrown in the dungeon, his fate unknown. The questions were what one would expect from Catholics at the time. Like: Are you telling us that god spoke directly to you bypassing the Church? Do you think you are the daughter of god as Christ is the son of god? The atmosphere was as intimidating as it could be for such a young girl.The poor girl actually did pretty well in the first part of the trial. They couldn't get her to say anything damaging against herself. Then they virtually forced her to sign a confession which she later recanted. Her recantation was incredibly brave: It caused the change in sentencing from life to her being burned at the stake. And what had she done that was so horrible? She had talked with Gabriel who told her what to say publically. She was obviously delusional and hearing voices. Granted the Church didn't know that she was mentally ill, but would it have made a difference?. The real "evil" that got the Church riled up was the fact that she got messages from Gabriel, rather than the church. Their authority was challenged, or so they thought. There are times when I almost wish there really were a hell for those type of people who have tormented the helpless throughout history. And this is an example of just one such occasion in many millions.   Rip

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This film is not only my favorite film of all time, it's what I consider to be the only truly necessary film.  It was actually a co-production of the French and Danish film industries and a huge financial failure upon it's release, and the captions were all taken from Joan of Arc's actual trial transcripts.  It's funny because I used to belong to a classic film message board that was run by a fundamentalist Christian and had many Chrisitan members, and they couldn't understand why an atheist would be interested in a 'religious' film.  Oh, and the moderator was also positive that Joan's voices were demons, since she was Catholic.  Anyway, it's a haunting film and for me a cleansing film.

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Is this the movie, Rip? It seems to be what you described?

 

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I watched the movie and it's a masterpiece!

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Not really talking about the movie, but...

 

I can't say I'm an expert on Joan of Arc, but I'm more than certain that she was insane, but she served as a political tool to the Dauphin through her claims that God was on the side of the French.

 

Obviously, this is just my personal feelings and without any historical backing, but that's what I'm putting my money on.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I really liked this version of the story as well:

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151137/

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I really liked this version of the story as well:

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151137/

I saw this movie shortly before my deconversion began and then watched it again a few months after my deconversion was complete.  Somehow, what Dustin Hoffman said at the end made more sense to me the second time around.

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What did he say?

Among other things, "The creator of the entire universe needed... you?"

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Watch the film, CC.  It really is a powerful experience from an ex-christian perspective.

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No problem!  I'm waiting for a Blu-ray release of this film; haven't heard if one is actually coming though it's out on Blu-ray in other countries.

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I have to say though that I hate the music that plays with this embedded version here, AND they ripped off the actual video from Criterion who could probably sue their asses off for it.  The Criterion DVD is really worth the price, the muci on that version is exquisite.  The film's director actually preferred the film to be shown with no musical accompaniment at all - that isn't my own preference.

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