User Reviews

The settling is 17th Century Salem, Massachusetts. A group of spoil teenage girls fearing in getting in trouble for meeting in the woods at midnight for a secret love-conjuring ceremony where the town minister mistook it as witchcraft. Instead of love, psychopath Abigail Williams (Winona Ryder) wishes for the death of her former lover's John Proctor (Daniel Day Lewis) wife. The girls are accused of witchcraft, but to save themselves they accused others. Soon the entire village is consumed by hysteria, and innocent victims are put on trial, leading to a accusations flying, judgments are pronounced, and sentences are quickly and ruthlessly carried out. The only person whom can save them is Mary Warren (Karron Graves). The Crucible isn't a pretty film, but Nicholas Hytner's grim movie version of the classic Arthur Miller concerning the Salem witch hunts is a tragedy and in some what could be also be called a horror/thriller movie. It explodes into a melodramatic but never less than gripping story between both John Proctor Vs Abigail Williams. Ryder is wicked insidious, as the angry, hysterical Abigail, caught up in a conspiracy of lies from which there's no escape looking for revenge against him. Daniel Day-Lewis gives us a stubborn yet vulnerable John Proctor. He gives one of the best lines in the film toward the end. Joan Allen delivers a heart-breaking performance as the anguished Elizabeth, a fervently religious woman unable to disprove the allegations made against her and her husband.it's pretty evident (if you read the book) that Elizabeth did forgive John Proctor. if she hadn't, she wouldn't have blamed herself partly for the affair. their relationship is very complex, but in the end she does forgive him. this draws on one of Miller's main themes of forgiveness. This story really shows how far people will go in their words and actions when they are motivated by blind fear. The Crucible was written as a thinly disguised attack on the McCarthy anti-communist Red Scare "witch hunts" of the 1950s America.! This is so dramatic and powerful my heart clenches every time I see this, so check it out.

The day after Rev Parris finds his daughter and niece dancing in a group in the forest, several of the girls in the village are deep in sleep unable to be wakened. Rev Hale is called in to investigate and Abby Williams speaks up claiming witchcraft and that she and the other girls had been brought into it by the devil himself. As the investigation continues, Abby leads the claims on a twisted vendetta, eventually ending at the door of John Proctor and his family, the man she had an affair with and still loves.

I have never seen this on the stage, although my wife claims we did 2 years ago, and am unable to really compare this to other versions. However the first time I saw this film it grabbed me by the sheer force behind it. The plot is emotive and increasingly griping as it spirals out of control and Abby guides the justice of the court. The script is excellently written - sturdy yet capable of bringing out so much without trivialising or simplifying it. I defy anyone to not get sucked into this story as it is so well written.

Of course this would stutter a little without a suitably strong cast to carry it off. Happily the film is strong in performances and strong in depth. Day Lewis is deceptively light at the start, but the way he brings himself on during the film to his final shot is moving. Allen gives him able, albeit less showy, support. Ryder gives one of her best performances I've seen. Although she is required to be hysterical for much of the film she carries it off convincingly and, when needed, she is as menacing as a black hearted woman can be. Scofield is driven and well pitched but is helped by great support from Campbell and, more surprisingly, Gaynes (better known as Police Academy's Lassard). A rich cast of males in the chief support roles (Jones, Davison and Vaughan) really help - not only do they deliver the goods but their faces give the constant perception of depth.

The direction could easily have treated this as a stage production but Hytner opens it out without ever going over the top. The themes within the book are easily brought out and Hytner never stands in their way - he lets us take what we can from the material without too much flair in the way. Overall this is a fantastic version of the play - it is intelligent, well acted and very moving and involving. It may have the occasional weak link but those are pretty minor. Anyone with a passing interest in very good films should watch this.

One of the finest plays in history is remarkably turned into one of the finest masterpieces of the '90s. Arthur Miller's original story is one of power and the terrible nature of society on two fronts. First, it tackles the inner struggle of a morally strong man who's emotions get the better of him and the girl who will do anything to have him be her's forever. Secondly, it displays the flaws of the government and society in general, and how one person's claim can corrupt an entire town. It's a stunning take on the foolishness and utterly unbelievable nature of a topic that dates back to the Salem Witch Trials, McCarthyism and is even poignant today in terms of the War on Terror.

