Joan of Arc has been a political symbol in France since the time of Napoleon. Liberals emphasised her humble origins. Early conservatives stressed her support of the monarchy. Later conservatives recalled her nationalism.
During World War II, both the Vichy Regime and the French Resistance used her image: Vichy propaganda remembered her campaign against the English with posters that showed British warplanes bombing Rouen and the ominous caption: "They Always Return to the Scene of Their Crimes." The resistance emphasised her fight against foreign occupation and her origins in the province of Lorraine, which had fallen under Nazi control.
At present the controversial French far-right political party Front National holds rallies at her statues, reproduces her likeness in party publications, and uses a tricolor flame partly symbolic of her martyrdom as its emblem. This party's opponents sometimes satirize its appropriation of her image.
Traditionalist Catholics, in France and elsewhere, also use her as a symbol of inspiration, often comparing the 1988 excommunication of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (founder of the Society of St. Pius X and a dissident against the Vatican II reforms), to her excommunication.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_arc
Even though I'm just a bitter hateful ol' atheist, I really like Luc Besson's 1999 movie
The Messenger. Starring that Milla Yo-Yo woman as Joan of Arc, with John Malkovich and Faye Dunaway as completely amoral and slimy royals Charles VII and Yolande of Aragon.
But the absolute best part is Dustin Hoffman as "The Conscience." This movie has a great visual depiction of an argument we see almost daily in the DU Religion group (from memory of the movie, which I haven't seen in a while):
"There are many perfectly rational explanations for what you saw/heard. But NO...YOU decided none of those explanations would do, so it must be a miracle and God is personally speaking to you."
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