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The Best

This movie is so good. I read the book in 11th grade and didn't like or understand it. But when I saw the movie, I was completely blown away. The acting is superb and it totally engrosses you in the plot. Winona Rider is great in portraying Abigail. The movie brings to life the horror of the witch trials that killed so many innocent people.

The Crucible

For the most part I liked The Crucible. It was interesting how there were mysterious parts not knowing what will happen next or what someone will do next. The acting in this movie was done well. Daniel Day Lewis played John Proctor well and he made you think what he would do next. Winona Ryder played Abigail Williams well, but I hated her as a person. She and her friends caused all those people to die for nothing, and she acted very childish. The director Nicholas Hytner choose good people to play the roles. The crucible was also educational. It gives you information on the events that happened in Salem when all the witch trials were going on. It gives you information on what was actually said in the trials. In conclusion The Crucible was a good movie that was played by good actors and directed well.

Pretty Good

I think that this movie is one of the best ones that i have seen about the salem whitch trials. It was very cool to see how some people can be influenced and how stupid people can be sometimes. It also makes you thik how fake people can be sometimes.

this show is about witches and what hardships they had

in this movie there are several girls who practice witchcraft back in that time period women were hanged for practicing witchcraft it shows both points of view you can choose who's side you are on this show is one of the great movies on what some people went through before our country made freedom of religion a right and i would highly recomend this movie for you.

"The Review"

I dont really care for this story too much. It just baffles me how an entire village could be so ignorant and believe a bunch of silly girls' outrageous aqusations. So once everyone started yelling and screaming about some nonsense I just tuned them out and went to sleep. So I wouldnt be able to tell you what happened after that. I dont have anything else to say about the story "The Crucible."

NICOLE'S REVIEW

The crucible was an excelent movie. It was about a evil girl named Abigail. This girl has this thing for this guy named John Proctor. They had a thing awhile back when Abigail had worked for them. She would do anything to dance on John's wife's grave. The uncle of Abigail saw Abigail dancing in the woods with a group of kids from the town, at night around a fire. The next day two of the younger childern had not woke. Soon witch craft was called thoughout the town. People were being accused of witch craft and were hung for it just because a evil girl who wanted to ruin John's wife so she could have him for herself. BUt by the end of the movie John ended up getting hung for being accused of witch craft. HE could of of just confessed but he was a better

Excellent screen version of Miller's play

Nicholas Hytner has a great track record for screen adaptations of plays (The Madness Of King George won the sort of awards for which this film was nominated). In this film about the 17th century Salem witch trials, commonly regarded as a critique of McCarthyism and the HUAC, the past infidelities of a man come back to ruin him and his wife.Paul Scofield is the stony-faced, implacable agent of proto-religious non-logic (a super role in Miller's play as he's frighteningly plausible most of the time). It's the cold-hearted centre of this tough film. The victims of his assumed position of rule are husband and wife John and Elizabeth Proctor given impeccable, nervy performances by Day-Lewis and Joan Allen. Winona Ryder is the truly possessed villager, if only with a deadly, souring, unrequited love for John. Powerful stuff. 7/10

Excellent movie

I have to admit that I cried like a baby at the end of this movie. This was probably one of the most amazing movies I have ever seen. I would recommend it to anyone, even if you aren't really that into history.

A whore's vengeance served well...

After just reading the play by Arthur Miller, I felt moved by its gripping story. When seeing the movie, I have to "confess" that I liked the film more than the play. Comparing the movie with the play in accuracy is quite close, almost exact. Not only did bring the film to life on picture, but also added and grew more in-depth in the thin layer of witch-hunting, but the hardcore of fraud and vengeance."The Crucible" is about the Salem witch trials back in the late 1600s of where mass hysteria erupted from a small number of girls who claim they were bewitched by other members in the town, which led to the deaths of twenty people. There is no proof or real evidence as to why the girls acted, and made wide accusations so pervasively and heartlessly. But the play, even more so with the movie reveals the dark side of the brutal truth.Abigail Williams (Winona Rider) and a handful of other girls were caught dancing and supposedly committing "sacrifices" and other demonic rituals. After each being persistently and mercilessly interrogated, the girls, (with Abigail as the leader), start saying other people's names in order to evade their troubles. Here on, paranoia and disillusion develops as the girls grow bewitched, in which the townsfolk believe in. Basically, they put on a "class act", manipulating the court system not only to get out of harsh punishments or gain their fame, but to seek vengeance upon those in the town that harmed and/or despised them."You listen upon a whore! God is dead!" shouts a condemned Procter, instantly giving the message of the tale. In the end, the Innocent die, and those who try to speak the truth of the hoax also die. The film shows well of man's ignorance to reason, as well as inhumanity to their fellow neighbor. But even more so, the real moral is when vengeance and greed clouds the minds of those who lived. In the end, the politics and the manipulative girls are the winners. The performances were outstanding. Winona Rider, even though I don't fancy her much, gave a very manipulative and cunning performance that I haven't seen since Meiko Harado as Lady Kaede in Kurosawa's Ran. Abigail does it all to seek the heart of a married man John Procter (Daniel-Day Lewis). Once again, Mr. Lewis gives a compelling and heart-wrenching performance as Procter, who would do anything to find the truth and save the town, as well as his friends, from destruction and madness. There were many other faces that were great, including: Eric Schofield, Joan Allen, Bruce Davison, and Rob Campbell.Apart from the great acting and solid story, the film also held good film-making quality, such as: the mellow dramatic score, the proper setting (including costume, being filmed on the actual location, and the set-decoration). However, the actual directing was weak. Instead of having up-close shots like Peter Jackson, wide-ranged, distant shots like Kurosawa, or even a hand-held or shaky camera movement like Paul Greengrass, the camera was stiff. It was as if the director only wanted to show the story in an audience perspective, not trying to pull the audience into it. Added to this, the pace for the two hour film dragged a bit.But do not be disheartened by these flaws, for "The Crucible" is a great film based off of a great and unforgettable/unforgivable story of lies, deceit, paranoia, disillusion, and death. 4/5 "You covet what you see"-Hannibal Lector

