The Crucible

Ah, the Salem Witch Trials, the vehicle of vehemence for all haters of organized religion. The Crucible depicts this sad event and shows us the sad ends that people will go to in order to protect themselves.

Some of the characters actions strike you as inhumanely stupid, if not for the fact that they are true. There are very few good characters in this, most characters are privy to the same manic feelings of self preservation. This movie left me not feeling very good about human nature.

The acting was tremendous. The sets were standard, but not really a big part of the town. Winona Rider, a villain for once, was excellent playing a highly intelligent character who played the town like a piano to get what she wants.

Daniel Day Lewis, the hero, played close to the vest early on and I was a bit disappointed, knowing that he usually plays such vibrant and intense characters. By the end, I wasn't disappointed. As an actor, he can make his body react physically to what he wants, if he wants to sweat, he sweats, if he wants his face to turn scarlet, it turns scarlet, if he wants to foam at the mouth(literally) with intensity, he can.

The supporting cast was excellent as everyone turned on each other when they reached the point of desperation where only their own lives matter. There are very few good characters and two of them originally appeared to be the most despicable.

This film was originally a stage play by Arthur Miller, and obviously so, the characters are made for the theatre as well as the scenes. Its a good viewing, although I missed 20 minutes of it because Netflix gave me a DVD that skipped.

This is a good film, it doesn't act as most movies do, where there are good and bad characters, instead its a world of confusion and hysteria, where the best characters are still flawed and are acted to be so, the line between good and evil is blurry, only defined by who will shame anothers name for their own self preservation.