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The film Witness operates on two levels and is ve

The film Witness operates on two levels and is very effective in both realms as well as in combining the two. The first level is that of the film thriller, and here the film uses the traditional idea of a character who is weak and in need of protection and who witnesses a crime and then needs to be protected by the police. The working out of this plot involves the attempts by the criminals to find this witness and destroy him or her, and how they accomplish their search and how they are finally thwarted b the hero is what makes the story work. The second level for this film is a sociological one as the viewer is taken into a world he or she probably knows little about, the world of the Amish people in Pennsylvania. The viewer is taken into this world through the medium of the thriller level because the child who witnessed the crime is Amish and the policeman guarding the child must stay with him and protect him. His encounters with the Amish raise religious questions about the meaning of community, the meaning of faith, and the meaning of commitment.

The film caused a controversy when it was released because the Amish did not like the fact that their world would be depicted in a film. They protested the shooting of the film for several reasons. First, they had always opposed television, film, and photography and did not want to be depicted in a medium they had opposed. Second, they have always shunned publicity, which this certainly would be. Third, the idea of "Hollywood" symbolized for this community the worldliness they had also opposed. Finally, the community knew and resented the fact that it was being exploited commercially by the tourist industry. When the film was being shot, the Amish protested and got an agreement from the state that the state would not solicit any further use of the Amish as subjects for films and would in fact inform future film companies of the strong opposition of the community to filming ...

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The film Witness operates on two levels and is ve. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 20:16, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1707700.html