The Crucible

Although the McCarthy-led HUAC investigations that were the target of Arthur Miller’s1953 play The Crucible which was based on the infamous Salem witch trials of 1692-93 are long gone, the work still merits attention both as a historical recreation and a case study of a phenomenon - generally speaking, mass autosuggestion - that is not limited to any particular place and time.

Set in Puritan Massachusetts the play is a cautionary tale about the power of faith-based belief and the wily ways of self-interest as a group of girls led by Abigail Williams (Winona Ryder) a young woman spurned in love by farmer John Proctor (Daniel Day-Lewis) ignites a small religious community’s fear of the devil with stories of Satanic possession eventually accusing Proctor’s devout wife, Elizabeth (Joan Allen) who she wants out of the way so that she can have John to herself, of consorting with Satan. So afeared is the community that a judge (Paul Scofield) is called in and a trial is held that quickly turns into a self-combusting spiral of accusation and counter-accusation that threatens to swallow the whole community.

Scripted by Miller himself, this adaptation (unlike the original play) opens with the girls enacting a pretend witches’ coven, dancing around a fire and bearing their bare breasts before being sprung by Abigail’s uncle, the Reverend Parris (Bruce Davison) who is quick to assume dark forces at work. Whilst the dysfunctionality that results from religious and social repression is the psychological driver that underpins events, Miller’s primary interest is in the way that that this irrationality engenders a new and deadly self-confirming logic, the events unfolding around Judge Danforth’s promise that if the residents confess to deeds they haven't done they won’t hang, meaning in effect that the reward for honesty is death and vice versa- a moral contradiction ultimately borne by Proctor and his fellow accused. 

The wintry Massachusetts location and bare interiors work well, despite the relatively modest production budget to take us into the historical setting while Miller’s literary and somewhat archaicized dialogue ensures that we remain aware of film as essentially a theatrical representation. The cast all give strong performances (although one would have to say that the casting of Jeffrey Jones, best-known as Ed Rooney, Ferris Bueller’s hapless principal, is unfortunate). Winona Ryder is truly a little monster as the lying, manipulative Abigail. Somewhat surprisingly Daniel Day-Lewis gives one of his less impressive performances although he does come into his own in the latter part of the film when tensions boil over. Paul Scofield is excellent as the self-righteously Inquisitorial judge as is Joan Allen as Proctor's asthenic wife though her role is quite small. 

Although Hytner and Miller's film is solid enough, building to a climactic  trial scene, one cannot help but wonder if either was familiar with the uncompromising works of Carl Th. Dreyer or even Ingmar Bergman which should have been the points of reference here. Instead Proctor is portrayed by Day-Lewis (Miller's son-in-law) even in his lowest moments as a sex-object something which robs the narrative of the resonance it should have had.

 FYI: Miller himself was questioned by the House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956 and convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to identify others present at meetings he had attended.

 

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