The beginning of Witness, starring Harrison Ford as John Book, explores the rural life of the Pennsylvania Dutch and gives viewers a preview of the journey that Witness will take. John Book is portrayed as a “by-the-book” cop who will resort to violence in order to maintain the law. He even criticizes his adult sister for what he considers her provocativeness in front of her boys. A violent, inside crime then leads Book to the life of the Amish in a small Pennsylvania town, where he begins to experience several changes within his character. Pfeiffer explains that "what makes Witness unique is its painstaking and loving depiction of life among the Amish" (151). This uniqueness is shadowed by the changes that Book makes in himself throughout the film.
John Book, prior to experiencing life with the Amish, didn’t exactly possess a great sense of community; he mainly spent his time alone or with his police partner. Alternately, a main component of Amish life is a sense of community. The people of this community look out for each other, making sure that their beliefs are grounded throughout the things that they do. In doing this, the Amish have created a sense of community that makes each person a member of a special family. Whereas Book had previously not experienced anything like this, living among this group allowed him to gain the knowledge and practice that it takes to live in a village like this. This was shown when Book, at the end of act 2 and into act 3, worked with Eli to fix and rebuild the bird house that he had knocked over when arriving at the farm,
Book, throughout the film, also transforms what he thinks about love. He criticizes his sister for the men she is involved with, but Book later falls for Rachel emotionally and then kisses her. This causes tension in the household because their starkly different beliefs would mean that Rachel would have to leave the Amish community or Book would have to join it in order for them to be together. Prior to living with the Amish, Book would not have considered kissing a widowed woman with such a different lifestyle than his, but experiencing that community altered his viewpoint.
Another way in which Book changes throughout the film is his respect for the Amish community and religion in general. When he first was on the farm, he was reluctant to even put on the clothes of the Amish. However, he eventually started participating in daily activities, such as waking up to milk the cows and going into town with Eli and the others.
One way that Book does not change while living on the farm is his propensity toward violence. As a cop, Book is trained in violence and taught to punish the bad guy. While the Amish do not practice this, Book still maintains this about himself. This is proven when he goes to town with Eli and can not control his temper, and ends up punching the town person and breaking his nose. Living with the Amish greatly impacted Book throughout Witness, in both good and bad ways.
Jonathan Lam
ReplyDeleteI like how you brought up the sense of community and that Book was able to finally understand the concept of a family. In reference to the bird house, I feel that it shows much more symbolism than jus Book's renewed sense of community. If we look deeper into it, the bird house symbolized the corruption that Book brought from Philadelphia with him into the Amish town. The bird house became decrepid and dilapidated, and this destruction was done to it using an automobile from the city. Later on, Book repairs the bird house with his own hands at carpentry with a renewed spirit that he learned from the Amish.
I also think it is interesting that you bring up his transformation in terms of love. Even though he criticized his sister, it seemed almost ironic that he somehow ended up almost to be like her. I think it is interesting in how you linked together Rachel's presence at the Amish community and the choice that she would have had to make. In a sense, Book truly did learn to love Rachel because it is said that one of the most difficult things regarding love is to learn to let go.