Well done rendering of the possibilities involved in the Salem persecutions.

I think it showed what did occur in many of the instances, someone wants something, can't have it, and capitalizes on the fears of others in the hope that they can manipulate their situation.

The ending was very poignant and the acting was believable.
Blessed Be.
unicorn@ptialaska.net

The Crucible. Rosewood. The McCarthy hearings. And now the witchcraze's latest incarnation: the war on drugs. Just as phoney as all the other righteous causes, in the name of which such foul and murderous deeds were done. Of course, it's deja vu. How easily Miller could fit McCarthy to the Salem template. It should, but I'm afraid won't, give us pause.
Blessed Be,
Adam

I liked the Crucible, I don't know anything at all about Wicca and witchcraft, but I still liked the movie.
Leah

almost everything in this movie is false. it told who was accused & showed that that chick wanted that guy(sorry i forgot their names) & totally misrepresented everything! (whatever that means)...I AM GREATLY DISTRAUGHT AT THE THOUGHT THAT PEOPLE WILL BELIEVE THAT THE SALEM WITCHCRAFT TRIALS ACTUALLY OCCURED IN THIS MANNER...I HAVE ALREADY MET ONE. we must inform others of what really happened...also i found it visually disturbing & by the end regretted watching it in the first place....
RavenLodin@aol.com

"The Crucible" a little overwrought, didn't you think? -- MeccaStar@aol.com

The movie is a momument to the smallness and baseness of which all humans are capible. Altho it has little or nothing to do with our actual practices and beliefs - it is a powerful picture of how one can manipulate people thru their ignorance and herd mentality - and how vile the hysteria of the fear of anything not like us can be. What is truly terrible is that it happens again and again (ie Nazi - Germany). It says little about the persecuted and a deal deal about the persecuting.
Brightest Blessings
Raynyng Angel

The Crucible is no longer a new movie but my husband and I rented the video a few weeks ago. I was dissapointed in it as far as cinamatography went. As my husband is blind I do descriptions of the scenes for him. Quite often it was very difficult to sort out in a sensible manner.

I suppose the movie was relatively accurate in its portrayal of the machinations of the young girls who manipulated the community into killing people rather than get into trouble themselves. And I do grant that the story needs to be told - too many have suffered and died at the hands of a frightened and repressed religion with a fear of women.
Blessings,
Sierra SilverOwl

I think that any sort of film on the Craft is good.

People who are biased wil always remain so. But people who have an open mind will look further.

This is how I became a Witch. I saw the Film "Interview with a vampire" looked up Occult sites on the net, read about Wicca, Straga, Asatru and I was hooked. And I will love the Goddess always.
PAllen@dca.gov.au

The play by Arthur Miller actually had nothing to do with witchcraft. It was about hysteria, greed, and intolerance. Historically, it came pretty close to the truth of what happened in Salem. Like Steven Spielberg's movie Schindler's List, it has an important message about what can happen to people when they allow hate, fear, and greed to rule their lives. In this context, I feel that it is an important movie. As for it's depiction of "witches", there were none in the movie and anyone who goes to see it in hopes of practicing a little cinematic voyeurism to find out what witches do, is going to be either very disappointed or very misled.
Lycina

Frankly I didn't like it . But it still is a story that needs to be told.
Michael Scott Proctor

I was very excited to see the film of "The Crucible" when it came out late last year. I live on Long Island but I made the pilgrimage to the city to see the movie. I was completely blown away by the movie. While I agree that the movie has nothing to do with witchcraft as it is practiced, the movie is about witchcraft in so far as the misunderstandings many people have. I don't think the film has done anything to damage witches in anyway because the movie shows those involved in the hysteria were either opportunistic parasites hoping to further their own cause or outright idiots. The film also demonstrates the inherent danger of dogmatic belief systems that, rather than handle any open inquiry with intelligent reason, become hostile and childish. The movie also shows that perhaps children can't always be relied on to tell the truth and can be manipulated into making false statements and are smart enough to lie. If the girls didn't lie about what was really going on, they knew very well they would have been punished severely for their behavior. By crying "witch" they realized that they would be held responsible for nothing. Not only would blame be shifted from them, but they would also become celebrities.

However, the main thing that disturbed me more than anything else about the movie is the injustice of it all and that dispite the passing of three hundred years, things have remained pretty much the same. Intolerance supported by inverted logic is everywhere. Newspapers and television are flooded with contemporary accounts of the hysteria that prevailed in Salem as portrayed in "The Crucible" as well as documented history.

I recommend the movie very highly. Be prepared. Arthur Miller has written the strongest spell Hollywood has cast in a long while. As a species, we have a lot to learn.
Blessed Be!
Jerry

I went to see "The Crucible" with my scientist fiancee. He loved the movie and I absolutely detested it. I thought he would hate it too because of the references to witches and stuff, but he liked the movie. To me, it gave off a really horrible interpretation of witchcraft. Even if the people being accused were not witches, things that were being said just imprinted into the mind of the people that witchcraft is this satanic religion and all that are associated with the craft must be destroyed. This movie was based on the past but people now a days still view the craft in this manner. Those watching this movie who do not know anything about Witchcraft, I am sure were just reaffirmed in their mind that this is what withcraft is all about. Hated it!!!!!
Catherine Maldonado

The play and the movie itself was quite tolerable. Although, I believe the story had nothing to do with Witchcraft, Miller used the Salem Witch trials as a foundation in retrospect to the McCarthy Era. However, Miller's character were all automatons, they were given a role to play and they played without any other additions of emotion. But Daniel Day-Lewis made the movie worthwhile.
BIacklris@aol.com

The movie was based upon a fiction book which is based upon a real case in Salem. Although it is not a "Crafty" story, it is a _very_ important part of American AND Witches' history. Just as the movie Shindler's List was a history lesson, so was the Crucible.
Madeleine

I loved the movie and the play when I read it. It really doesn't have much to do with Witchcraft but is good to show what happened in Salem which is part of the history of witchcraft.
Lily-Flower

I would imagine the lines in the movie were verbatim to the book, seeing as it was written as a play and all. Even though the actual storyline may not be based on historical facts, in many villages in Europe and the colonies events much like this movie happened. I loved it, not many movies make me cry, and this was one of them. (when does it come out on video?)
"More Weight!!"
Greywitch

I went to see this film after I involuntarily mentioned my beliefs to someone who did not approve. I had hoped that this film would help me to understand their explosion and displeasure. I was feeling a bit confused and rattled at the time so possibly did not fully appreciate what I was seeing. It was not a bad film as it made the viewer aware of the persecution and showed well people's ability to overreact.
Paul

That's the movie with Danile day-Lewis and Winona Ryder as the leading characters, right? It's been a while since I saw it (January 97?). Well, apart from the scene in the woods, the one with Tituba, was there ANY witchcraft in that movie?

Lots of psychological stuff, why the girls went along with Abigails make-belief ( unless that counts as witchcraft) and so on, but I never saw this as a movie about witchcraft, only about witchhunt. Oh, and that line of Proctor, when he withdrew his confession: Oh yes I can! And here's your first marvel, that I can. Henry Miller never wanted to make a play about witchcraft, it was a metaphor on the MacCarthy aera, when they hunted communists the way witches were hunted in the past.

I still enjoyed that movie, though.
Nibeth