X
- 1996
- PG-13
- Twentieth Century Fox
- 2 h 4 m
- 1996
- PG-13
- Twentieth Century Fox
- 2 h 4 m
Summary A Salem resident attempts to frame her ex-lover's wife for being a witch in the middle of the 1692 witchcraft trials.
Directed By: Nicholas Hytner
Written By: Arthur Miller
- 1996
- PG-13
- Twentieth Century Fox
- 2 h 4 m
- 1996
- PG-13
- Twentieth Century Fox
- 2 h 4 m
The Crucible
75
User Score
Universal Acclaim
8.3
Where to Watch
Summary A Salem resident attempts to frame her ex-lover's wife for being a witch in the middle of the 1692 witchcraft trials.
Directed By: Nicholas Hytner
Written By: Arthur Miller
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 31 Critic Reviews
75
77% Positive
24 Reviews
24 Reviews
19% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
3% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 31 Critic Reviews
75
77% Positive
24 Reviews
24 Reviews
19% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
3% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
The Crucible shrewdly
saves its most potent ammo for the end, audience-friendly showmanship
to further signify a bang-up movie. [27 Nov 1996]
Joan Allen -- playing goody-two-shoes Elizabeth Proctor -- is the standout: She gives Proctor both spine and a desperate, late-blooming awareness that her own unyielding righteousness has helped bring about her family's destruction. Her performance is so true it's almost painful.
THIS is one tough movie....When its uncompromising final scene has faded, we are emotionally shattered, left with some inkling of how the citizens of Salem, Mass., must have felt 300 years ago, after a reign of self-righteous, hysterical, scapegoating terror had swept through their claustrophobic town, sending a significant portion of its tiny population to the gallows, or worse. [20 Sept 1996, p.3E]
It's a good movie about the Salem Witch Trials, featuring a gripping final reel and an impressively broad performance by Daniel Day-Lewis: His fine work throughout the movie's first two thirds is rewarded by several climactic Oscar-clip tirades.
Ryder is particularly impressive in her destructive passion. [27 Nov 1996, p.39]
Neither the establishing dramatic linchpin nor the final conversion of conscience is terribly convincing, leaving this pared-down rendition of the original work diminished in power and meaning as well.
Hytner uses 360-degree camera turns and strange angle shots to inject this largely lifeless business with some drama. Ryder tries to do the same by nearly working herself into cardiac arrest in several monologues. Day-Lewis is acting so hard you can see his lower teeth, which, by the way are sometimes horribly decayed and other times white enough to blind a dental hygienist...See this movie at the peril of your soul.
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 4 User Ratings
8.3
100% Positive
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
0% Mixed
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 4 User Ratings
8.3
100% Positive
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
0% Mixed
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.
Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 2 Nominations
Golden Globes, USA
• 2 Nominations
Awards Circuit Community Awards
• 5 Nominations
