The Crucible

The Crucible, the movie version, was produced in order to pay tribute and shed more light on the catastrophic witch trials during the late 1600's. Previously to the movie, Author Miller wrote a novel to portray the events that had unfolded in Salem, Massachusetts. I found that the movie tried too hard to stay true to the novel and was ultimately limited in it's abilities to deliver an interesting and crowd pleasing movie. To make matters worse, it was severely weakened by its lack of character development, which led the audience to lose interest in the movie.

Taking place in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, the crucible opens with a group of teenage girls dancing in the forest while trying desperately to conjure spirits in hopes of making love potions. The ring leader of these misguided girls is Abigail Williams, who through out the movie is driven by her own selfish desire to court a man who is married to a sick women, goody proctor.

Salem, Oregon

Reverend Samuel Parris (1653-1720)

"Court Trial of Witches", illustrator unknown

As the girls are innocently experimenting with witchcraft, they are interrupted by Reverend Parris, who is shocked to see is own daughter taking part in this shameful deed. Parris' shock to seeing his daughter is no match to the paralysis that she goes into after being caught. In a state of panic, the girls half-mindedly avoided punishment by lying about the witch craft and began to name names of other witches that they claim that they saw in the devils circle. As the story continues the town of Salem turns into a witch crazy and everyone is being accused. Abigail abuses her power as the witch hunter and uses it to explore her personal vendettas against Goody Proctor in order to get Mr. Procter as a husband. Proctor himself, was even accused as...