The Crucible - Movie Review Example

The paper "The Crucible by Nicholas Hytner" is a great example of a movie review on visual arts and film studies. There are some major characters of the movie, that are important of the story. John Proctor is the tragic hero, who is honest, speaks bluntly and is a good man. He lusts Abigail Williams and it is the jealousy of Abigail, from his wife, that makes the witch go hysteric. He is shown as a proud man, who is too much concerned about his reputation.  Abigail Williams is a major character and is not very complex.

She is the villain in the movie, she is a liar and a manipulator. In her hysteric situation, she ends the life of nineteen people, who were innocent. She has a lust for power and a sexual desire which drives her. Reverend Hale is a witch hunter and feels pride in ascertaining witchcraft. He is the main character who encourages people to testify in witch trials and because of whom these trials happen.Elizabeth Proctor is a character who plays the role of John Proctors wife; she is cold and virtuous.

Other characters included Betty Paris, Mary Warren, Tituba, Ruth Putnam, and Ann Putnam.Each and every person has their own beliefs, as the Reverend believes that the witches are evil and their actions are unholy, thus he carries trials against them. On the other hand, the motivation of Abigail is to seek revenge, because of the way John treated her and she also sought power. The story takes place in a time where witchcraft was a practice that people didn't like and where power was everything; moreover, sleeping with someone outside of marriage was enough to cause embarrassment, thus the roles in the movie fit the timeline.

The action takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, in the year 1692. The location is important because it was an extremely religious region, where hallucinations were termed as demonic possessions. There was a fear present of witchcraft in these religious regions and because of jealousy and grudges, people used to blame each other of casting spells. There were changes in the movie, which were not present in the textbook-like Betty's mother was shown dead in the movie and not in the play. In the book, Abigail is eleven years old, however, in the movie, she is eighteen years old.

The accused were hanged on the same day in the movie, but they were hanged on different days in the book.The most prominent historical event depicted in the movie is the witchcraft trials. It also depicts the concept of slavery, as there is an African American slave in the movie and the book, Tituba. The place where witchcraft trials happened and the year when they started, are shown in the movie, which is authentic. The unauthentic part of the movie is when the girls are shown dancing naked around the fire, however, in Salem, that could not have been possible at that time because the girls were carefully protected.

Showing a slave in the movie takes the audience back in a time, where slavery was legal and the blacks were treated as slaves.The class readings helped me understand the movie better; from the readings, I understood that Salem holds historical importance because of the witchcraft trials and as there were differences in facts between the readings and the play, I could differentiate between the fictional and the nonfictional one. I knew about Abigail's real age and that she is not related to Reverend Parris.

If someone didn't read the play before watching the movie, then they wouldn't have known about the actual and detailed facts.