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Cinergi Pictures
Hollywood Pictures
Lightmotive
Moving Pictures
Not part of a collection.
When intimacy is forbidden and passion is a sin, love is the most defiant crime of all.
Set in puritanical Boston in the mid 1600s, the story of seamstress Hester Prynne, who is outcast after she becomes pregnant by a respected reverend. She refuses to divulge the name of the father, is "convicted" of adultery and forced to wear a scarlet "A" until an Indian attack unites the Puritans and leads to a reevaluation of their laws and morals.
Wuchak
Jun 10, 2025 · via TMDB
**_A glimpse of what it was like to live on the Northeast coast in the mid-1600s_** Hester Prynne arrives at the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1666 (Demi Moore) to set up a homestead in preparation for her husband. As she gets to know the local pastor, Arthur Dimmesdale (Gary Oldman), they get word of tragedy concerning her spouse (Robert Duvall). "The Scarlet Letter” (1995) is notorious for being one of the worst adaptions of a well-known novel ever made, but movies usually make significant changes, such as Coppola & writer James Hart adding a love story to “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” which didn’t hinder that movie from being a popular (modest) hit. Even films based on recent novels make notable changes, such as “Serena.” How much more so with a book from 1850? Adding details on how Hester meets Arthur and how their relationship evolves works in my book. After all, viewers need to know why the protagonists were susceptible to the moral transgression in question. Of course, the reason Hawthorne’s book delayed the revelation of who Hester committed adultery with was to create suspense and provoke shock when it’s revealed to be the minister. Speaking of Arthur, he’s more noble here compared to the book where he’s an over-the-top hypocrite. They made the lumber baron in “Serena” more honorable as well. Or consider Roger Moore, who refused to portray James Bond as a woman-beater after his first movie in the role, which was a hit. Once actors gain an amount of clout, they’ll play the part the way they want to, not the way the book (or scriptwriter or director) technically says. Other changes include the addition of a slave woman, Mituba, but her role is so marginal, it doesn’t matter. Expanding the roles of the Wampanoag and Mi'kmaq peoples (the latter referred to as the Tarrantines) is also so slight that it’s not a big deal. And, honestly, I feel their expansion enhances the proceedings. So, the biggest change, is the ending, which isn’t as downbeat as the book, but isn’t exactly Disney-fied either, if you pay attention to Pearl’s narration. What I like most is how the movie successfully puts you into the setting of the Massachusetts Bay Colony of the mid-1600s and makes the Puritans & others come alive. While this is romantic drama within a historical setting, there are bits of adventure, thrills, moral complexity and theological ruminations, as well as tragedy. It comes across as a mixture of films like “The Last of the Mohicans,” “Rob Roy” and “The Crucible,” the latter not debuting until the year after this one. It runs 2 hours, 15 minutes, and was shot on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, including areas around Campbell River. Other scenes were shot on the other side of Canada in Nova Scotia; specifically in the towns of Yarmouth and Shelburne, as well as the village of Saint Alphonse in Clare. GRADE: B+/A-
CinemaSerf
Mar 28, 2022 · via TMDB
Heavens, but this is heavy going. Demi Moore is "Hester", sent on to a Massachusetts colony ahead of her husband to set up their new home. Determined to stand on her own two feet, she invites the enmity of the community by insisting on living on her own. Her only ally seems to be the preacher "Dimmesdale" (Gary Oldman) and he becomes more crucial when it looks like her husband has been killed in a shipwreck and when, shortly thereafter, she becomes pregnant. Determined not to reveal the identity of the father, she endures the disdain from her somewhat puritanical neighbours and both her and her daughter are shunned. Suddenly, enter Robert Duvall ("Roger") her long lost, and not very likeable, husband who decides that vengeance shall be his - and a burning might soon be in the offing. Despite an half decent cast, with some very solid supporting characters from the likes of Edward Hardwicke and Joan Plowright, the story is stolid in it's delivery. The opportunities to illustrate and expose the superstitious and hypocritical standards of the day; of the population who lived in a male-dominated, god-fearing society are lost in a stodgy dialogue with repetitive scenarios that look good, but take the story forward with the speed of a rhino stuck in treacle. This suffered from too much resource, too long a filming schedule and a very weakly delivered narrative and at the end I may well have volunteered myself for the flames.
