The Crucible (1996)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Nicholas Hytner

Writers (WGA):

Arthur Miller (play)
Arthur Miller (screenplay)

Release Date:

27 November 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | History

Tagline:

Arthur Miller's timeless tale of truth on trial.

Plot:

A 17th-century Salem woman accuses an ex-lover's wife of witchery in an adaptation of the Arthur Miller play.

Plot Keywords:

Witch | Trial | Salem Massachusetts | Witch Hunt | Satan

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 4 wins & 10 nominations

Cast

Daniel Day-Lewis	...	John Proctor
Winona Ryder	...	Abigail Williams
Paul Scofield	...	Judge Thomas Danforth
Joan Allen	...	Elizabeth Proctor
Bruce Davison	...	Reverend Parris
Rob Campbell	...	Reverend Hale
Jeffrey Jones	...	Thomas Putnam
Peter Vaughan	...	Giles Corey
Karron Graves	...	Mary Warren
Charlayne Woodard	...	Tituba
Frances Conroy	...	Ann Putnam
Elizabeth Lawrence	...	Rebecca Nurse
George Gaynes	...	Judge Samuel Sewall
Mary Pat Gleason	...	Martha Corey
Robert Breuler	...	Judge Hathorne

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for intense depiction of the Salem witch trials.

Runtime:

124 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Brazil:12 | South Korea:15 | Philippines:PG-13 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #34461) | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | Finland:K-12 | Germany:12 (f) | Hong Kong:IIB | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:NC-16 | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | UK:12

Filming Locations:

"Old" United Shoe Factory - 181 Elliott Street, Beverly, Massachusetts, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Daniel Day-Lewis built the house he lived in as John Proctor, because of his habit of maintaining his character through the entire duration of the filming.

Goofs:

Continuity: After John Proctor runs into the pond outside the church, his hair goes from being totally soaked in one shot to completely dry in the next.

Quotes:

John Proctor: Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time, but I will cut off my hand before I reach for you again. We never touched.
Abigail Williams: Ay, but we did.

Movie Connections:

References The Devils (1971)

Soundtrack:

The Yanvalou Chant

excellent adaptation for the screen

There is nothing I like better than a good play for the stage, even when it is on screen. This is the second time I have been able to see this worthy conversion of Arthur Miller's classic play adapted to the screen. Nicholas Hytner certainly earnt his wages; and all the cast should have received a good pay-rise. Convincing scene-setting in Massachussets at the end of the 17th Century with heavy wood-framed farm buildings and typical North European immigrant peasants' clothing, all beautifully filmed. Arthur Miller himself collaborated on the script, allowing certain poetic licence in modernising some of the speech forms, which, in the original play – written around 1952-1953 – reflected speech patterns of the times.

I blow the dust off my 1973 Penguin copy of the play, and can follow some of the scenes almost verbatim. Thus the effect is dramaturgical rather than cinematographic, a little like Branaghan doing his versions of Shakespeare. A pleasing result indeed. Highly recommended for conoisseurs of fine acting in the classic sense. Neither of the two leading actors – Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder – will let you down.

The Salem Witches have been the cause of a few forays by writers, historians and so on: really the whole affair seems to typicalize people's appetites for forming psychosis-like manias, often on the grounds of nothing very concrete. I mean to say, the devil exists in the minds of those who invent it; the same cause as the `reds under the beds' phobia of the 1960s and 1970s, today transformed into `Islam Terror' around every corner. The clothing is different, but the mentality producing the phobias is not.

`The Crucible' in this excellent adaptation make this poignantly clear. My vote is slightly higher than the present IMDb average.