Well then tell me why you will not sign your name...

This is a very powerful tale based partly on the actual events that happened in Salem back in the 1600s concerning some young girls who started dabbling in the occult and then tried to cover it up and avoid blame by accusing others of bewitching THEM. The story also concerns an unfaithful man (John Proctor) who cheated on his good and modest wife with a calculating and obsessive young hussy played perfectly by the character of Winona Ryder. But he loves his wife and turns away from the hussy, who then takes her revenge. John is publicly made to pay for his private sins, and asked to sign a humiliating confession that will destroy his reputation as it is going to be posted on the church door for all to read. In order to save his life, he signs his name to the confession and gives up his soul to his inquisitors, but the confession is a lie because he was never a witch. In a heart-wrenching scene where he changes his mind, he shrieks: "I sign myself to lies!" and he pleads: "I have given you my soul!... please leave me my good name!" He rips up the signed false confession and seals his doom.

I was very pleased with the sad and moving ending. I hope the viewing public understands the powerful paradox of it--the good true Christian people being falsely accused and hanged for witchcraft while their satanic accusers and evilly misled inquisitors look on along with a mournful, remorseful crowd. The scene at the very end with the Lord's prayer was a poignant touch. I'm glad the director had the courage to give it, as usually Hollywood plays it safe by providing the "happy ending", whether it fits or not. This heart-breaking and haunting ending was much more effective than any contrived happy ending could have been. Brilliant drama!

David Rehak
author of "A Young Girl's Crimes"

the best movie ever

omigosh this movie is so great. It really showed the witchcraft trials in a powerful way. All the actors did a wonderful job with their characters. Excpecially Rob Campbell as rev. Hale who I thought was super hot (hee hee). I really got into the movie and even cried. I would definetly buy this and thats why im gonna today!From jelousy to hate this was the true betrayal of the trials and im sorry all those innocent people had to die and at least some people relize and appreciate what they went through.

"Your justice would freeze beer."

Although the playwright Arthur Miller was also the screenwriter for this production starring Winona Ryder and Daniel Day-Lewis, the film bears little resemblance to the play in tone and impact. Director Nicholas Hytner has abandoned the intimate, almost claustrophobic atmosphere of the dark, interior scenes in the play, in favor of an expansive setting, with many scenes set outside, including panoramic shots of Salem in 1692, full of costumed "citizens." The expanded setting makes the psychology and motivation of the witchcraft hysteria more difficult to determine, since the intensity of the settlers' repressed, interior lives is not obvious. The explanatory notes which Miller incorporates into the play about land disputes, religious controversies, and personal animosities, which led to specific individuals being accused and arrested for witchcraft, are seen only peripherally.

As a result, we see Winona Ryder, as Abigail Williams, and her coterie of bewitched girls, screaming hysterically and accusing innocent women of witchcraft without the background which would make these accusations plausible. Her previous relationship with John Proctor (Daniel Day-Lewis), in the absence of other motivations, seems to be the primary reason for her behavior, but this thwarted love does not explain the extent of her rage and, especially, the involvement of the other girls. Day-Lewis is reduced to the role of victim, and one of the hallmarks of his acting, his subtlety, is absent here, except in a wonderful final scene with his wife, played by Joan Allen. Details of the scenery also ring false--houses in this period were very small because of the difficulty of heating, one third the size they are here, and the church/meeting houses were modest in accordance with religious restrictions against unnecessary display.

