Stars: Leelee Sobieski, Jacqueline Bisset, Powers Boothe, Peter Strauss, Olympia Dukakis, Neil Patrick Harris, Robert Loggia, Maximilian Schell, Chad Willett, Peter O'Toole

Director: Christian Duguay

Summary: A star-studded epic drama based on the tragic true story of Joan Of Arc - the fifteenth-century French peasant girl who's life was changed dramatically when she started hearing the voices of Saints Catherine, Michael and Margaret. Inspired by these voices Joan led her troops to unite against their English Invaders. She was betrayed and stood trial for heresy. At the age of nineteen she was burned at the stake.

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Over the years, many film directors have attempted to tell the story of legendary 15th-century heroine Joan of Arc, a simple country girl who claimed she was inspired by God to lead the French troops in a victorious assault on the mighty English army. Luc Besson's 1999 epic might not be the best version of her life, but it's certainly the biggest. The movie cost a reported $60 million. Even if you are terminally unimpressed by the scale of such recent blockbusters as Gladiator, your eyes will pop out at the sheer number of bodies (living and dead) that Besson has assembled for the dynamic battle scenes. The lavish sets and costumes are almost equally gobsmacking, though neither will show to maximum advantage on the small screen. That's a pity because size is the only thing Joan of Arcreally has going for it--as a human drama, it falls completely flat.

The historical Joan was eventually made a saint by the Catholic Church, and earlier biopics tended to treat her celestial visions as literal fact. It was probably a mistake for Besson and his co-screenwriter Andrew Birkin to take a more psychological approach and present them as figments of her hysterical imagination. It makes it hard to work up the necessary empathy when the spectacle revolves around a confused and neurotic babe who couldn't organise a Tupperware party, let alone a vast military campaign. Milla Jovovich (the star of Besson's previous The Fifth Elementand formerly his wife) doesn't help matters with her shrill and amateurish performance. But a couple of the supporting players are passably amusing--John Malkovich camps it up energetically as Charles, the dispossessed French king whom Joan reinstates, while Faye Dunaway wears outlandish headgear and carries on like a science-fiction creation in the role of his scheming mother-in-law. (The less said the better about Dustin Hoffman's pompous turn as Joan's personified conscience.) Besson keeps to the same glossy visual style even when the Maid is burning at the stake, but it isn't enough to prevent this empty shell of a movie from being a colossal yawn. --Peter Matthews

Aspect Ratio:	4:3
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Interactive Menus, Scene Selection, Trailers
Year:	1999
Release Date:	February 24, 2003
Runtime:	180 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	O D X 20006
Keywords:	General, Wide, Screen, Joan, Arc, Drama, Historical
Genre:	Drama