Witness Murder Scene Analysis- IMPROVED

This film is about a young Amish boy who witnesses a murder in a train station, in Philadelphia. Released in 1985 and filmed in American. The film is directed by Peter Weir, nominated for 40 Oscars, and winning 2 Oscars with this film. The budget for the film was $12,000,000 and in total from the USA it grossed $65,500,00 on the box office. The name of the film is based on the first scene where the young Amish boy witnesses a murder.

  At the beginning of clip we see a little Amish boy with his mother, we establish that he is Amish by his costume, which is a suit with a hat. The hat almost looks like a halo, the shot is a medium close up at a of low angle of him looking up at the angel statue with his mouth wide opening, the angel shows his status and little importance. The shot also enables us to see the world through the boy's eyes by his reaction to this huge statue of an angel carrying a dead body. The angel is the, Angel of Resurrection. Even though the shot shows his little importance, it contrasts greatly with what is about to happen because he is about to become the most important witness in a murder investigation. The light is very dull and ambient, it is all natural light flooding into the train station at this point. 

The shot then cuts to a high angle, which is almost birds eye, the shot shows the boy looking up at this statue and we establish that the boy has very little significance and is very vulnerable. Again we see the power of this angel, and the amazement of seeing this statue for the first time. The shot then quickly cuts to the low angle, medium close up of the, Angel of Resurrection statue which quickly shows its intimidating stance on the boy. The shot significantly again changes quickly to a high angle, almost an over the shoulder shot of the angel looking down on the boy, it gives the impression that the angel knows what is to come or that the angel is looking out for the boy. The boy's mother comes to fetch him and they walk off, as they walk off the boy keeps turning around to look at the angel to get just one last glance at this amazing 'thing'. 

It then cuts to a medium close up shot with a vanishing point, the vanishing point coincidentally is the door to the toilets, in which the boy goes into next. The shot shows the boy and his mother on the bench, isolated, with no-one sitting near them. Again this shot establishes the location of the train station as well as showing their exposure to danger in this vast city full of corruption and high risk.

 People may have chosen not to sit near them because of their religion or maybe because being in the city, in a big train station, people know the dangers and want to keep themselves to themselves. The young boy then asks his mother if he can go to the toilet and she straight away says yes, with no hesitation. This shows the mothers naivety of letting her son go alone when he is in a strange place that he has never been to and is obviously not aware of anything being dangerous. As the boy walks off to the toilet, the mother calls after him because he has forgotten his hat, this shows the importance of a piece of clothing but not the importance of accompanying her son to the loo. The mother then puts the hat on the boys son and pats him on the back as if to say, "Everything is okay now". 

The shot then cuts to a medium close up of a white male at the wash basins in the toilet, on his own. This shows the isolation of the man in a claustrophobic space. The lighting is non-ambient with diagetic sound which makes it seem realistic and builds tension with the audience as we suspect something is going to happen. The white male then turns his head to the door and smiles, the shot quickly changes to again another medium close up of the little boy acknowledging the man. The little boy looks around to take in his surroundings. 

Again, the shot changes to behind the little boy, as he walks into the room whilst the male is splashing water on his face at the wash basin. This suggests that he might have done something to make him sweat, maybe manual labour or he could have committed a crime. The tension heightens as the boy chooses what toilet to go into and then. the man is alone. Weir wanted to build the tension of waiting for someone to leave the shot because then the audience knows something is going to happen. The audience question themselves, what is going to happen next? 

As the boy has walked out of the shot, it cuts to a shot through the cubicle door that the boy is in, the boy looks over his shoulder at the man still washing his face. This almost shows his worry that something might happen, or maybe to make sure that he is not left alone in this claustrophobic space. Immediately the shot changes to the man still washing his face, he looks at the door to the toilets, we hear more diagetic sound of the door opening and closing. The man then looks back his hands and then to his right where he see a guy walk past him to another wash basin. The man looks almost distressed, or recognises the guys- but not in a good way. We question ourselves, does he know these guys? Is he worrying about being found out, about something that he has done? But the man carries on washing his face, as if to tell himself that there is nothing to worry about. In the mirror reflection we see a black male walk  to use the urinals, but we do not see his face. This leaves an anonymous presence about these guys that have just walked in. It then abruptly cuts to the crack in between the cubicle door, of the little boy again, the boy turns around to face the wall- he now cannot see what is happening behind him. 

The shot cuts to a medium close up of the black male using the urinal, but then turns his head to look at the other two white males at the wash basins. We now see this mysterious black man's face and we can identify him. Because the man is in a suit we get the impression that he has some wealth and he looks important, there is always a correlation between a man in a suit and wealth, which is used a lot in thrillers. The black male then nods to the other anonymous white male at the wash basins (the one that has just walked in to wash his hands). It cuts to a long shot of the toilet showing its dull non-ambient lighting, which allows the audience to see all three men in the toilet, although we cannot see the little boy because he is in a cubicle, this shows the audience that the other two men do not know that the little boy is there. 

As the anonymous man begins to walk off he gets his jacket and pulls it over the other white male's face, so he cannot see. The shot quickly cuts to the black male's hand as he holds a knife. The shot then again quickly changes to the black male running almost into the camera giving the impression that he is in a rush to kill this male. We then see a a medium close up of the little boy peeping through the cubicle door, we can now establish his facial expressions and his reaction to the witness of this murder. This represents American culture; 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. It quickly diverts back to the murder of this man being strangled and then of his throat being slit, which is very disturbing to watch. Again the shot quickly changes to an extreme close up of the boys eye peering through the cubical door as he witnesses this distressing scene. The man being murdered finally falls to the ground and the shot diverts back again to the boy, as he creeps back away from the cubicle door, his facial expression shows us that he cannot believe what he has just seen as well as him trying to decide what he should do. 

The shot switches to the black male with the dagger in his right hand covered in blood and his left hand swamped in blood as he tries to dispose of the evidence. The shot again switches to the anonymous white male flicking through the murdered man's wallet, as if he was stealing his identity or trying to find something important. The camera pans up to a low angle shot of the black male washing his hands very calmly, as if nothing has happened which portrays the crime that he has just committed as casual and normal, which it is far from. A close up shot of the boy in the corner of the cubicle shows how traumatised he is by witnessing this dreadful act. The shot again adverts to the black male as he is drying his hands, he see by the reaction on his face that he has heard something. As the soundtrack plays the music builds a tension as the black male whips out a gun and starts to open the cubicles. A close up shot of the lock on the boys cubicle door adds builds even more tension with the audience because it is clearly not locked, the shot pans round to the boy as he realises he must lock the door and protect himself. The shot diverts back to the man opening all the cubicle doors and then back to an extreme close up of the boy struggling to lock the door. This is a generic signifier that Weir uses to emphasise the distress of the boy. 

The shot again changes to a tracking shot of the murderer's feet as he is opening each cubicle door. We then see him approach the cubicle in which the boy is in. This shows the danger in which the boy is submerged in. As the murderer realises the door is locked he then kicks the door down, but at the same time the boy slides under the door next to him, as he does so the boys hat falls off, symbolising his halo being ripped off of him, showing that he is not so innocent anymore after witnessing a terrible act of violence. The shot then changes to the boy standing on the toilet with his hands on either side of the cubicle walls. This signifies Jesus on the cross which again implies the boys innocence.