The topic that interested me more was the first one I spoke of; a striking study of a moral man who's done a wrong and the pain he has to suffer because of it. John Proctor (Daniel Day-Lewis) is a working man, who gets whatever he earns with his bare hands. His wife, Elizabeth (Joan Allen) is the standard working class wife. While John is in the field, she gets dinner ready and gets the house in order. Lingering over this seemingly perfect marriage is a secret that has isolated them from the rest of the community. John's affair with a former servant, Abigail Williams (Winona Ryder) has created a cold, emotionless relationship between the two but Elizabeth's devoted love for him means that they will stay isolated and no one will ever know of his sin which would surely lead to his hanging. Of course no man can endure this experience without suffering some severe inner pain and this slowly unfolds over Proctor throughout the course of the film.

In the end, after turmoil between John and Elizabeth both trying to do the best thing for each other that has turned into the worst case scenario for both, Proctor's pain is unleashed in one of the most heartbreaking scenes in as long as I can remember. He agrees to proclaiming his life in the world of witchcraft in exchange for releasement from prison back to his wife and unborn child. But when they ask for his signature on the statement, and state that they will post it on the church wall, his years of torment and internal frustration explode as he pleads in a scene of gut-wrenching release as he begs for the jurors to leave him his name. This story is all highlighted by an absolutely brilliant and cathartically heartbreaking performance from Daniel Day-Lewis. He even upstages the commanding Queen Joan Allen (who also delivers a superb performance) in several scenes, and delivers one of the finest examples of acting genius I've ever had the privilege of experiencing.

This entire relationship and painful release is experienced under the grand scheme of the Salem Witch Trials, an eye-opening display of how easily the government and society can be fooled and won over. Due to her love for John Proctor, Abigail Williams will do anything to take Elizabeth out of the picture. Even if this means bringing down all of Salem in the process. She starts claiming that everyone is a witch, along with her numerous friends who so easily follow her example, in order to avoid getting into trouble. When she realizes how brilliantly this works, and how everyone she claimed practiced witchcraft ended up in the gallows, that she could use it to end Elizabeth and live a happy life alone with John. Of course the folly of youth is there blind belief that everything will work according to plan, and she underestimates Proctor's love and devotion to his wife who he clearly shows he will go to the grave with. Abigail see's that no matter what she does, she won't get John back and flees Salem in the midst of night, never to be seen again (at least as far as the film/play is concerned). Winona's performance is also very strong and ranks high among the best of her career and of 1996.

At the center of this entire story is how easy it is to sway society, shown through these Witch Trials. Arthur Miller originally wrote his play to comment on the foolishness of McCarthyism; the children representing McCarthy, the jurors obviously as the government and the false witches as the dozens of people that McCarthy accused of being a communist under no grounds that were put into prison for being completely innocent. These two incidents in American history show that the government lies down to the very core of their jural structure. The phrase 'Innocent until proved guilty' is one of the most abused in history and these historical accounts prove that we are and have always been much more about the reverse; guilty until proved innocent or, in terms of the Witch Trials, hanging unless you admit your guilt. Even now we see the flaws of the governmental structure as numerous people are being claimed to be terrorists and are put in prisons, though there is no concrete evidence of that which they are prosecuted for, just the false claims of a foolish society.

Based upon the play by Arthur Miller, this is a retelling of the events leading up to and surrounding the Salem Witch trials.

The head of the local congregation (Jeffrey Jones) is worried about his position and when he finds his daughter and niece (Winona Ryder) dancing about a fire in the woods with some other girls he becomes concerned. When his daughter and another young girl fall into a com like state he becomes it must be the work of the devil and calls in an expert.

From here it escalates as the girls led by Ryder admit to having fallen under the devil's sway and immediately repent but not without dragging in the names of others they were involved. More and more people are implicated as the motives become personal and the wife (Joan Allen) of the man (Daniel Day Lewis) who Ryder's character lusts after is accused.

