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Witness
- This topic has 3 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 10 years ago by Cortney Linnecke.
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March 30, 2014 at 4:09 pm #355Emma DempseyParticipant
Right from the start of Peter Weir’s film <i>Witness</i> it was evident that the Amish country was meant to be construed as a calm and peaceful place; this was conveyed through Weir’s implementation of soft music and the presentation of the landscape, which was vibrant and full of sunshine. The Amish country was presented in complete contrast to the world of the “Englishmen” which was drab and rainy in comparison to its tranquil countryside. The visual representation of these two worlds perfectly represents the atmosphere that goes along with them—the innocence and safety of the Amish world was encapsulated by its clear sunny skies, while the violence and danger of Philadelphia, presented through the murder of a police officer, was illustrated through its dark and rainy skies.
Once John Book realized it was no longer safe to remain within the bounds of Philadelphia, he took Rachel and Samuel and drove them right back to their home. The fact that Book believed they would be safest there established the Amish countryside as not only a place of peace and tranquility but as one of safety. Its identity as a safe-haven is further reinforced by the presence of Eli Lapp, who acted as both a guardian and a voice of reason. There are more than one scene in which Eli gives loving and thoughtful advice to those around him, one of the greater ones being the one in which he speaks to Samuel about the gun. It is obvious that he is extremely religious and devout to their ways, but the level to which he holds this role can be viewed as almost a holy one.
There are two scenes in which Eli’s role as guardian is projected to a holy height, the first being the scene in which Book crashes his car. Earlier in the film, while Samuel is exploring the train station, there is a moment where he gazes up at a statue of an angel holding a man in his arms who appeared to be either dead or unconscious. Later, when Eli pulls an incapacitated Book out of the car, he holds Book in a fashion greatly resembling that of the statue in the train station, portraying him as something much more than just a guardian of grandfatherly proportions.
Eli is portrayed in a similar way after he finds Rachel dancing in the barn with John. He tries to warn her of the repercussions she will soon face should she continue associating with John as much as she has; he tells her that she may be shunned, that she is acting like a child. Rachel tells him she has committed no sin and she will be the judge of her own actions, to which Eli replies, “No, He will be the judge of that, and so will I.” Based on the content of their conversation it seems logical to assume that the “He” Eli refers to is God, and if that is true, he is making a bold move by stating he holds the same power to judge as God does. Such a declaration again magnifies his status of guardian to a loftier height, one with heavenly implications—that is not to say he is emulating God in this scene, just perhaps an agent of God, such as an angel. Though the almost utopian quality of the Amish countryside was established from the start of the film, its status as a peaceful, worry-free place was secured and reinforced by Eli’s role as a guardian.
March 30, 2014 at 8:55 pm #356Victoria SimoneParticipantI agree with the idea of Eli being a guardian in the film. His character was strong, and I liked that he was resistant to many of what Book was bringing to his world. Some may have seen his anger at what was happening between Rachel and Book as unnecessary, but seeing what occurred in the end I feel his behavior was justified. I am on the fence about how the film portrayed the Amish. Growing up, my family and I would oftentimes spend a few days with the Amish, and they were much more welcoming towards us than the film portrayed them as being. I understand though that films overdramatize for entertainment purposes.
The gun fight scene was a huge declaration of what Book truly brought into their world. From the beginning they stressed the dangers of guns in their community, and this sequence further proved that belief and justified their need for separation. One may think that Eli, being a guardian figure, may have somehow helped in this final fight. He remains true to his ways, however, and of course it takes the entire community to stop the violence the outside world has brought in. In the end of the film, when Book stops his car briefly before leaving, he must be questioning whether or not he wishes to stay. Like Eli, however, he knows who he is, and where he belongs.
March 30, 2014 at 11:09 pm #357Erica GeorgeParticipantCreated several years after the dissolution of the Hays Code, Witness reads as a commentary on the increasingly violent and sexual state of film. The film is set in two drastically different communities: the peaceful, pious country of the Amish and the violent, abrasive city of modern America. As such, the Amish perspective in the film works as a representative of the censored, generally tame films of the Hays Code period while the city perspective acts as a stand-in for the almost insensitively aggressive films of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Following Book, the film’s hero and delegate for the average American citizen, as he attempts to reconcile his own true nature through his ill-fitting placement in each radical world, Witness suggests that neither the films of the Hays period nor the violent films that responded to them provide a landscape that modern American audiences can use to understand the world and themselves.
Considering the connections between the film’s settings and the two drastically different periods in film history, I would argue that Witness is Peter Weir’s call for a new era of realistic and healthy representations of the world in film. Like fairy tales, film provides narrative lessons that audiences can use to interpret the world in which they live and how they should behave within that world. Unfortunately, the two major periods of film that Weir’s audience would recognize do not illustrate the world as it truly is or as it should be and, as such, offer no healthy, navigable space for audience members to map onto. As Book drives away from the Amish farm and the violent stand-off that has taken place there, he seems to be moving away from both the unrealistic standards of the Amish and the dangerously overt violence of the city, urging audience members and the film industry to follow their protagonist as he moves toward a prospective future of realistic heroism.March 31, 2014 at 5:09 pm #361Cortney LinneckeParticipantI thought there was a really interesting dynamic in this movie concerning violence, as it mashed together two worlds on completely different ends of the spectrum: a drug-selling, blood-thirsty, corruption-rotted police force and a pacifist Amish community. I think that playing out violence against the peaceful backdrop of Amish Pennsylvania–amidst cows, barns, and fields–was a jarring juxtaposition. It forced the audience to be more aware of the violence occurring (and how out of place and shocking it seemed) instead of passively accepting it, as we sometimes tend to do in traditionally violent Hollywood films.
I also thought this movie did some interesting things in terms of the traditional “gaze” of the camera lens. I am not necessarily referring to the “male gaze,” but perhaps an “adult gaze” or even a “mainstream American culture” gaze. Instead of viewing scenes through our own eyes, oftentimes shots were manipulated to allow us to see through the eyes of the Amish, experiencing things that we use every day for the first time–such as when Samuel sees the train, or when he tries to figure out how to use a drinking fountain. Other times, scenes were shot to put us in the perspective of a child, instead of a more “normal” gaze of an adult. One instance of this is the scene in the police station when Samuel is walking around the office and interacting with the adults, as we view individuals from his shortened height and feel intimidated by characters like the man rattling his handcuffs.
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