Hi all, I JUST had my first chance to check my mail today, and was REALLY surprised to find NO comments about the first half of the CBS movie from last night! SO, let me be the one to get things started!! First, I have some questions for anyone who might know! 1) Is there any evidence to suggest that Ann Putnam Sr had a still birth in conjunction with the accusations of 1692? I know that she lost several children, I was just curious about whether the timing depicted in the movie was accurate, or just used for dramatic affect. 2) I know that public humiliation was in fact a popular form of punishment, but is there any evidence to suggest that people were really paraded, shackled and naked, from town to town, or again, did the producers/writers decide that dumpy, naked female bottoms would increase ratings? As for MY opinion of the movie so far...NOT TOO MUCH!!! I was disgusted by the opening scene, which appears as though there was good reason to believe that Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba were in fact witches, or at the VERY least, evil individuals! I was also unpleasantly surprised by the "characters" who have so far emerged as the "stars" of the movie. The entire first half focuses on the families of Thomas Putnam and Samuel Parris, and portrays them in a VERY sympathetic light, while only barely "introducing" A FEW of the people who were eventually tried and/or murdered, and does NOTHING toward shedding a sympathetic light on any of them except Tituba!! I guess I'm just a bit confused as to how someone can write a four hour movie which hails itself as "THE TRUTH" about the events of 1692 Salem, and in the entire first half fail to even mention MOST of the 19 who died, let alone the hundreds who were accused and lived to see another day! I DID actually TRY to go into this movie with no bias, but unless I'm completely fooling myself, this doesn't even make a good work of fiction!! It feels like the writer has tried to roll every imaginable theory into one, while not actually having a theory of his or her own! Well, I guess that's not entirely true, since I don't recall hearing anything about moldy rye bread yet!! Okay, and one last complaint....SO FAR....did anyone else have a problem with the volume, or is my one year old SONY dying on me??? I had the volume CRANKED through half the movie, and STILL had a hard time hearing them, and then all of the sudden, something REALLY LOUD would happen that scared me half to death before I could get the volume turned back down!! Was this just my TV, or was this their way of making a tragedy into a thriller??? ANY other thoughts??? Joan

With respect to the CBS movie, my expectations were actually quite low, and I was rather pleasantly surprised. 1) I do not know if Ann had a still birth immediately before the accusations started; 2) I have some ancestors who were connected with the Quaker Church in Essex County, MA about this time and there are court records to suggest that at least one of them was tied to the back of a cart and dragged naked through the streets for attending a Quaker meeting; 3) This event in our history was complicated. I have never been satisfied with any of the single theory approaches to explain it, so I did like the fact that they worked in the lack of a charter; the conflict part of the community had with Rev. Paris; the conflict between Salem town/mercantilism and the village/agrarianism; the fear of Indian massacre. I think that it most closely adopted the "Social Origins..." theory and is, therefore, more satisfying than a single theory approach, but it is not a new theory. 4) I think the production has done a pretty decent job of dramatizing the moral anguish that Puritan preaching could produce in fragile individuals like Ann Putnam Sr. & Jr. and Betty Paris, and drive them over the edge. I actually understood for the first time that perhaps they were unable to cope with personal responsibility for sin and believed themselves to be possessed. For a show written and produced for TV, I think it has been okay with the exception of the "preview scenes" and I do agree with Joan's objections to the way in which the first three accused were portrayed in the preview of the meetinghouse scene....but the "evil" dramatization was missing from the actual scene. Does anyone know the name and author (or care to comment upon) the recent book which focuses on the religious leaders, including Cotton Mather? Cathy Brinkman