DramaRomanceWestern

The Scarlet Letter

- 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.

Release Date : 1995-10-13

Language :English

Adult : false

Status : Released

Production Company : Cinergi PicturesLightmotiveAllied StarsMoving PicturesHollywood Pictures

Production Country : United States of America

Alternative Titles :

Cast

Character Name : Hester Prynne

Original Name : Demi Moore

Gender : Female

Character Name : Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale

Original Name : Gary Oldman

Gender : Male

Character Name : Roger Chillingworth

Original Name : Robert Duvall

Gender : Male

Character Name : Horace Stonehall

Original Name : Robert Prosky

Gender : Male

Character Name : Gov. John Bellingham

Original Name : Edward Hardwicke

Gender : Male

Character Name : Harriet Hibbons

Original Name : Joan Plowright

Gender : Female

Character Name : Rev. Thomas Cheever

Original Name : Roy Dotrice

Gender : Male

Character Name : Goody Mortimer

Original Name : Larissa Laskin

Gender : Female

Character Name : Goody Gotwick

Original Name : Amy Wright

Gender : Female

Character Name : Meredith Stonehall

Original Name : Dana Ivey

Gender : Female

Character Name : Mituba

Original Name : Lisa Andoh

Gender : Female

Character Name : Prudence Stonehall

Original Name : Sarah Campbell

Gender : Female

Character Name : Peasant(uncredited)

Original Name : Line Pelletier

Gender : Female

Reviews

CinemaSerf

@Geronimo1967

2022-03-28

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.