In Witness, Harrison Ford’s character, John
Book undergoes tremendous changes throughout the duration of the film. Being
transplanted from Philadelphia’s inner city into an Amish community in
Lancaster County, PA causes a few different types of change within Book’s
character. One of the most interesting changes that occur is a moral one.
Although most of the alterations made in Book are for the positive there is one
negative moral change. When Book first brings Rachel and Samuel to his sister’s
house for safekeeping he makes a snide comment to his sister about having
different men over while her children are sleeping. This demonstrated Book’s
strict moral code and how he looked down on his sister for being morally
unsound in his eyes. However, after he ends up falling for Rachel, he may have
made love to her the same house in which her son was sleeping. This is an
obvious deviation from his moral code and he can be seen as a hypocrite for
doing exactly what he was chastising his sister for doing. In fact, the in
which the two ended up making love was deleted in order to create a “’what-if’
element to their relationship” (Pfeiffer, 152).
Another way
Book changed was the fact that he ended up truly caring for one of his
witnesses. In the beginning of the film he just treated Rachel and Samuel as a
means to an end. He had no problem with slamming an innocent man’s face against
the window in order for Samuel to profile him. Doing this to any young child
would be terrible but he exposed a boy from a culture and religion that
preaches pacifism. However, after being emerged in the Amish community, Book
clearly starts to grow fond of Rachel and Samuel. The connection to Rachel is
obvious but he even goes out of his way to build Samuel an intricate marble
run. Another way Book changes over the course of the film is hat he learns to
take responsibility for his actions. In the beginning of the film he seemed to
have no disregard for others in his pursuit of justice. After staying with the
Amish, he demonstrates his ability to take responsibility for his own actions.
The most obvious illustration of this is the fact that he repaired the birdhouse
he destroyed when he arrived.
There was a
way that Book did not change. Book was just as violent at the end of the film
as he was in the beginning. The reason the cops ended up finding him in the
first place was because he found it necessary to punch the tourist picking on
the Amish. Also, at the film’s conclusion he ended up killing two of the cops
that were after him. This shows that perhaps it was better that he returned to
the city and left the Amish in peace.
The negative change you found is very interesting. It is very hypocritical that John would sleep with Rachel in the same house as her son. I wonder if that is a product of the change in society though. His sister might have had different option. She could have perhaps gone to his house or gotten a hotel room. Book does not have another option. Because of his location his options appear to be the house or the barn. The barn hardly being a suitable place. This draws some concerns but does not change the facts. If Book really did hold this act beyond acceptable then he made an exception in this situation that goes past hi moral position. In regards to the mystery if the couple did have relations is very slight in my opinion. The small motion that had a big impact was turning the light down. First, Rachel sends Samuel to bed. This could just be that she does not want his around when she breaks tradition but when she turns down the light it is a large indication. Turing off lights indicate the end of the day, meaning going to bed. Rachel then goes to Book. So the logical next step would be to say they went to bed together.
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ReplyDeleteThe negative change in his moral persona is something that i do agree but as well disagree. I agree in the fact that yes after having a strict moral code of not being like her sister's lovers where they would sleep in the house next to the kids room. But in Books case its very different, for one we don't know if he slept with Rachel in the house, the barn, or even outside and that if they actually slept together which we don't know. Another reason why Book was not a hypocrite in this decision was because she was single, he was single and even if it is frowned upon in any religion to sleep with a widow it is not a crime, Book was always pushed by her sister to find someone he liked thus he did and found Rachel though for different reasons he had to leave not because of his strict morals.
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