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Reviews
American Playhouse: Three Sovereigns for Sarah: Part I (1985)
A solid movie about an embarrassing episode in colonial history.
I teach a high school level History through Film class. I have shown this film for the past 5-6 years. I think it does a nice job of recounting what happened back in 1692 in Salem. Concerning historical value, which is my main priority, I have always been pleased with this movie. From what I have read, it is based on the diary accounts of Sarah Cloyce. The story is condensed to 171 minutes. By the end, viewers are made well aware of what happened and why it did.
In my opinion, the positives for this movie would include: accurate historical story-telling, strong leading performance by Vanessa Redgrave as Sarah Cloyce, and a solid display of lifestyles of the late 17th Century in Salem. The movie tells the story of three sisters, (Sarah Cloyce, Rebecca Nurse, and Mary Easty), who were all accused of witchcraft. Rebecca and Mary would be found guilty and hanged. Sarah would go on to share her story with the British magistrates in order to clear her sisters' names. Vanessa Redgrave starred as Sarah Cloyce and gave a very memorable performance. Seeing the houses, clothes, mannerisms, and even hairstyles/wigs shown in the movie, you get to see what life was like back then.
Now for the negatives. I feel like the director could have shortened the movie considerably. Some scenes just seem to drag on at times. I would also agree with other reviewers on here that the music seems out of place at times. There are even parts of the movie where the sound of crickets seems to drown out the voices of the actors. My other main criticism would be that outside of Vanessa Redgrave, some of the acting seems cheesy. I know this was a straight to TV movie, but the screaming girls, the generic dialogue, the repetitious church scenes of the minister preaching to his congregation...all could have been done a bit better. We do have to keep in mind that this film came out in the early 1980s.
I am going to have my students rate this movie as well. I am anxious to see how they rate it overall. We went from watching Braveheart to watching this one. Obviously, there is quite a difference in cinematic presentation between the two films. Quite a difference between a 1995 movie that was described by Mel Gibson as "historical fantasy" and a 1981 movie depicting accurate history. Both have their purpose, but I do truly appreciate the accuracy of Three Sovereigns for Sarah. Weighing the positives against the negatives, I graded this movie out as an 8/10. I am biased though, being a history teacher.