The Clash Between Amish Culture and Modern American Culture in the Film Witness

The Clash Between Amish Culture and Modern American Culture in the Film Witness

Witness is a mix of genres; it has romance, action, is part

murder/detective story, and is a thriller. The aim of the director,

Peter Weir, is to show the clash of cultures between the Amish and the

Modern American culture. Peter Weir the director likes to place

characters into an unusual situation like in this film he has a

Pennsylvanian cop, John Book, having to hide and live in an Amish

community. 'Pennsylvania' means brotherly love in Amish.

The Amish are a Christian religious group with origins from Europe, in

America they are known as 'The Plain People'. The Amish travelled to

America for freedom of worship. Many of them settled in the

Pennsylvanian area. The Amish people speak a dialect of broken German

to each other. They all learn English to communicate with people

outside of the community like at certain shops where they need

important supplies that they cannot get themselves. Children are

taught in small one room schoolhouses, the Amish stress on teaching

the '3 R`s', reading, writing and arithmetic. They reject all modern

technology, they are self sufficient by growing their own crops, they

remain in a farming community separate from the rest of society and

they don't use electricity but instead they use a water powered

machine to help drive other machinery and windmills to make the grain.

The Amish wear distinctive clothes; they stand out because of their

plain clothes and use horses and carriages to get into town and other

villages for supplies. The Amish make a big effort to be self

sufficient; they do this also to protect the Amish ch...

... middle of paper ...

..., and then shot from over the statue looking down on Samuel its

like a guardian angel looking down on him. In the film John Book

becomes his guardian angel and protects him.

Conclusion

At the end of the film I feel disappointed that they haven't stayed

together, I think she didn't go with him because she had lived in a

peaceful community all her life and may have been shocked by the

intrusion of violence from the outside world. She loves John, but they

are from two different worlds and she also has to think about Samuel

on whether or not he would be safe living in another world.

The film is very successful in showing the clash of worlds and the

differences in community by placing John Book in their society.

Variety of techniques used to emphasise the clash. Makes us think of

our own lives and violent society.