Occasional missteps and at times overly melodramatic, but satisfying for the most part because of the superb cast

For my eleventh grade English class, I have just finished reading "The Crucible" and have also finished watching the movie adaptation. "The Crucible" which was written by Arthur Miller, is a shocking look into the events of a tragic period early in history that America will not likely forget. The setting of "The Crucible" is that it takes place in the Puritan community of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. The story revolves around the hysteria caused by the Salem Witch Trials. John Proctor (Daniel Day-Lewis), the story's protagonist (or should I say antagonist?), is facing a little bit of a moral dilemma. It turns out that Abigail Williams (Winona Ryder), Proctor's former servant girl and mistress, along with several other young girls, were caught out in the woods dancing. Apparently, from the evidence, Witchcraft was taking place. John's wife, Elizabeth (Joan Allen), is suffering because of his lechery, but deep down thinks that she may be partially responsible. Reverend Parris (Bruce Davison) calls for Reverend Hale (Rob Campbell), a renowned pastor (and self-proclaimed paranormal expert) to come to Salem to investigate the accusations.

John Proctor is sort of an innocent in this story. In the beginning of the play, we see that he is deeply haunted by the affair, but he keeps his head up about it. He is powerful of body, even-tempered and not easily led or quick to jump to conclusions. He changes significantly because he begins to lower his self-esteem, especially after he looses control over his current servant girl, Mary Warren. His change furthers because he later admits his sins, which leads to his inevitable imprisonment. While in prison, he learns that his wife has become pregnant, and therefore she will not be hanged. In the end, John is hanged after signing a confession and then ripping it up when he learns that it was to be nailed onto the church door. However, he did not die in bad spirits because he had accepted the fact that he was not coming out of this situation alive but his name would go untarnished. Proctor pleas before his execution, "Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!"

Elizabeth Proctor is sort of an innocent too. At the very start of the play, we see that she is a rather soft-spoken person, even with her past grievances. As well, she is an honest person who always tells the truth and never lies. She changes, however, when Abigail Williams brings charges of Witchcraft up against her. Her physical change starts when she discovers that she is pregnant. By the end of the play, she forgives John for his lechery. She states, "He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him!" This simply goes to show that she truly loved him in the end.

Lastly, there is Reverend Hale. At the beginning of the play, we see that he is a very confident man. He seems to consider himself an expert in the field of Witchcraft and goes about promoting that image with the aid of his countless books. The books, he thinks will solve all of the problems facing Salem. When Reverend Parris makes a comment about how heavy his books are, Hale simply replies, "They must be; they are weighted with authority." This goes to show that he puts too much faith into his books and not enough into common sense. His emotional change begins when the good and well-respected people of the Salem community start being accused of Witchcraft, like when Abigail Williams charges Elizabeth Proctor as being a witch. By the end of the play, he discovers that all of the accusations were in fact a hoax, orchestrated by Abigail Williams who shortly before the end of the trials, mysteriously disappears along with Mercy Lewis. He feels deep regret and extreme guilt for not trying to stop the madness sooner. He is also begging John Proctor to save his life, regardless of the possible aftermath in which his name is going to be corrupted.

In many ways, the story of "The Crucible" may not just be a dynamic character study, but it is also a study of the madness that can stem from superstition and fear. It simply amazes me that one little girl was able to use fear and superstition as a means of getting what she wanted. The madness that had been created by the Salem Witch Trials was not just the result of people's greed, but jealousy and all-out hatred for one another. And you must remember that this is coming from a religious community that had come to this country to escape hatred, though it was not the same type as it was the reason for them leaving Europe.

