The Crucible

Synopsis: 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.
Genre: Drama, History
Director(s): Nicholas Hytner
Production: Fox
  Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 4 wins & 27 nominations.
 
IMDB:
6.8
Rotten Tomatoes:
68%
PG-13
Year:
1996
124 min
13,825 Views


- Did you bring it?

- I got it in here.

Quickly.

Shh!

What you bring me?

Joseph Baker.

Richard Wilkens.

- Matthew Hopkins.

- Daniel Hopkins.

- Daniel Poole.

- Jacob Pope.

- William Bridges.

- Adam Town.

- Jacob Poole.

- Michael Pope.

Betty?

Ruth.

Make a spell on Joseph Baker,

Tituba.

Make him love me.

Make Daniel Poole my husband.

- Bring me Adam Town.

- I want Jacob Poole to love me forever.

Abby, who do you want?

- She wants John Proctor.

- Get her John Proctor again, Tituba.

No, Abby.

That be a bad thing!

Abby, no!

It's the minister!

Come away! He'll see us!

I can't move! Abby, I can't move!

Help me! Help me!

No! No! I can't move!

Help me, please!

I can't move!

Oh, help me!

No! No! No! No!

Help! No!

Dress the child

and come to my study.

Betty.

Betty!

Betty?

If it please, Mrs. Griggs...

Reverend Parris asks that the doctor

come at once. Betty's gone sick.

- She can't wake.

- Can't she?

The doctor's gone to the Putnams'.

Their Ruth can't wake either.

I fear there be no medicines for this.

I have seen nothing like it before.

There be no fever...

nor wound...

and yet she sleeps.

Oh, dear Lord.

My Betty is the same.

- The same?

- Only her eyes are closed.

It's the devil, isn't it?

The devil has taken hold of them.

Oh, Goody Putnam, I know not...

Doctor, I beg you. She is my

last, my only. I cannot lose her.

I shall do all I can, Goody Putnam...

but this may be a sickness beyond

my art.

Thomas!

I beg you.

- We cannot leap to witchcraft for the cause of this.

- Don't you understand it, sir?

There are hurtful, vengeful spirits

laying hands on these children.

Let you take hold here.

Let no one charge you.

Declare it yourself.

Not yet.

I- I-I need time.

I must think.

I must pray.

Yes. I agree with Reverend Parris.

Good day to you, sir.

She still sleeps, then, Doctor?

- She flies, you know.

- Flies?

- Aye.

- Oh, come now, man.

- George Collins seen it with his own eyes.

- Seen what?

The minister's daughter going over...

Uncle, perhaps you ought to go down

and tell the people to...

What shall I tell them?

That my daughter and my niece...

I discovered dancing like heathen

in the forest?

We did dance...

and let me be whipped if I must be...

but they are talking of witchcraft.

Betty's not witched!

Were you conjuring spirits in the

forest?

- I want the truth now.

- We never conjured spirits.

Now hear me, child.

You must know that there is

a faction in this church...

- sworn to drive me from my pulpit.

- I know that, sir.

And they will destroy me now

if my own house...

turns out to be the center of some

obscene practice.

Now, I saw someone naked running

through the trees.

- No one was...

- Don't lie to me! I saw it!

- 'Twere only sport, Uncle.

- You call this sport? She cannot wake!

Now, give me upright answer now.

Your name in the town is entirely white.

Is it not?

There be no blush about my name, sir.

Why did Goody Proctor

discharge you from her service?

Because I refused to be her slave.

I- I have heard said that John Proctor...

John Proctor and you...

My name is good in the village!

Elizabeth Proctor's an envious,

gossiping liar!

Mr. Parris! They're asking for

you. You must come down, sir.

Betty, my sweet, wake up.

Wake up, Betty.

Betty.

Now, stop this!

I know you hear me.

Wake up now!

Betty!

John! Giles and Martha are here!

All right.

- Boys.

- Come on.

You got to come with me to

the village, John.

Mr. Parris, God help us, has

summoned a meeting of the society.

- What for?

- What for?

