I completely remember watching The Crucible in its motion picture version last year in AP US History I. We had gotten to the point in history about Puritans and the settling of the English colonies. I believe we watched only half of the movie though, because I don't remember how the ending turns out. However the movie, like any other movie adapted from a piece of literature, included one extra change. In the written play The Crucible the setting jumps straight to Betty unconscious in bed. However, the very beginning of the motion picture started with a scene of the girls dancing in the woods. I thought the motion picture was very well put together and the extra dancing-in-the-woods scene included everything that was later described by the girls. Tituba was shown chanting next to a pot while Mercy ran around naked and Abigail drank chicken's blood and eventually a frog jumped into the pot, making all the girls scream before they took off into the woods screaming after being discovered by Reverend Parris.
I will not lie, the actress who played Abigail in the motion picture was pretty, but she also had that look that contained a mean streak. The actress had that look of someone who does not put up with anybody's...ridiculous behavior. Abigail is also described in the play as being a strong, powerful girl who is not afraid to kill. I have to give credit for the motion picture company's acting scouts for finding the right actress who looked like she could take out anybody.
As a side note, I also remember one of my history classes where we were talking about the Salem Witch Trials. However I do not remember details about what was being taught because I was falling asleep. Although I was sitting in the front row right in front of the teacher, I could not help but doze off a little bit. We were actually talking about the land wars that had been going on in Salem at the time. I remember picking up little bits of information in my sleep such as the rivalry between the Putnam family and other families in the village. I also remember we had to write a thesis about the land wars in Salem and unfortunately I don't think I did too well on that assignment. However, I am doing my best to get to sleep as soon as possible so hopefully I won't have to fall asleep in any classes this year.
P.S. So far this year, I have only fallen asleep in one class, AP Statistics, but I was lucky enough to not have missed any important material.
Something I've realized after reading books that also have a movie is that my image of a character from a book I've read is always different than the image of the character from the movie. This is one of the reasons I sometimes prefer to read and not watch the movie (assuming there is a movie version) because the movie tends to ruin my perfect image of a character.
ReplyDeleteTotally with you, Noel! A good writer will be able to allow the reader to paint a picture of the characters in his or her own mind, and when you have an idea about how a character looks or sounds, it can be quite a letdown to see an actor who looks nothing like what you were picturing play that character.
ReplyDeleteEric, glad to hear that you have not fallen asleep in English class so far this year.