Jul. 20, 2002 - 10:59 pm
our second Patrick McGoohan and Vanessa Redgrave film for this weekend. i didn't know she would be in both of these. nor did i know that she would be the primary focus of both of these. guess who she played? of course. the title character, Sarah. anyway i am apparently only the 27th person on the IMDb to ever record a vote for this film so i guess my opinion really matters in that sense.
this was a 3 part made for TV film that's distributed by PBS. it was made by the NEA and a bunch of other similar organizations. surprisingly it was very well done though. it's a depiction of the Salem witch trials of the late 17th century in Massachusetts. it deals with the exact same material as Arthur Miller's The Crucible if you've ever read that. same people and everything.
we couldn't believe that Patrick McGoohan played an even smaller role in this film than he did in Mary, Queen of Scots (1971). the film is told in flashback format, with Sarah telling 3 English magistrates the story of the witch trials from the perspective of the accused and about how her two sisters were unjustly executed as witches. McGoohan is one of the 3 magistrates and so we probably only see him onscreen for a total of 10 minutes out of the entire 3 hours. oh well it was still well done.
i would even go so far as to say that this story is much better than Arthur Miller's The Crucible. you get much more character development and much more of a feeling of empathy for the accused. with all the little girls rolling around screaming about how the ladies' spectres are biting them and breaking their arms, etc. it just gets to be insane. you want to ring their necks yourself. so yeah, plotwise it went pretty well, but there was quite a bit to be desired in the more asthetic aspects to the production.
yes, thank you McKay's used book and video store. after seeing Emma (1996) and thinking so much about Jane Austen's writings i decided to pick up the first book i could find by her that i knew nothing about. so now i have a copy of Northanger Abbey. $1.50. and i also saw on of Hitchcock's best early films on sale for $2.95. The 39 Steps (1935) which was mentioned here.