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 "H

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d seems to have compromised the young woman's position for a time, but in the end, her community is stronger than his. The contrast extends to the way the film is shot and presented. The city, of course, is dark, dirty, and noisy, with cars, trains, buses, people yelling, crowded walkways and crowded rooms. The world of the Amish, on the other hand, is quiet, more outdoor than indoor, closer to nature, more colorful, cleaner, and more spiritual. The city is presented partially from low angles in the first part of the film, from the point of view of the young boy as he wanders through the terminal and as he sees the crime committed. The police station is another place where the boy is always watching and looking--he says little, but he sees everything, and the viewer sees much of it from his point of view. By contrast, the world of the Amish is seen from the policeman's point of view, for this is a world that is alien to him. Everything in it is different from what he has known all his life, and as he learns, the viewer learns. Early in the film, this contrast is developed between the opening sequence in Amish country and the arrival of the sister and brother in the city. The scene in the train station involves this clas

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