Before even beginning to think about filming director’s have a huge responsibility to make sure that the film provides the right response for the audience. Broadcasters have a duty to not only entertain the viewer but to enlighten them, challenge their values and more importantly make them reassess their views on a certain subject the film may highlight or involve. In the case of Witness the viewer’s opinions on the two cultures were being challenged or in some ways the Amish culture being discovered.
Cultural difference, Justice, Violence versus pacifism, Materialism versus simplicity and individualism versus community are all factors that present incongruity but more importantly describe the contrasts between the Amish culture and modern day America. In Witness Weir had to make sure that he included and contrasted all of these factors to ensure a contrasting and realistic view of how the two cultures meet, but examples of why they never merge.
The director will not use any scene without considering the effect it will have on the audience. The same applies for casting i.e. using a child is an immediate pull on the audience’s emotions. Costumes and settings are also important to ensure the correct impact on the audience, whether it is visual or emotional.
The character John Book, played by Harrison Ford is a typical, casual American man. The audience may feel that they can relate to him and his lifestyle. Therefore Ford was an excellent choice because even though he is extremely famous he keeps himself away from the spotlight of the media and his life private which enables his roles in films to remain believable and unquestioned by exploited gossip of private affairs. This accompanied by his countless roles as the action hero and adventurer could represent the fast paced American society featured throughout the film. Also this past history of action hero roles makes it unbelievable to place him in a peaceful community like Weir does when Ford is dressed in traditional Amish clothing. As we know from watching the film, he looks very odd and unconvincing! Rachel Lapp, Samuel’s mother was played by Kelly Mcgillis. Mcgillis’ underlying beauty and sexiness accompanied with her large innocent eyes made her perfect for the versatile character. The impact of choosing someone like Harrison Ford to star in the film attracted people to watch the film and like in the majority of his other films where he ‘gets the girl’ we expected him to woo Rachel (Mcgillis), however by knowing that this was impossible the audience sought after it more.
Amish dress is very traditional. In the film costumes are seen to be smart and black. The men wear hats and the women bonnets. No buttons were worn as they wouldn’t in real life as the Amish perceive them as vain. All costumes in the film follow that of realism and the audience relates to them as normal of that culture. Samuel Lapp looks much older that what American boys of his age do. Weir may have chosen to highlight this to show the tradition of the Amish faith and maturity of their beliefs.
The setting of the film matches that of the nature of the shot. In the city when they are searching for the killer many people are dressed in dark colours and it is set at night. One of the opening scenes show an Amish horse drawn carriage set in the middle of swirling traffic at a set of cross roads in the city! This is the first contrast Weir makes between the sets and is a perfect example of the congested scenes Weir makes of the city. Weir manages to show beauty and wholesome aspects of the Amish faith and doesn’t fall in to the trap of presenting the Amish as backward however he does choose to show no evidence of the Amish ‘rumspringa’ the time where Amish teenagers experience life outside the community and choose whether to join the Amish church. This could be seen as biased towards the Amish as none of the wholesome chapters of the city are revealed. However I think this could have complicated the contrast and the subsequent impact and interpretation of the plot.
Peter Weir appears to be using the film genre of detective thriller to explore the differences between the life of the city and that of the Amish. There is a clear contrast in the film between the way the city and country are represented. There is nothing pleasant about city life as the station in Philadelphia is vast and impersonal. The man in the ticket office is abrupt and unhelpful. The toilets were dirty and shabby.
The city is sleazy with violence or the threat of violence never far from the surface, as evidenced in the bars Book visits when he is looking for the killer. It is also corrupt, with high ranking police officers involved in drugs. Book’s sister is divorced, something that is forbidden in the Amish community. Amish men grow beards on being baptized or married as it is perceived that a beard is harder to remove than a wedding ring. Elaine is shown in the film to be a complete contrast to Amish women and Amish marital views. She is independent, divorced and her relationship with Book suggests a contrast in family values also. The Amish way of life is a total rejection of what is described previously. Violence is frowned upon and the Amish will not retaliate even when provoked by the insults of the people that taunt them. The scene of the building of the barn epitomises the Amish way of life; shown by the shots of smiling faces and community harmony. Throughout the film the Amish costumes appear biblically clean and cared for, washed regularly and pressed. Pure. Contrasting with the stained shades of grey and beige the police officers wear. Like their image of being pure and clean and looking after us is stained by their involvement with drugs and murder.
Weir parallels the two cults, the American police and the Amish community. He features them both breaking their own rules whether they are justified law abiding rules or not. The rules Book is breaking are not that of the law but of the cult. In the interrogation of Carter, Schaeffer says to him ‘We’re like the Amish. We’re a cult too, a club with our own rules. John has broken these rules, as you’re breaking them now’. I think Weir uses the way each cult has to take a risk, break their own rules to protect or get involved with someone of the opposite culture to demonstrate the impossibility of the two cultures ever merging.
Directors use the study of signs (semiology) to help present a main theme that runs throughout a film. In Weir’s case he uses signs to present incongruity. What the audience are made to think or interpret after looking at a certain object is called the signified. The object that triggered the interpretation, the signifier. You have to have both the signifier and the signified present for the sign or the theme that the director wants you to relate to make sense.
