Witness (1985)

Director: Peter Weir

(The Murder Scene)

Costume: Amish
Identity: Little Amish Boy
Speaks in German

We are introduced to the film with an establishing shot of the little Amish boy, he is looking up at a statue in amazement. The close up shows his emotion. The shot cuts to a low angle of the Angel Statue which adds the intimidating height of this statue to this little boy. Again the shot cuts to a very high angle, almost birds eye, this emphasises the vulnerability of this child again.

The scene changes to the mother and child sitting on a bench, this finally establishes the location and we now know that the location is a train station. The mother allows the boy to go to the toilet on his own, this shows the naivety of the mother by letting him go on his own in this huge, bustling train station in the city.
It cuts a medium close up of a white male at the wash basins in the toilet, on his own. We get the impression that the toilets are a very isolated place, very claustrophobic- this is very simplistic, the dim lighting creates tension so the audience know that something bad is going to happen. Another close up of the guy, we hear diagetic sound of a door closing- this shot symbolises the importance of this man. Again we have close ups of other men in the toilet but we do not see their faces, the enigma begins to build.

The murder happens, we are quickly shown the little Amish boy's eye witnessing the murder, a mixture of dialogue and diagetic sound (sound track) is heard which creates suspense. The close up of the boy with his hands on the lock builds the tension again. The shot changes to the murderer's feet, very threatening. The shot cuts between murderer and witness and we hear a slight noise of the men walking away.

This represents American culture; it represents the negative aspect of America- it shows corruption, contrasts between Amish community and the 'big, bad' city. We are also introduced to the representation of race, how it is very stereotypical of a black person to be a murderer.