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
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Amazon Video
Apple TV Store
Google Play Movies
YouTube
Fandango At Home
Demi Moore
Hester Prynne
Gary Oldman
Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale
Robert Duvall
Roger Chillingworth
Lisa Andoh
Mituba
Edward Hardwicke
Gov. John Bellingham
Robert Prosky
Horace Stonehall
Roy Dotrice
Rev. Thomas Cheever
Joan Plowright
Harriet Hibbons
Malcolm Storry
Maj. Dunsmuir
Larissa Laskin
Goody Mortimer
Amy Wright
Goody Gotwick
George Aguilar
Johnny Sassamon
Tim Woodward
Brewster Stonehall
Joan Gregson
Elizabeth Cheever
Dana Ivey
Meredith Stonehall
Diane Salinger
Margaret Bellingham
Jocelyn Cunningham
Mary Rollings
Eric Schweig
Metacomet
Kristin Fairlie
Faith Stonehall
Deborah Tennant
Quaker Lady
Kateri Walker
Female Sachem
Nicholas Rice
The Clerk
Len Doncheff
Trader
Evelyn Francis
Algonquin Native
Jeremy Akerman
Middle Aged Passenger
Scout LaRue Willis
Pearl
Tallulah Willis
Baby Pearl
Jodhi May
Voice of Pearl (voice)
Alex Thomson
Director of Photography
Gabriella Pescucci
Costume Design
Brent Woolsey
Stunt Coordinator
Jeff Dashnaw
Stunt Coordinator
Alex Green
Stunts
Corry Glass
Stunts
David Jacox
Stunts
Duane Howard
Stunts
Flint Eagle
Stunts
Guy Bews
Stunts
Jamie Jones
Stunts
Mike Mitchell
Stunts
Paul Rutledge
Stunts
Sue Parker
Stunts
Tom Glass
Stunts
Roland Joffé
Director
John Gallagher
Second Assistant Director
Lars P. Winther
Second Assistant Director
Buddy Joe Hooker
Second Unit Director
Robert F. Colesberry
Co-Producer
Dodi Fayed
Executive Producer
Andrew G. Vajna
Producer
Roland Joffé
Producer
John Barry
Original Music Composer
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Novel
In Search of Mother
Theater of Life: Youth Version
Porträttet
Adventures of Lazare
The Power and the Glory
A Man of the Arts
The Godfather
Kyökin puolella
Schindler's List
Forrest Gump
Once Upon a Time in America
Apocalypse Now
Gladiator
Witness for the Prosecution
8½
Metropolis
American Beauty
The Loose Woman
Blade Runner
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A Beautiful Mind
Anatomy of a Murder
Stand by Me
Day for Night
Viridiana
All the President's Men
Fried Green Tomatoes
The Last Samurai
Manon of the Spring
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Talk to Her
Jules and Jim
The Name of the Rose
East of Eden
Rozina the Love Child
Behind the Headlines
Still Alice
The Experiment
Scarface
Last Year at Marienbad
Legends of the Fall
Sense and Sensibility
Murder She Said
Stolen Kisses
Sissi
Lust, Caution
Lady Joker
Maria Full of Grace
Baptists at Our Barbecue
The Outsiders
Desert Hearts
The English Patient
Sissi: The Young Empress
Sissi: The Fateful Years of an Empress
Law of Desire
Zappa
Living in Two Worlds
Seabiscuit
The Tin Drum
La Chinoise
Mad Love
Street Angel
The Dimension Travelers
History of Philosophy
La tarde del domingo
The Washing Machine
Wag the Dog
Last Tango in Paris
The Glass Cell
Evil Under the Sun
King's Game
Shrew's Nest
Not Wanted
Oliver Twist
The Tiger Gang
Twin Sisters
Love Comes Softly
The Prince and the Pauper
The Fortress
Policewoman
Beyond the Curtain
The Boys from Brazil
Dark Blue Almost Black
A Wife Confesses
Absolute Power
To Die For
Rice People
The Bricklayers
The Big Fake
Crash
Losing Isaiah
Hilde Warren and Death
Ginza Cosmetics
To Each His Own
Borstal
The Sum of All Fears
Great Expectations
Obaba
Noli Me Tángere
Chasuke's Journey
L'Agonie des aigles
Storm over Tjurö
The Baby Shower
Summer in Berlin
Willenbrock
Fallen Angels
Sleepless
Desired Children
Dilan 1983
Subsuelo
Jamon Jamon
Hammett
Date Masamune the One-Eyed Dragon
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny
Breakfast with Scot
The Elementary Particles
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
Mansfield Park
Fallen Angels Paradise
Silvery Wind
Scarlet Innocence
People in the Summer Night
Berlin Syndrome
A Round Trip to Love
September Sky
Winged Creatures
Jar City
A Day on the Planet
Merv
Come Undone
Stars at Noon
A Dog Barking at the Moon
Chasing Yesterday
Eugenie de Sade
David Copperfield
Saawariya
Go Ask Alice
Forces of Nature
Adult Beginners
Antonieta
The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Three Lives
The Key
Blue Rodeo
The Sound and the Fury
Jarrapellejos
Loss of Feeling
A Round Trip to Love 2
Nights of Farewell
A Second Son
Irish Eyes
Jingle All the Way to Love
Vampire Diary
The Horse That Cried
Dangerous Paradise
My Baby
2 Women
Father Sergius
Yefon
Zeitoun
Endurance: The Story of Ernest Shackleton
Sivooký démon
Human Blood Is Thicker than Water
Karol Ketzer
Temperance
Dutch & Razzlekhan
Counting Miracles
Cry to Heaven
7 Miles Out
Mistr a Markétka
Morové povětří
Burn Boston Burn
Gabriel's Inferno: Part II
My Policeman
Your Fault: London
My Fault: London
Vera Drake
FX's A Christmas Carol
Little Children
An Officer and a Gentleman
A Journal for Jordan
Room at the Top
Madame Bovary
Marked Men: Rule + Shaw
Lady Chatterley's Lover
Mansfield Park
Fifty Shades Freed
“Wuthering Heights”
Cracks
Time Is Up
The French Lieutenant's Woman
Fifty Shades Darker
The Shipping News
Jude
Dirt Music
Sylvie's Love
Home Run
Fire with Fire
Salem Witch Trials
Newness
Blind
The Proposition
Wander Darkly
Who's That Knocking at My Door
The Golden Bowl
See You Soon
Wuthering Heights
I Walk the Line
Oct 13, 1995
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Dastoor
1991
Fluidity
2019
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Battle your watched movies head-to-head
Community Top Movies
Evil Dead II
1987 · 14 wins
The Dark Knight
2008 · 14 wins
Halloween
1978 · 13 wins
Final Destination
2000 · 12 wins
Halloween II
1981 · 11 wins
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