The Crucible
Written by Arthur Miller
Directed by Nicholas Hynter
Opened nationally February 6
Review by Jennifer Thompson
Arthur Miller's play about the 1692 witch-trials in Salem, Massachusetts, written in 1953 at the height of the McCarthyite anti-communist crusade, has come to the big screen. Miller's theme — the manipulation of paranoia and hysteria by powerful social factions for their own purposes — gives the play, and its eminently successful reworking into a film, a piercing relevance.
The film gathers speed as an overnight gathering of the puritan village's young women in a forest sparks a tirade of accusations of witchery, fanned by vengeance and terror. In Massachusetts in 1692, the practice of witchcraft was akin to allegiance to the devil, an offence punishable by hanging.
"I wrote it", Miller recounted, "because I was being surrounded by a feverish flood of accusations of communism coming from everywhere. There was no way to deal with that in ordinary conversation 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."
The film gives a sense of the fear and harassment suffered by thousands during the anti-communist reign of terror of the US House Committee on Un-American Activities and FBI during the '50s. Miller was called before the committee in 1956 and convicted for contempt when he refused to name people he'd seen at an alleged communist writers' meeting 10 years before.
The ferocious campaign against the left and progressive political organisations involved many prominent leftists, movie stars, lawyers and musicians being hauled before McCarthy's committee. Those suspected of communist sympathies — especially those who resisted the witch-hunt — were labelled "un-American", and black-listed, ending their careers. Many progressive trade unions and other organisations were destroyed in the process.
In Salem, the accusation of consorting with the devil arises when Abigail Williams (Winona Ryder,) who's broken strict sexual taboos by sleeping with married farmer John Proctor (Daniel Day-Lewis), involves the other young women of the village in a night-time gathering to make spells for the affection of young men.
Abigail's wish is for the death of Proctor's devastated wife, Elizabeth (Joan Allen), but as the ceremony reaches its height, Abigail's uncle, the local Reverend Parris, stumbles in. Next day, as the recriminations and suggestions of witchcraft begin, existing village tensions of greed, grudges, jealousy and the young women's own fear of their culpability spread the net of accusations.
Another preacher arrives, both to investigate and strengthen the position of the village elite's faction, lead by Parris and greedy landowner Thomas Putnam (Jeffrey Jones). The accusations snowball unchecked as villagers fear speaking out lest they also be accused. Then the Puritan court of Massachusetts arrives, lead by Judge Danforth (Paul Scofield) to snatch innocent villagers from their homes to face a trial based entirely on accusations by the young women, led by Abigail.
The hysteria ends only when community support for the trials and hangings — Puritan society leaders had to consider public opinion in the same way our politicians do — erodes with the killing of 19 villagers including John Proctor and other respected community members. The film conveys very well the course of the trials, from when the fear and hysteria gains a life of its own, to the turnaround as community members, encouraged by the resistance of some of those falsely accused and appalled by their deaths, understand the truth.
Other critics have questioned the film's sexual politics, as the young women, especially Abigail the dissembler, are resisting the repressive sexual strictures of the time, but are hardly the heroes of the story. Within the 17th century setting, however, the sexual politics are very believable. The girls' sexual rebellion and desires are not the main point, but the reason for them deflecting blame with accusations of devilry. Abigail's ruthless vendetta against Elizabeth Proctor shows how the accusations gained popularity as a means for ordinary citizens to punish their perceived opponents.
Ryder echoed Miller's comments about the continuing applicability of the play to current times. "There are witch-hunts going on today. I also appreciated The Crucible's portrayal of fear and the mishandling of power. Although society has changed a great deal over the years, the fear of forces one can't understand and control certainly remains, especially in the political arena." It certainly struck a chord with this reviewer. n