The Crucible (1996)
74%RT Audience Score: 66%
Awards & Nominations: NA
This staid adaptation of The Crucible dutifully renders Arthur Miller’s landmark play on the screen with handsome production design and sturdy performances, if not with the political anger and thematic depth that earned the drama its reputation
The Crucible” is a movie that will make you feel like you’re back in history class, but with more drama and less boredom. The acting is top-notch, with standout performances from Winona Ryder and Paul Scofield. And while the movie may not delve too deeply into the political and social issues that led to the Salem witch trials, it’s still a gripping and intense watch. Just be prepared for some serious shouting.
Production Company(ies)
Pakula-Mulligan Brentwood Productions,
Distributor
20th Century Fox
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
House of Seven Gables, Salem, Massachusetts, USA
MPAA / Certificate
Rated PG-13 for intense depiction of the Salem witch trials
Year of Release
1996
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby Dolby Digital
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:2h 3m
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Language(s):English
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Nov 27, 1996 Original
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 1, 2004
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
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Worldwide gross: $7,343,114
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $14,016,136
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,849
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 1,528,477
US/Canada gross: $7,343,114
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $14,016,136
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,512
US/Canada opening weekend: $62,995
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $120,241
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,866
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $25,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $47,718,638
Production budget ranking: 831
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $25,696,486
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): -$59,398,988
ROI to date (est.): -81%
ROI ranking: 1,891
Walter Pidgeon – Clem Miniver
Dame May Whitty – Lady Beldon
Teresa Wright – Carol Beldon
Reginald Owen – Foley, Storekeeper and Air-raid Warden
Henry Travers – Mr. Ballard, Station-master and Bell-ringer
Director(s)
Nicholas Hytner
Writer(s)
Arthur Miller
Producer(s)
Robert A. Miller, David V. Picker
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
NA
Academy Awards
Oscar Nominees
All Critics (62) | Top Critics (26) | Fresh (43) | Rotten (19)
Perhaps understanding the distance that these fictional interpretations have created, The Crucible seems to invite a moral and emotional, rather then political reading.
December 7, 2018
Ryan Gilbey
Independent (UK)
TOP CRITIC
Then there’s always Mr. Scofield, bringing an almost unbearable, yet entirely believable, lightness of spirit to his loathsome character. It’s a bold stroke by a great actor, making zealotry and evil seem positively beneficent.
May 17, 2013
Joe Morgenstern
Wall Street Journal
TOP CRITIC
I recommend Hytner’s movie highly, but a part of me resists a work that makes the audience feel as noble in our moral certainty as the characters it invites us to deplore. Some part of its power seems borrowed from the thing it hates.
May 17, 2013
David Ansen
Newsweek
TOP CRITIC
Her cheeks flush, her winsome beauty seared with erotic rage, Ryder exposes the real roots of the piece. Forget McCarthyism; The Crucible is a colonial Fatal Attraction.
May 17, 2013
Richard Corliss
TIME Magazine
TOP CRITIC
Too bad, though, that The Crucible fails to probe deeper into the sexual, religious, and political conditions that can give false accusations so much power — even today.
May 17, 2013 | Rating: 2.5/4
Misha Berson
Seattle Times
TOP CRITIC
Arthur Miller’s screenplay keeps everything nice and faithful to the period, and the actors have the dirt on their hands to prove it. The movie lacks polish as well, and that’s to everyone’s benefit.
May 17, 2013
Stephen Thompson
AV Club
TOP CRITIC
The Crucible earned two Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress (Allen) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Miller), but it should have received many more, including one for Best Picture — it’s truly one of the great forgotten films of its era.
April 10, 2022 | Rating: 4/4
Matt Brunson
Film Frenzy
The miracle of Nicholas Hytner’s rigorous, taut film arises from its ability to capture the high theatricality of its life in the theater.
December 5, 2018 | Rating: 4.5/5
Malcolm Johnson
Hartford Courant
A competent, uncontroversial, rather shouty version of a play which is now safely canonical and, if the philistinism may be forgiven, less remarkable than it once seemed, when dramas of the liberal conscience had an urgent edge.
December 5, 2018
Kevin Jackson
Independent on Sunday
The clarity of the direction and the quality of the acting make it the best rendition of the author’s work that any of us is likely to see either on screen or on stage.
March 2, 2018
Edmund S. Morgan
The New York Review of Books
Plodding film based on play has mature themes, sex, violence
January 26, 2016 | Rating: 2/5
Barbara Shulgasser
Common Sense Media
A McCarthy-era retelling of the Salem witch trials, Arthur Miller’s 1953 play is a literary classic, but this adap falls short.
May 17, 2013 | Rating: 3/5
Andrew Lowry
Total Film…
Plot
A small group of teen girls in 1692 Salem, Massachusetts caught in an innocent conjuring of love potions to catch young men are forced to tell lies that Satan had invaded them and forced them to participate in the rites and are then forced to name those involved. Thrown into the mix are greedy preachers and other major landowners trying to steal others’ land and one young woman infatuated with a married man and determined to get rid of his innocent wife. Arthur Miller wrote the events and the subsequent trials where those who demanded their innocence were executed, those who would not name names were incarcerated and tortured, and those who admitted their guilt were immediately freed as a parable of the Congressional Communist witch hunts led by Senator Joe McCarthy in 1950’s America.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
NA
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