The Crucible (1996 film)

This article is about the film by Nicholas Hytner. For the film by Raymond Rouleau, see The Crucible (1957 film).

The Crucible
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Nicholas Hytner
Produced by	Robert A. Miller David V. Picker
Screenplay by	Arthur Miller
Based on	The Crucible  by Arthur Miller
Starring	Daniel Day-Lewis Winona Ryder Paul Scofield Joan Allen Jeffrey Jones Peter Vaughan
Music by	George Fenton
Cinematography	Andrew Dunn
Editing by	Tariq Anwar
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	November 27, 1996 (1996-11-27)
Running time	124 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$25 million
Box office	$7,343,114

The Crucible is a 1996 drama film written by Arthur Miller and based on his play of the same name. It was directed by Nicholas Hytner and stars Daniel Day-Lewis as John Proctor, Winona Ryder as Abigail Williams, Paul Scofield as Judge Thomas Danforth, and Joan Allen as Elizabeth Proctor. Much of the filming took place on Choate Island in Essex, Massachusetts.

Plot

Early morning in 1692 Salem, Massachusetts, some young village girls meet in the woods with a Barbadian slave named Tituba (Charlayne Woodard). One of the girls, Abigail Williams (Winona Ryder), kills a chicken and drinks the blood, wishing for John Proctor's wife to die. They are surprised by Abigail's uncle, Reverend Samuel Parris (Bruce Davison), who discovers them. As the girls run away, Parris' daughter, Betty (Rachael Bella), falls over unconscious.

Parris questions Abigail about the events that took place in the woods; Betty will not awaken, nor will Ruth (Ashley Peldon), the daughter of Thomas and Ann Putnam (Jeffrey Jones and Frances Conroy), who was also dancing. This strikes Mrs. Putnam hard as she has had seven other children before Ruth who died at childbirth. The Parris house is also visited by Giles Corey (Peter Vaughan), who suspects that the children are just acting their sicknesses, and John Proctor (Daniel Day-Lewis), with whom Abigail had an affair and whose wife she wants dead. Abigail still loves Proctor, but Proctor feels that he made a mistake and leaves her. The Putnams and Reverend Parris believe that Betty and Ruth are demonically possessed, so they call Reverend John Hale (Rob Campbell) from Beverly, to examine Betty. To save herself and the other girls from punishment, Abigail claims that Tituba was working with the devil. After a brutal whipping, Tituba confesses to being a witch. Struck by their newfound power, the other girls begin naming other women whom they "saw" with the devil. One of these is Elizabeth Proctor (Joan Allen), John Proctor's wife.

John, determined not to give his lover her vengeance, insists that his servant, Mary Warren (Karron Graves), one of the "afflicted" girls, testify in court that the witchcraft was faked. Although Mary Warren is frightened of Abigail, she eventually agrees. In the court, Francis Nurse gives a list of names of people who vouch for the accused; in response, the judges order that all on the list be arrested and brought in for questioning. Giles Corey insists that when Ruth Putnam accused Rebecca Nurse (Elizabeth Lawrence), Mr. Putnam was heard to tell his daughter that she had won him a "fine gift of land" (the Nurses' property was coveted by the Putnam family). Corey refuses to give the name of the person who heard this remark, and the judges order Corey's arrest. Meanwhile, Mary Warren insists that she only thought she saw spirits. John is told that Elizabeth is pregnant and will be spared from death until the baby is born, but he insists on charging the girls with false witness.

The other girls are called in and asked if they were lying about the witchcraft but cause a commotion, screaming that Mary Warren is putting a spell on them. Proctor, out of pure desperation, confesses to having had an affair with Abigail and that she accused Elizabeth to get rid of her in order to be able to marry him. Elizabeth is called in to see if the accusation is true. However, not knowing that John confessed and wanting to save his reputation, she lies. The girls turn the court further against the Proctors by screaming that Mary Warren is attacking them in the form of a yellow bird. To save herself from being hanged as a witch, Mary Warren accuses John. When asked if he will return to God, John despairingly yells "I say God is dead!" and is arrested as a witch, and hanged when he refuses to sign confession papers.

Background

In 1952, Miller's friend Elia Kazan appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC); fearful of being blacklisted from Hollywood, Kazan named eight members of the Group Theatre, including Clifford Odets, Paula Strasberg, Lillian Hellman, Joe Bromberg, and John Garfield, who in recent years had been fellow members of the Communist Party. After speaking with Kazan about his testimony Miller traveled to Salem, Massachusetts to research the witch trials of 1692. The Crucible, in which Miller likened the situation with the House Un-American Activities Committee to the witch hunt in Salem in 1692, opened at the Beck Theatre on Broadway on January 22, 1953. Though widely considered only somewhat successful at the time of its initial release, today The Crucible is Miller's most frequently produced work throughout the world and was adapted into an opera by Robert Ward which won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1962. Miller and Kazan were close friends throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s (the latter had directed the original production of Miller's Death of a Salesman), but after Kazan's testimony to the HUAC, the pair's friendship ended, and they did not speak to each other for the next ten years. The HUAC took an interest in Miller himself not long after The Crucible opened, denying him a passport to attend the play's London opening in 1954. Kazan defended his own actions through his film On the Waterfront, in which a dockworker heroically testifies against a corrupt union boss.

Cast

• Daniel Day-Lewis as John Proctor
• Winona Ryder as Abigail Williams
• Paul Scofield as Judge Thomas Danforth
• Joan Allen as Elizabeth Proctor
• Bruce Davison as Reverend Samuel Parris
• Rob Campbell as Reverend John Hale
• Jeffrey Jones as Thomas Putnam
• Peter Vaughan as Giles Corey
• Karron Graves as Mary Warren
• Charlayne Woodard as Tituba

• Rachael Bella as Betty Parris
• Frances Conroy as Ann Putnam
• Ashley Peldon as Ruth Putnam
• Elizabeth Lawrence as Rebecca Nurse
• George Gaynes as Judge Samuel Sewall
• Mary Pat Gleason as Martha Corey
• Robert Breuler as Judge John Hathorne
• Michael Gaston as Marshal George Herrick
• Dorothy Brodesser as Mabel

Reception

The movie was not a box office success. Review-aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes gave it an overall "fresh" rating of 71%.

Awards and nominations

• Miller was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and Allen also received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
• The film received nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Paul Scofield) and Best Supporting Actress (Joan Allen) from the Hollywood Foreign Press.
• From the International Press Academy, The Crucible received nominations in the Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor (Scofield), and Supporting Actress (Allen) categories.
• Joan Allen won Best Supporting Actress from the Broadcast Film Critics Association.
• Paul Scofield won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor. Arthur Miller was nominated in the Adapted Screenplay category.
• The film was entered into the 47th Berlin International Film Festival.

External links

• The Crucible at the Internet Movie Database
• The Crucible at AllRovi
• The Crucible at Box Office Mojo
• The Crucible at Rotten Tomatoes