The characters, emotions, and plots feel like they could happen today or tomorrow. Though "Crucible" is set hundreds of years ago, I can confidently say that it will endure (in some form or another) for hundreds of years more. That playwright has an incredibly keen sense of universal human themes and how to manipulate them to create high drama. Not being as much of a theater enthusiast as I am of film/TV, this was just the second Arthur Miller work that I had seen ("Death of a Salesman" with Dustin Hoffman being the first). Yet, with John having a shady history with Abigail, they all ended up sucked into the lies and deceit, forcing difficult choices to be made regarding character and honesty. Enter John Proctor (Daniel Day-Lewis) and wife Elizabeth (Joan Allen), a common sense-driven couple who seemingly have the best chance to put an end to this madness. Things get ugly fast and pretty soon the entire community is in an uproar over who may or may not be a witch. What Abigail and the gang quickly discover is that in front of Judge Danforth (Paul Scofield), "acting the part" of witches gives them a great deal of attention and power. Abigail Williams (Winona Ryder) and a number of her teenaged female friends are screwing around in the woods one night (typical teenage rebellion kind of stuff) when they are discovered and charged as witches. It's a shame I waited this long to see it! For a basic plot summary, "The Crucible" is a story set during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. What I quickly discovered, however, is that Arthur Miller's tale here is truly one for the ages. That's probably the reason why it took me so long to actually see this version of "The Crucible", as I thought of it as "old" or "not exciting enough". Sometimes, movies that are designated as "classic" suffer from a strange sort of reverse- discrimination.
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