THE CRUCIBLE
A film review by Ben Hoffman
Copyright 1997 Ben Hoffman
Arthur Miller is surely one of the great American authors of our time having written Death of a Salesman, All My Sons, After the Fall, The Price, and The Incident at Vichy, among others. The Crucible dates back to 1953 and deals with the red-baiting of the McCarthy era, The play has since been performed all around the world including China. Miller wrote the play because, he said, "I was being surrounded by a feverish flood of accusations od Communism coming from everywhere. There was no way to deal with that in ordinary conversations because if you cast any doubt on the veracity of the accusations you might well be linked to the Devil, which at that time was Communism. In The Crucible, Miller turns to our own Salem witch hunts where a mere accusation that you were in league with the Devil was enough to ruin your life, to have you executed. As with McCarthy and the House Un-American Committee, no proof was needed; a point of the finger sufficed to ruin lives.
Today, with witches and Communism no longer the "threat," there are still the religious Fundamentalists, the mis-named Moral Majority, orthodoxy on college campuses. Says Director Nicholas Hytner, "These are our contemporary Salems."
The story is that of Abigail Williams (Winona Ryder) who has had an affair with John Proctor (Daniel Day Lewis). When he realizes that he has committed a sin, a great injustice to his faithful wife, he rejects Abigail and returns to his wife, Elizabeth (Joan Allen), his real love. Abigail, however, will not let him off that easily. In the climate of Salem she is able to accuse his wife of witchcraft as the whole Massachusetts goes Devil-crazy.
Excellent acting by everyone (notably Paul Scofield as Judge Danforth) brings a reality to the film and an understanding of what it is like to live in a world where a mere accusation can destroy everyone.
Directed by Nicholas Hytner.
Rating: 3.5 Bytes
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Ben Hoffman
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