IMPROVED 'Witness' Film Clip Analysis

Witness

This film is about an Amish boy who witnesses a murder in a train station, filmed in Philadelphia. It was released in 1985 and filmed in America. It was also directed by Peter Weir. The budget for the film was $12,000,000 and the total gross that was brought in by the box office was $65,500,000. The film won 2 Oscars and was nominated for 25 other awards.

At the beginning of the clip, it shows a little boy with his mother, his costume (in particular his hat), makes it look like he is wearing a halo around his head, the shot is a medium close up at a slightly low angle to signify his value and importance. This shot is highlighting the contrast between the boy and his future. This little boy has such huge importance but at this moment in the film he is still only an innocent boy. There are no bright colours, they are all quite monotone. This could signify that he is still innocent and all he has not a care in the world. The expression on his face tells us that he has never seen anything like what he is looking at.

The shot cuts to a shot of the boy looking up at a statue of an angel helping and holding a wounded man. The shot pans to a very low angle shot of the angel statue. This again is showing the power of the angle in the statue and the importance of this figure to the little boy. Also because he is from an Amish background, art like that would not be a common sight for someone like this little boy. Seeing something like that for the first time must be pretty amazing, I think he instantly has a connection between himself and the statue. Therefore the angel is foreshadowing the future actions in the film, although how yet we do not know. Again there is not a huge variety of colours in any of these shots yet, they are all quite dull colours.

The clip cuts to the previous shot of the little boy looking up in amazement at the angel statue. But then almost instantly cuts back to the shot of the angel with the wounded man. This could be embedding the relationship between the angel statue and the little boy, again foreshadowing the future.

Interestingly, it cuts to an over the shoulder shot of the angel, high angle then a long shot showing how insignificant the child is in comparison to everything else. It looks like the shot it from the angels perspective, showing the audience that maybe the angel is watching over the little boy, keeping watch like guardian angels stereotypically are supposed to do. The shot also shows people pushing past him, again showing his insignificance and that he is just a little boy. It shows the little boy still gazing up in amazement, he is stood still whilst everyone else is pushing past him and not really looking or paying attention to him. His Mother comes over to get him but even as he is walking away he still tries to look back at the statue to get one last glimpse of it.

The shot cuts to a long shot and a slightly low angle shot of the Mother and the little boy, however no one is there, they are alone in the station sat on a bench, maybe people chose not to sit near them because of their traditional image. People are brainwashed today with an image that we have to look like, the perfect dress size, the colours etcs, but the Amish go against this and have done for many years as they chose to isolate themselves away from modern societies and technologies. This shot and positioning shows the venerability of the characters. The boy then gets up and walks towards the vanishing point of the shot, towards a door. The Mother is not fussed at all that he is going to the loo by himself even though he is still small and at this moment, insignificant. However the Mother runs after because he forgot his hat, this shows he priorities, you think she is going to accompany him which would have been the safer option even in modern society and no threat of murder.

It then cuts to a low angle close up shot of the little boy to show significance and importance. The fact that the Mother sends the boy to the toilet by himself shows that she doesn’t think there is any threat of harm in doing so due to their culture and the way they were brought up in the Amish community. Ambient lighting is used in this shot and diegetic sound makes it more realistic it also adds to the tension in the audience. There is no dialogue though, this again would add to the tension within the audience.

It cuts to a slightly low angle of a man, acknowledging that the little boy just entered the room, he nods towards him showing that the little boy has entered the room.

Then it cuts to a medium close up of the little boy taking in his surroundings and smiling back at the man. This angles shot is at a slightly low angle, again re-iterating his power. He then walks forward and out of the shot.

As soon as he walks out of the shot it cuts to a shot from behind the little boy, establishing the mis-en-scene. It clarifies that they are in a bathroom, quite a dingy place. The little boy walks forward as the man washed his own face, maybe suggesting that he has just done something that made him sweat or work for, maybe he committed a crime. The boy walks to the edge of the shot and then out of it completely. The effect of waiting until someone has walked out of a shot is tension throughout the audience. It leaves you wondering what he is going to do? where is he going to? what is the other man in the shot going to do? Weir used the rule of thirds very well in this shot.

The scene then cuts to a shot of two cubicles but there is a gap in which you can see the little boy through, showing that maybe the man has forgotten he is there, that the little boy is just in the background and again a little insignificant. The little boy glances back at the man who is still washing his face.

Straight after that it cuts to a medium close of the man washing his face but looking over at the door, maybe because someone just entered the room. The subject looks slowly down at what he is doing, what does he know/realised? In the same shot we see the creases in someone’s clothes, but we cannot see who it is, at the moment he is left anonymous as we can't see his face. Within the same shot we see a man in the Mirror entering to make use of the toilets. By the expressions on the man's face, he feels threatened by these people who have just entered. Are they his enemies? The man by the urinals in a black man, but we still cannot see his face. Again this leaves him anonymous much like the other man.

It suddenly cuts back to the medium close up of the boy through the crack in the cubical. The little boy turns back round to face the wall, not able to see what is going on behind him.

Cutting to a medium close up of the black man who we can now identify him, because we see his face and expression. He nods to the other man in the room, (the anonymous man?) and turns back around preparing himself for something.
It cuts to a long shot, enabling the audience to be able to see the three men in the room, Weir does this because apart from one, the other two men do not know that the little boy is in the room and would not be able to see him, so he is not in the shot. The anonymous man starts to walk off, but he pulls his jacket over the man's face disabling his vision.
It cuts to a shot of a dagger flipping out, the black man is holding it, this establishes that he is going to make a stab at the venerable man. It cuts back to the medium close up of the black man, he makes a lunge for the venerable man. This tells the audience that maybe he is going to be murdered.

It cuts to the medium close up of the little boy peering through the crack in the door, and then a point of view shot from the little boy, it reverses so that you can see his facial expressions and his head and shoulders.
We see a medium close up shot of the little boy backing away from the edge of the door, maybe realising what he just witnessed. A shot of the dying man is trembling on the floor, this is a medium close up. The it cuts to a shot of the murderer backing away with the knife in his hand and blood on the other. He tries to take a paper towel to wipe the evidence away.
It cuts to a shot of a man's arms, showing he is trying to take the dead mans identity. However the shot pans up to the black man still trying to dispose of the evidence.
Another medium close up of the little boy shows he is becoming more and more anxious and nervous about the situation he is in and that he just witnessed.
A close up shot of the lock on the door shows that the door is unlocked and that he is in danger. The boy goes forward to secure the lock on the door and try to protect himself.
After that it cuts to a tracking shot of the villain’s feet, this shows where in comparison to the little boy he is. This again shows his innocence is at risk and it will be taken after he saw the murder. He is in danger.

The little boy then takes of this hat to show his halo has fallen; his innocence has been taken and ripped from him. (Medium close up shot) Harrison Ford then enters with bright light behind him symbolising he is good and maybe the angel helping the wounded man. (Being the little boy)