For many bizarre reasons, "The Crucible" has also been the unfortunate target of misguided criticism. These criticisms, I feel, are the unfortunate result of the Joseph McCarthy era. In 1950, McCarthy who was a senator from Wisconsin had engaged on a "Red Hunt", which to him, was a hunt for suspected Communist Party members and spies inside the U.S. State Department. Though this was relatively early in the Cold War, he had played on Americans already stemming fears of the Soviet Union in order to help rally people to flesh out the suspected persons. Many of the people who were accused, lost their jobs and had extreme difficulty finding employment elsewhere. McCarthy, like many of the people during the Salem Witch Trials, had engaged on this hunt out of sheer hatred and jealousy of other people. And like when the Trials finally came to an end when the governor's wife had been accused of Witchcraft, McCarthy met his downfall in 1954, when he began attacking members of the United States Army. The Army immediately took dislike to the accusations and struck back at McCarthy. His power finally fell through when then President Dwight Eisenhower launched his own investigation into the accusations and found nothing. McCarthy later died in 1957 of alcohol-related problems.

Do you see all of the parallels between the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and the McCarthy era during the 1950s? These are perfect examples of the horrible things that people are capable of doing to each other out of the pure hatred and the accusers will often succeed in doing this by playing on people's fears and local superstition.

Powerful telling of Arthur Miller's revered play about the fearful witch hunt that took place in Salem, Massachussets in the late 17th century. Director Nicholas Hytner ensures the fanaticism and rabid superstition of the day is conveyed with force to the stunned audience, and I'm sure most will scarcely believe that a court of law could allow an accused person who pleads innocent to die, and one who confesses guilt (through threat of death) to live.

Miller has painstakingly brought his play to the screen with care, not only to be true to the stage production, but also to fully develop his complex characters.

The cast have done their level best to fulfill Miller's work, especially Winona Ryder who attempts to portray Abigail as something more than a vengeful harlot, though it's difficult to see her as anything else. Her performance is a strong one, but stronger still is Daniel Day-Lewis who again delivers the goods as John Proctor, the man who stands accused, along with his unfailing wife (a showing of passion and control from Joan Allen), of the terrible crime of consorting with the devil. The tremendous struggle he has with his very soul is most convincingly conveyed. Solid support comes from the craggy-faced Paul Scofield, a surprising Jeffrey Jones and perhaps even more surprising, George Gaynes (Commandant Lassard of "Police Academy" fame). Smaller, though quite impressive standouts come from Bruce Davison as the floundering Reverend Parris and Rob Campbell as the rather more enlightened, and much more practical, Reverend Hale. Robust acting makes this film a thoroughly enjoyable one.

George Fenton's music is most appropriate, editing is precise and art direction simple yet telling.

Wednesday, February 26, 1997 - Village Rivoli

It's a message movie and it resonates. Willful belief in absurdities plagues the town of Salem, Massachusetts, in 1693. A handful of young girls, caught dancing in the woods, begin to claim they were possessed by the devil and they make accusations of witchcraft. It leads to more than twenty hangings and other deaths by execution.

When Arthur Miller wrote the play in the early 50s, it was his way of speaking out against the communist witch hunts of his time. And indeed the trajectories of the movements bear similarities. It starts with someone craving attention, first blaming someone who is not only harmless but marginalized -- insane people, the senile, the very poor. Then it leads to overreach. The dozen hysterical girls of Salem begin to claim that spirits of a higher caliber have haunted them at night -- the spirit of the preacher's wife, for instance, which goes a little too far.

Historically, Senator Joseph McCarthy began with real spies and real suspects but his claims grew more and more outrageous until he inspired the John Birch Society to consider President Eisenhower nothing more than "a communist dupe." And then McCarthy accused the US Army and General George Marshall of harboring communists. It was all a bit much for the less than insane among our own citizenry.

Now, of course, we can all cluck out tongues at such fantasies -- while presidential candidates now running would build an unscalable wall across the Mexican border and hunger for a wall across the Canadian border as well. The president is a gypsy changeling from Africa. Our strongest leaders turn into carnival barkers and we cheer them. That's not to mention worms in McDonalds' hamburgers. I guess -- I hope -- the less insane among us will reintroduce us to reality some day.

In any case, that's the end of my spiel. I will now stand down from the speaker's platform if someone will give me a hand. Thank you, but you don't have to be so eager.