This is a Hollywood version of the witchcraft trials, capitalizing on the sensational at the expense of the complex and subtle forces behind the accusations of witchcraft--the Indian wars which were just ending, the growing independence of individuals, the increasing resentment of hard-line theocratic rule, the abolition of traditional property laws, and most importantly, the lack of any societal role whatsoever for young women, who were not old enough to assume a woman's role and who, bored and left out of decision-making, were on their own in dealing with their adult feelings. The film is beautiful, and the acting, though one-dimensional, is as effective as it can be in the absence of fully-developed motivation for the girls' hysteria. The "witches" are reduced to cartoons here, and Miller's parallels between these trials and the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s, which give the play a modern context, are missing. Mary Whipple

A Thoughtful Presentation of a Good Play

For a number of years, I underevaluated this one of Miller's works as a matter of partisan propaganda from the 50's. This film shows how wrong I was and how much deeper and more broadly applicable The Crucible is as a work of literature. Like Ibsen's Enemy of the People, it asks how does a person possessed of the truth respond to a society overcome by illusion or superstition? Indeed, Miller's question is more pertinent today than it was in the 50's when, in reality, there was a real ideological war in progress and some prospect of a live one. What may or should one risk to challenge the orthodoxies of political correctness, unquestioned egalitarianism and mass culture? Viewed in this light, Miller's work is a profound one of lasting impact. More pertinently for this review, the 1996 film highlights all of this because it is so well directed and so well acted. Day Lewis, as the central player, excels as always, but it is almost a shame that he has such a superlative supporting cast: Winona Ryder, Joan Allen, Jeffrey Jones, Paul Schofield and Bruce Davison, all of whom are flawless in their roles. With such talented work some of the excellence has to be overlooked in light of the others. The Crucible as a work of literature is very much a masterpiece and in this performance, it is a classic.

The Crucible

I personally LOVED this book. I thought it was great because of the way it was written. While you read you can feel the emotion inside you. Also, Arthur Miller did a great job on the character's personalities. I really disliked Abigail. That is really good for an author to be able to portray a personality to the reader. It was great and i liked the fact that Miller was actually comparing the witch trails to what was happenning with Joseph McCarthy in the 1950's. I thought it was a MUST READ book!!! END

"Shut it Mary Warren!"

I have taught this play for ten years and have welcomed the modern version as a way to reach my students. Daniel Day Lewis does a fabulous job as John Proctor. "Because it is my name... because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the boots of those that hang!" My students are drawn to the movie b/c of the "new" hollywood actors (Ryder and Lewis). I will say I see the lightbulbs come on for my students in the courtroom scene in Act III where the girls repeat Mary Warren. Everyone (but the judges) seems to know that the girls are "foolin". The added scene (ActII, scene II) is better left out, as I feel that most of us in the audience "get" John and Abigail.

I think the tone of the movie mirrors the tone in the book excellently. The conflict between Giles Corey and Thomas Putname (AND Rev. Parris) was well represented in the movie. And THANK YOU Arthur Miller for including Giles Corey's sentence of PRESSING - students LOVE that - and it is SO telling of Corey's character.

I recommend this movie to American Literature fans and anyone lucky enough to teach this play. (After all this time, I'm sad my time has come to an end... I've been moved to World Literature...)

Really Chilling Movie

I just finished watching this movie and WOW, the way the movie was created start to finish was brilliant, gritty and intense. I'm not a fan of Winona Ryder at all and only marginally of Daniel Day-Lewis (In short because of Gangs Of New York, although really good acting the rest of the film was awful) their performances were awesome.I really loved the themes of the movie and the whole mob mentality of the girls. I was really gunning for a certain female teenager being hanged. The scene where DDL and WR are forced to face the front while DDL wife is asked questions is in my opinion one of the most intense and heart breaking scenes in film history.Bottom Line is: If you get the chance to see this movie DO!!! it will shock and challenge your way of thinking

powerful story portrayed by powerful performances

Having studied the play at school (and scrutinising every single line of it!) i was very interested when i heard they were making the movie and especially as the original playwrite Arthur Miller was penning the screenplay. the movie stays very close to the original play, and Millers dialogue is delivered usually more than adequately throughout, with one exception. Winona Ryder as Abigail is particularly disappointing as the role demands a lot more than simply the ability to scream and faint. Joan Allen and the actor(whos name escapes me) who plays Paris shine throughout, and Daniel Day Lewis is brilliant as Proctor, especially in the last half an hour of the movie, where the drama increases tenfold. This is an excellent representation of an awful period of history.

Chilling tale of paranoia

Arthur Miller's classic play is turned into a sobering story of how mob psychology and gossip can become hysteria. The witch trial madness of 1692 is well dramatized with a strong cast and a screenplay by Miller himself.The original allegory Miller was presenting in his play had to do with the Red-scare witch hunts of McCarthyism in the 1950s, but the story transcends that setting to show how fear and bigotry can tear a society to shreds.

Historically Inaccurate and Unevenly Fictionalized Tale of the Salem Witch Trials.

Having studied this period well, I was shocked to see the historical inaccuracies and fictionalized events this work attempted to tout as "true." It is alarming to think that people actually attempt to learn their history from any religions or cinematic source! What happened to the age when we all read and studied for ourselves, rather than listening to the corner gossips, which is all this "work" amounts to.This is so over-christianized that it takes itself so seriously as to attempt to beat their ugly lies into anyone who would dare watch.This was a complete lie. The only thing they got right were the names of those involved.This was just sad.It doesn't rate a rating.the Fiend :.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller

The Crucible by Arthur Miller was a very interesting movie. It shows how one little rumor can get out of control. A lot of people are hurt or even killed because of one person's revenge. This movie is good for someone who wants to see how the Salem Whitch trials went.