Cultural film analysis Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Cultural film analysis - Movie Review Example lls on the early years of culture and education leading to establishment of parochial, monastic and cathedral schools as well as universities of the Middle Ages (Daniel-Rops 5). In the movie, Johanna was the third child of a village priest and a converted heathen wife. The opening scene immediately showed anti-feminist bias, as the father angrily refused herbal medicine to alleviate his wife’s birth pains due to his belief that â€Å"in sorrow, thou (woman) shall give birth.† As she grew up, Johanna was not allowed education since only boys were taught reading and writing. Through self-learning, however, the intellectually gifted Johanna not only showed skill in reading and writing, but in interpreting Latin Bible verses as well. Catching her reading a Greek manuscript, Johanna’s father meted her a brutal lashing, even as he had once grossly raped his wife for teaching Johanna some heathen methods of natural healing. Upon recommendation of an admiring traveling schoolmaster, Johanna gained unprecedented admission to study in the bishop’s schoolhouse for boys. Gerald, a knight in the bishop’s court, provided her a home until she grew to maidenhood, resulting in the jealous wife of Gerald arranging Johanna’s betrothal to a young man against her will. The wedding was cut short by an attack by Norsemen bandits. Historical research shows that the event is reasonable, since there are historical accounts of pagan Norsemen pillaging territories in Frankish empire to add to the disorder of the times (Boak, Slosson and Anderson 180-181). Johanna escaped death by the plundering Norsemen, although she had to disguise herself as a man in order to gain entry in a monastery. As a monk, she saved villagers from an epidemic but had to again escape to avoid disclosure of her disguise by fellow monks. She was cared for by villagers, but not wanting to be tied down to a village life, Johanna to ok a pilgrimage to Rome again disguised as a man. In Rome