Why has that man ever

called a meeting...

except for his own benefit?

I'm explaining it, Martha.

Sorry not to have noticed.

They are saying his daughter Betty

has been witched.

- Witched?

- Aye. She sleeps and can't be waked...

and the Putnam girl too, they say.

- What do you know of this silliness, Mary Warren?

- Nothing.

I smell mischief here.

You must come with me, John.

Folk will be looking to your judgment.

- How can they not wake up?

- God knows.

- You go right ahead, Giles. I'll be along.

- Right.

- I'll see you soon, Elizabeth.

- Good-bye, Martha.

There are still flowers in the field.

You might cut some.

It's winter in here yet.

Aye, I'll cut some flowers.

Hurry! Hurry, we'll be late!

Wait for me!

I'll race you to the meetinghouse!

Get up, now. Get up.

Give a penny. Give a penny.

I know the devil.

Goody Osborne,

you have no permission to beg here.

I'll wait for you.

I fear this.

Fear it? Why?

Let us quiet our hearts.

You are all aware of the rumors...

of that spirit come among us out

of hell...

That hateful enemy of God

and all Christian people, the devil.

Now, I have invited...

the Reverend John Hale of

Beverly to come to Salem.

He has...

He has delved deeply

into all demonic arts...

and will surely go to the bottom

of this.

You may recall in Beverly last year...

they believed they had a witch...

until Mr. Hale examined her...

and decided she was innocent to

witchcraft.

But it-it may well be that in Salem...

he will find signs of

Lucifer, and if so...

you may be sure

he will hunt him down.

Let us turn our hearts...

to Psalm 73...

"Sure God is good to Israel. "

You will stop this now!

Betty!

What will we do?

The whole country's talking witchcraft!

She means to tell.

We've got to tell,

or they'll be calling us witches!

Witchery's a hanging error...

like they done in Boston two year ago.

You'll only be whipped for trying to

conjure the boys and the dancing.

Now, listen to me, Betty dear.

I've talked to your papa,

and I've told him everything...

so there's nothing to be feared

anymore.

I want my mama.

Your mama's dead and buried!

I'll fly to her!

Let me fly!

Stop it! Betty, come here!

Mama! No! Mama!

Why are you doing this?

I've told him.

He knows now.

You drank blood, Abby.

You didn't tell him that!

You never say that again!

You drank

a charm to kill John Proctor's wife.

No, Abby.

You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!

Shut up!

Is she going to die?

Now, look, you... all of you.

We danced.

That is all.

And mark this...

Let anyone breathe a word...

or the edge of a word about the

other things...

and I will come to you in the

black of some terrible night...

and I will bring with me a pointy

reckoning that will shudder you...

and you know I can do it.

I saw Indians smash my dear parent's

head on the pillow next to mine...

and I have seen some

reddish work done at night...

and I can make you wish

you never saw the sun go down.

- Mama!

- No, Betty!

Mama!

Mama! Mama!

- Mama!

- Keep still, you little devil!

Betty! Oh, Betty!

It's when she heard the psalm.

She run straight for the window.

Mark it for a sign, Mr. Parris.

My mother told me that.

There is hard sickness here,

Giles Corey.

So please to keep the quiet.

I've not said a word.

Nobody can testify I've said a word.

Rebecca, I fear we're lost.

She cannot bear to hear the

Rate this script:4.7 / 3 votes

Arthur Miller

Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist, and figure in twentieth-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953) and A View from the Bridge (1955, revised 1956). He also wrote several screenplays and was most noted for his work on The Misfits (1961). The drama Death of a Salesman has been numbered on the short list of finest American plays in the 20th century alongside Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night and Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire.Miller was often in the public eye, particularly during the late 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s. During this time, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama; testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee; and was married to Marilyn Monroe. In 1980, Miller received the St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates. He received the Prince of Asturias Award and the Praemium Imperiale prize in 2002 and the Jerusalem Prize in 2003, as well as the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Lifetime Achievement Award. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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    "The Crucible" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 5 Nov. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/the_crucible_6106>.

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