The Presentation of the Amish Community in the Film Witness

The Presentation of the Amish Community in the Film Witness

In this essay I am looking at how the use of lighting, music, camera

angles, tension and comedy all contributed towards highlighting the

differences between the Amish community and the normal American

public. I will do this by looking at these different devices that the

director Peter Weir uses in the film. He uses all of the above

techniques to influence the audience into seeing the Amish and

American presented as direct contrasts.

Throughout the film there is an ongoing thriller/drama genre, with

certain aspects of romance in it. We can see that it is mainly a

thriller/drama because at many points during the film the director

makes good use of tension, such as at the start of the film where

Samuel Lapp the young Amish boy is witness to a murder from a lavatory

cubicle. The tension rises as the killer checks each cubical for him

but at the last minute Samuel darts into the one next to him, evading

the killers grasp. The target audience for this type of film, I can

guess would be of a mature age range, mostly adults. I think this

because it is a very sophisticated film that requires a fair amount of

thought to understand what is going on and why. The audience also have

to find out about the different cultures involved in the film so that

they could fully understand their ways of life. The Amish culture

avoids all modern appliances and try to have a very simple way of life

compared to the highly commercialised American culture.

The director uses many devices throughout the making of the film

'Witness'. Firstly he uses colour to very good effect. The Amish are

always dressed in black and white, which represents their simple way

of life and that they are a community as every one has to wear the

same 'uniform' so they all look the same everyone is treated equal.

Colour also takes part in the contrast between the city life and the

Amish way of living.