In Witness signs can be used as little reminders of the contrasting societies and different lifestyles i.e. when Book begins to fit in with the Amish community he makes a telephone call and next to the payphone is a Coca Cola machine its place in the Amish community doesn’t fit in. Thus we are reminded that Book doesn’t either. Also the coca Cola machine could be used as a contrasting object to the traditional homemade lemonade of the Amish and the payphone an insight that someone will have to ‘pay’ for the rules that have been broken. Book discovers on the phone that his friend, Carter is dead. Semiotics, the study of signs reveal that the sign or object can be the smallest thing involved with a scene but have the biggest subconscious impact on the audience. For example in the scene where Book goes to collect his bullets, he collects them from a flour tin kept in the Lapp’s kitchen. The significance of this is that the flour is central to the Lapp’s daily life, without it they have no job and the bullets are central to Book’s. The two objects are completely opposite to each other they do not pose a threat to each other as long as they are kept separate (like the Amish and the Americans). When they are brought together at the end of the film people are killed using both the flour and the bullets. This could symbolise the threat that the Amish pose to the Americans, they do not know enough about them but judge them anyway. The taunting and teasing of the Amish has led the Americans to underestimate (Grain used to kill corrupt police officer) as they do not retaliate. They are pacifists. More importantly the kitchen is where Rachel is central to, working with the flour (which could represent her relationship with her family), it is as if there is a special place kept by Rachel for Book and Book is rejecting this by taking the bullets away like he did when Rachel gestured for him to make love to her. Like people films also have a language, techniques which communicate with the audience and send a certain message. These techniques involve different camera shots, lighting and sound. Brightness, shadows and darkness can carry different amounts of meaning. High key lighting (bright lighting) suggests a feeling of space, openness and freedom. Low key lighting (dim and shadowed) suggests an eerie and ominous mood. If the director illuminates the face the person may seem innocent and pure. If the bottom half of the face is lit however threat and deviousness is suggested.
At the beginning of the film Weir uses a high key lighting effect to illuminate Rachel’s face as she sits by the window at her husband’s funeral. This is when the audience see her as naïve and innocent. However by highlighting her face we see her natural beauty shine through the unflattering Amish dress. A clue perhaps that someone (Book) will be attracted to her and underlying sub plot exposed.
Maurice Jarre who composed the music in Witness used synthesised music principally to help create a feeling of harmony, and thus the music is predominantly light in texture. Even in the murder scene the music mimics the fast heartbeat of the boy, so that we identify with with the boys fear rather than experience a vicarious excitement at the violence of the action. The song ‘What a wonderful world it would be’ is featured when Book finally gets his car started in the Lapp family barn. The audience sub consciously imagine how wonderful it would be if Book and Rachel got together, however when interrupted by Eli remember that that is only in an idealistic world and realistically without sacrifice remains impossible. To be together Book or Rachel would have to give up their most loved parts of their lives, for example Rachel’s family and Book’s detective work, which we know through what Elaine said to Rachel earlier in the film is what he lives for. Most of the action takes place in the countryside, in Amish country around Strasbourg in Pennsylvania. The beauty of the landscape is emphasised using wide angle shots which the camera lingers over for example the artistic shots of the corn swaying in the wind. As well as the set contrasting to the city the speed and style of the shots do too. For example in the country long, slow, panoramic shots are taken emphasising the vast sense of spaciousness and isolation from the world. In the city close up, fast paced, busy shots are used. The shots are close up when focusing on the character’s emotions. For example Book’s anxiety to get the boy and mother to safety and Samuel’s fear as he witness’ the murder. The high dark shot of Samuel in Philadelphia station suggesting his vulnerability contrasts to the bright open shots of him playing confidently in the Amish community. The pace of the shots used throughout Witness match that of the pace of the narrative. At the beginning of the film at the funeral the pace is slow and relaxed. Daniel says to Samuel ‘Your first time in the big city, you’ll see so many things’, so many things like a murder! The irony of Daniel’s words are reflected through the immediate change in atmosphere to dark busy Philadelphia station where Samuel witness’ the murder.
Slow motion is another technique used by Weir in Witness. When Samuel identifies Mcfee as the murderer in the police station slow motion is used. Here the audience have time to empathise with Samuel’s astonishment and Book’s reaction to discovering the fraudulent place he works and that his boss is a murderer. The shots that follow this scene are very fast and represent the feeling of panic and anxiety that Book now feels. As we have seen throughout the film there is a vast contrast between the Amish community scenes and the American city life scenes. When shots of other scenes are needed in the Amish sets the shots fade in to each other, they flow unlike the straight cut editing used to change from the countryside to the city.
I think Witness as a film represents the incongruent atmosphere between the cultures. The audience are kept enticed by the number of unravelling sub plots that occur throughout the film. Weir shows no evidence of racism which contributes to the audience’s concentration on the main points and themes that run. I think Weir gives a balanced account of the situation that stands and will stand between the two for many years to come, however by showing no evidence of the Amish ‘rumspringa’ no aspects of this part of the community are revealed and thus the audience are led to believe that the Amish are purely wholesome, which we know is not true for anything. The Amish are perceived to have no individuality in the film, Weir expresses this by shooting scenes of the Amish only as a whole community. At the beginning of the film we are introduced to the Amish as they walk communally showing no evidence of dissimilarity and difference - no shots of their faces are witnessed.
