Joan Inaccuracies

Although I believe this moving to be keeping with the spirit of who Joan was, there are several aspects of the film that are either altered, or all together inaccurate. Some events have been added or altered. A few of the characters’ roles in the story have either been changed or exaggerated. Overall, the film fairly accurate, but still leaves a bit to be desired. In the film, Joan is shown having Mother Babette, a nun she met at Vaucouleurs, accompany her throughout her travels, but, in reality, she kept no female companions of any sort (Barstow, 1999). The film also shows Jean De Metz having a much greater role in her life than he actually did. There is little mention of Jean De Metz after he delivers her to Charles (Williamson, 2002). Historical
In the film, Captain La Hire tries to hunt down Gladsdale and kill him, but he is unable to defeat him. Just as Gladsdale is about to kill La Hire, Joan shows up outside the Orleans gate and lures Gladsdale out, where he is killed by archers (Bray & Duguay, 1999). In actuality, Joan pleaded with Gladsdale to surrender, but he died by drowning when a bridge collapsed under the weight of horses and men in armor. The film also left out the fact that Joan tried to reform the behavior of her troops by making them go to confession and give up swearing and prostitutes. Additionally, the Loraine prophecy was more likely from St. Bede the Venerable, rather than Merlyn. (Williamson, 2002) Despite the things the film got wrong, most of the important details were kept accurate. Joan was a peasant girl from Domremy, who claimed to have visions from God telling her to help Charles become king of France. She was entrusted with the French army and she did lift the siege at Orleans. Joan was tried by the church and burned at the stake. Additionally, much of the dialogue from the trial scenes were taken from the actual notes from her trial (Champion,