Review of The Crucible (1996) by Allen G — 29 Jan 2016

The Crucible follows the story of the Salem witch trials that occurred in the the late 1600's and caused many casualties due to paranoid thoughts and potential danger. Through many accusations, many people are questioned and it's all sort of a mystery of who is a witch and who deserves to live.

Arthur Miller's novel is a story I've read that is above average but the screen version is below average however. What I will give this film is that the book to screen adaptation was done really well when it comes to details and character qualities.

Daniel Day Lewis, Joan Allen, and Karron Graves gave above average performances and were fun to watch as they developed on screen. While these actors matching their characters was done well, some characters were seriously over acted.

Winona Ryder and Paul Scofield are well respected actors that have given great performances in movies like Heathers and Quiz Show but in The Crucible they seriously over acted and it became really obnoxious actually.

Understandably, Winona Ryder had to play a really obnoxious character but it became borderline intolerable. The dialogue wasn't awful, it was actually pretty well written, but man it felt like I was watching Shakespeare in a non complimentary way.

The sentences felt overcomplicated and stretched way too long. The film also felt really unnecessarily long too. There were probably 1-3 scenes that if you had taken them out of the film it would not have even mattered.

The film would still play out the same and maybe even better? However this movie does have its perks. The story, despite it being elongated and a bit dull sometimes, has some interesting moments and captures the time period and costume really well and set the right tone for 1692.

There isn't really chemistry between any character until the very end when John has a moment with Elizabeth that's very powerful and there are some emotional moments that suit situations well and most times work.

But then again in every other scene there's someone crying and breaking down on their knees which doesn't feel powerful at all. There's a lot you can say about The Crucible. You can analyze it's themes and characters to death but there's just too many issues for it to be considered a movie to go out of your way to watch.

It was intolerable at times but can be emotionally powerful in others. C-.