The Crucible (1996)
Average Rating: 7.4/10
Reviews Counted: 57
Fresh: 39 | Rotten: 18
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 8/10
Critic Reviews: 22
Fresh: 15 | Rotten: 7
No consensus yet.
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Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 30,782
My Rating
Movie Info
When Arthur Miller's play The Crucible was first staged in 1953, it was widely acclaimed as a metaphor for the recklessness of Joseph McCarthy and his spurious crusade against communism. In its 1996 screen adaptation (scripted by Miller), the tone has been adjusted somewhat and plays as a warning against the dangers of political and religious extremism of all kinds. After a group of young women is accused of witchcraft in the Puritan community of Salem, Mass. in 1692, Abigail Williams (Winona
Dec 13, 1996 Wide
Jun 1, 2004
Fox
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Cast
-
Daniel Day-Lewis
John Proctor -
Winona Ryder
Abigail Williams -
Paul Scofield
Judge Danforth -
Joan Allen
Elizabeth Proctor -
Bruce Davison
Rev. Samuel Parris -
Rob Campbell
Reverend John Hale -
Jeffrey Jones
Thomas Putnam -
Karron Graves
Mary Warren -
Ken Cheeseman
Goat Owner -
Mara Clark
Goody Barrow -
Frances Conroy
Ann Putnam -
George Gaynes
Judge Samuel Sewall -
Mary Pat Gleason
Martha Corey -
John Griesemer
Ezekial Cheever -
Elizabeth Lawrence
Rebecca Nurse -
Will Lyman
Isaiah Goodkind -
Tom McDermott
Francis Nurse -
Dossy Peabody
Goody Sibber -
Ashley Peldon
Ruth Putman -
William Preston Robertson
George Jacobs -
Peter Vaughan
Giles Corey -
Charlaine Woodard
Tituba -
Peter Maloney
Dr. Griggs -
-
Michael Gaston
Marshal Herrick -
Rachael Bella
Betty Parris -
Robert Breuler
Judge Hathorne -
Ruth Maleczech
Goody Osborne -
Kali Rocha
Mercy Lewis -
Karen MacDonald
Townswoman -
Anna V. Boksenbaum
Sarah Pope -
Dorothy Brodesser
Mrs Griggs -
Sheila Ferrini
Townswoman -
Amee Gray
Lydia Sheldon -
Lian-Marie Holmes
Deliverance Fuller -
Jessie Kilguss
Deborah Flint -
June Lewin
Townswoman -
Simone Marean
Rachel Buxton -
Michael McKinstry
Daniel Proctor -
Charlotte Melen
Margaret Kenney -
Carmella Mulvihill
Hannah Brown -
Katrina Nevin
Dorcas Bellows -
Steven Ochoa
Putnam's servant -
Sheila Pinkham
Goody Good -
Jane Pulkkinen
Goody Bellows -
Mary Reardon
Esther Wilkens -
Alexander Streit
Joseph Proctor -
Stanely Taylor
Joanna Preston
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All Critics (57) | Top Critics (22) | Fresh (40) | Rotten (18) | DVD (2)
Then there's always Mr. Scofield, bringing an almost unbearable, yet entirely believable, lightness of spirit to his loathsome character. It's a bold stroke by a great actor, making zealotry and evil seem positively beneficent.
Top CriticI recommend Hytner's movie highly, but a part of me resists a work that makes the audience feel as noble in our moral certainty as the characters it invites us to deplore. Some part of its power seems borrowed from the thing it hates.
Her cheeks flush, her winsome beauty seared with erotic rage, Ryder exposes the real roots of the piece. Forget McCarthyism; The Crucible is a colonial Fatal Attraction.
Too bad, though, that The Crucible fails to probe deeper into the sexual, religious, and political conditions that can give false accusations so much power -- even today.
I very much admire how Hytner... keeps the pace swift and doesn't fetishize the 17th-century decors and clothes. But I can't help feeling that in more ways than one, The Crucible is a period piece.
What happened in long-ago Salem does still seem to matter.
Arthur Miller's screenplay keeps everything nice and faithful to the period, and the actors have the dirt on their hands to prove it. The movie lacks polish as well, and that's to everyone's benefit.
A McCarthy-era retelling of the Salem witch trials, Arthur Miller's 1953 play is a literary classic, but this adap falls short.
The story's sickening spiral into madness is preserved.
An intelligent and gripping epic.
The story is unchanged, but its theme relates surprisingly well to today's versions of the bias and scapegoating that Miller rightly deplores.
The physical production of the film is so authentic and compelling, you can't get beyond it, not for a second.
The movie version reveals the play as what it always was: a melodrama about a married guy who shouldn't have dallied with a vengeful girl.
It couldn't be more timely or relevant.
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