The Crucible

The Salem Witchcraft trials during 1692 -93 was a period of horror, paranoia, and unfortunate shedding of innocent blood for colonial Massachusetts. Considered one of North America’s most notorious case of ‘mass hysteria’’, the event has been used in popular literature and captured through the eyes of different writers and artists since the event took place, and one of those people was American playwright Arthur Miller, who studied the trials in order to construct a dramatized play of said events under the name ‘The Crucible’. Meant to also act as an allegory for the McCarthy era communism allegations thrown at a lot of people during the period of its creation, the play (despite early reviews being surprisingly hostile) wormed its way into becoming a classic and lasting as a central piece of work in American drama. It eventually got turned into a film version in 1996, which was weirdly met with a very similar early response. Set back during 1692, a group of young girls participate in a pagan-like ceremony that eventually causes the town to suspect witchcraft. The supposed ringleader of the girls, Abigail (played by Wionna Ryder) wished for the death of Elizabeth Proctor (played by Joan Allen) as she lusts and pines for her husband, John Proctor (played by Daniel Day Lewis) who she had an affair with, and fearing the consequences of said ritual, the girls ‘’cry wolf’’ and start convincing the town that the devil is contacting them and that several other women are hidden witches. As more and more people get wrongfully accused as the girls keep playing their game, Elizabeth Proctor is the next name on the list to be chosen, and John is adamant to prove the girl’s falsehoods, and with assistance from Reverend John Hale (played by Rob Campbell) the two will try to proof what is real and what is not to make sure another innocent woman isn’t strung up. Bizarrely, the film doesn’t feature many active flaws, yet wasn’t an overwhelming success or even universally loved as it was given modest reviews from critics and was a box office disappointment. Despite its good qualities, something about this movie just didn’t click for people.

The set-up for the play as well as the movie is one that is perfect for engaging drama and one that can be equally enthralling and real as it can be uncomfortable and frustrating in how accurate the situation can feel. The mere idiocy surrounding these trials and the frantic frenzy that had grown in the people of this small village due to the intense religious extremes that they had lived with a majority of their lives makes for a very important and cautionary story about wrongful convictions and the power someone’s voice can have over other people’s lives (whether better or worse) and it even carries its own satirical edge to it with its connections to the paranoia surrounding Communism when the original play was created. It’s a movie that feels like its translated nicely from stage to screen, but still manages to capture certain aspects that do help make the movie distinct as oppose to become distracting. The lay-out of the dialogue, scene composition and even acting feels very much like how a play would direct its scenes, which makes a lot of sense since the director of the film, Nicholas Hytner, was best known for being a theatre director and worked on films that had a distinct theatre-style to it. Thankfully, this works for the best as he is able to compose these scenes and direct these actors in a genuine enough way that feels like it captures the essence of the play while making it feel cinematic enough that it doesn’t feel redundant. The narrative’s strength lies in its portrayal of such a twisted, yet impactful event in history that (while definitely taking liberties on actual events and real people), delivers this almost two-hour long tale with enough grounded conviction to make it feel more authentic as opposed to fully realistic. It has an energy that feels more akin to a ‘period piece film’ as opposed to a gritty real-life event, but it adds to the film as opposed to retracts from it. It weirdly gets less engaging once the movie reaches its third act as it picks a specific goal for a character to achieve as opposed to experiencing the situation as a whole, and while it still ends strongly, it doesn’t feel as engrossing as when it started.

The movie feels like it’s a very strong cast in terms of being an ensemble. Even if a lot of the characters go unnamed or only exist as background characters to push the story further, it feels like every person contributes something to the atmosphere, environment, and purpose of what this story is trying to convey and achieve.  Its why it strangely doesn’t feel as effective when it singles out a singular protagonist and focal point as it worked much stronger as a group tragedy as opposed to an individual tragedy. Beside that point, the acting in this film is very good, emulating the almost crazed mob-like mentality of the puritan period, while going an extra step beyond thanks to its playwright’s roots where some of the dramatic over-acting works in giving the movie a truly demented feel. Wiona Ryder especially shines as essentially the movie’s main antagonist; her hysteric cracked mental state portrayed through seamless shifting facial expressions and her high-pitched youthful bratty nature makes the character incredibly unlikeable in the best way possible, it’s a performance that really shows off a wicked witch in the truest form. Some of the other cast members like Joan Allen, Karron Graves, Charlayne Woodard, Paul Scofield and Rob Campbell really do their best with basic roles and bring a lot of believable intrigue to their parts, while roles like Bruce Davison, Jeffrey Jones and Daniel Day Lewis don’t feel as engaging or authentic. Daniel Day Lewis especially has an odd phrasing with his accent and despite always sounding like he’s trying and truly feeling at least like he is someone of the times through his movements and mannerism, his performance is either too underwhelmingly generic or awkwardly over-dramatic to feel as authentic as the others, who are also over-the-top, but in a less distracting manner.

The writing feels very lyrical, very much like the time period its based In, and somehow doesn’t come across as hard to follow. Showing the strength of having a playwright write your dialogue and having a theatre director helm your movie, it allows the writing to not feel out of place and thanks to the environment and time period itself, this Shakespearean method of talking feels perfectly reasonable in this type of location and through its sturdy performances that clearly feel well-versed in this manner of dialogue, it never feels phoney or like the actors are struggling to speak in this dialect. When you hear these actors say their lines (even ones that aren’t as strong like Day Lewis), it feels incredibly believable and genuine rather than modern people siting these lines like they’re reading Shakespeare . The production design by Lilly Kilvert and costume design by Bob Crowley gives the movie an atmosphere that goes into this almost old gothic fairy tale environment; like its seeped in cloud and fog and blue filters, but without being overly ugly or bland looking. It reaches that right point where it feels bitter and cold enough in tone, but also has enough dramatic angles and long-takes of hyper-aggressive screaming and crying to feel uncomfortable which comes from the cinematography by Andrew Dunn, but also captures a somewhat nightmarish atmosphere that breaks you mentally before it does physically.

The Crucible is a film that has a lot of really great elements that work in its favor to be a critical and commercial darling, yet not only did it not succeed, it weirdly doesn’t feel like that fantastic a film despite not really having that many actual flaws. Its last act isn’t as engaging as its first and some of the acting can be a little awkward, but for what this play was and how it was adapted into a movie, it did everything that you could with it. It has an engaging narrative that tackles an important point in history while also using its concept to highlight dangerous connections to modern day, the acting is wonderfully passionate and filled with that great aggressive psychotic nature that strangely fits with this environment, and the atmosphere is subtly effective along with its production design feeling appropriate for the time. Its probably not a movie that is going to work for everybody, but it will have its audience. Check it out and see for yourself if this movie’s shortcomings had merit or if they were the source of witchcraft.