The acting and the milieu are finely done. Winona Ryder does very well as the lustful young traitor and she handles the stylized speech all right. It's only when she's excited that a bit of Wynona, Ohio, peeps through Abigail Williams.

In 1693, these were all Brits, not Americans. So Paul Scofield can enter the movie as a judge who wants to be fair but is himself possessed by his interpretation of the Bible and his loyalty to what he perceives God to be. Those baggy eyes and that pebbled chin are just villainous enough.

Joan Allen as an innocent victim is a fine actress but she doesn't have much to do except look made of stone. Make up has turned her face sere and gray. Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the better actors of his generation but he's stuck in the part of the audience proxy -- the man of principle, guilty only of having boned Winona Ryder in the barn, who sees through the fraudulence of the accusations, the trial, and the ensuing executions. He sees the foolishness. We can see it too, even if we can't see our own.

There's a much less lavishly budgeted story of the witch trials around too, "Three Sovereigns For Sister Sarah," I think. It's well worth catching.

Growing up in the Bible belt, it's quite easy to see how gullible people can be when it comes to religion. I can only imagine how during the time period that this took place, how religion was the end-all, be-all, and scientific discoveries hadn't disproven most of it, that people would easily believe that someone was powerful. For example (spoiler!!), the scene where the wood falls and the lady is tried for being a witch because another lady saw it fall and then blames the first lady as causing it with her "witch" powers. Have these people never heard of gravity or earth tremors that make things fall naturally? Apparently, they haven't. If you do not find religion to be all that is cracked up to be, you'll find this movie quite enjoyable because seeing how Winona Ryder's character and a few other's employ the "witch" factor to their advantage is quite funny.

The Crucible is hard to adapt to the big screen. It's a long script, and has to be handled in a very particular way or risks being laughable. This production wasn't laughable, but what it was was middle-of-the-road in many aspects.

The acting is pitch perfect in some scenes, mainly those representing Act 3 and 4, where the tension is high. However, at lower tensions various actors come across as somewhat bored (such as Joan Allen as Elizabeth Proctor, whos relationship with Proctor initially showed like a school play on screen, with very little chemistry) however this was picked up well by the end. Daniel Day Lewis wasn't perfect as the character. He displayed great care towards Abigail and virtually none for Elizabeth in their first scene together, which makes it look like Proctor wants Abigail more, the exact opposite of the play's intention. Various lines were delivered wrong, and various character interpretations felt contrived (Mary Warren does not start crying hysterically instantly when she sees Proctor, read the play Karron Graves.) but overall, by the end the acting feels balanced enough to be... just below good.

The use of lighting, sound, and set was far too naturalistic for my taste. They could have really built up the tension with creative imagery, editing, some good score, a bit more style that would give the representation of Salem more substance. It all feels very normal, which takes away from the theme of hysteria that is supposed to have taken over the whole town. I'm not saying they needed a CGI extravaganza or a Zack Snyder "Sucker Punch" style movie (although the latter would be really interesting, actually) but a bit more flair was necessary. In my opinion, anyway.

Finally, the addition of scenes: Again, very mixed in results. The scene in the woods? Well done, well shot, creates a good atmosphere and actually adds to Abigail's character early on. The end scene with the Lord's prayer? Really solid, interesting, poignant, and historically accurate to one person actually hung in Salem. The scene where Proctor confronts Abigail in the woods? No. That showed a complete lack of understanding of the text. Elizabeth being arrested in the play was a result of Proctor being selfish and NOT putting what was right over his desire to keep a good name and not to hurt Abigail despite knowing what she did was wrong, and this scene missed the mark so hard it wasn't even funny, it kind of made me cringe and say "No! You were going so well!"

Like I said, it's moderate. The acting's okay, but not great (apart from Winona Ryder as Abigail. She, in my opinion, was perfect) the technical aspects are accurate, but very uninteresting, and the addition of scenes sometimes misses the mark. Was it as bad as some adaptations of great plays? No. But that doesn't mean it deserves more praise than it gets. The movie was fine, but the play was brilliant, and that's what stings the most about this movie.