Oria, Witness

        At the beginning of the film Witness the character John Book, played by Harrison Ford, is portrayed as a violent but straight laced cop working the streets of Philadelphia.  While Book seems to be very isolated from the world around him, he is very judgmental of it.  He criticizes his sister for her life choices and is very violent towards the criminals he is dealing with.  Once he enters the world of the Amish, he begins to experience some important changes.  Although his violent ways remain the same, he gains a greater sense of community and family and realizes the impact that his violent actions have on others.  He experiences these changes because of the film’s unique representation of the Amish. It has been said that, “What makes Witness unique is its painstaking and loving depiction of life among the Amish" (Pfeiffer, 151).

         The Amish promote an elevated sense of community.  Unified by their common beliefs, the Amish have cultivated a tightly woven village.  Within this society of people, everyone works together for the greater good of the group.  In the same regard, everyone in the community looks out for one another to ensure the longevity of their societal beliefs.  Given that they have isolated themselves from the corrupt modern world, they are often weary of any outsiders.  The fact that he was allowed to live among them had a profound impact on Booth.  He was able to witness first hand how the community functioned as a cohesive unit.  This was most likely the first encounter Book has had that proves the benefits of community.  In the Philadelphia, everyone is isolated and there is no real sense of community.  After his time with the Amish however, Book gains an understanding of community. 

         Along with their sense of community, the Amish place an importance of family.  Everyone in the community is concerned about the temptation that Book poses by being among them.  They worry that Rachel will be tempted to run off with Book.  Rachel’s father, Eli Lapp is the one that is most concerned.  He loves his daughter and does not want her to fall prey to temptation.  Book realizes this despite his feelings towards Rachel.  He understands that if he were to act on his feelings, it would have a devastating effect on not only her father or the community, but on Rachel as well.

         While Book remains violent throughout, it is clear that he realize the impact that violence has on others.  In the scene where the tourists are bullying the Amish men, Book gets up to defend them. Eli Lapp attempts to convince him that violence is not the Amish way.  Book ignores him and resorts to violence.  Although Book has not changed in that regard, it is clear that his actions are more calculated.  When he gets up to fight those boys, he is doing so to defend the community that he has come to know and understand.  So in his own way, Book has taken a step towards a higher understanding of community.

Lam: Witness

                John Book (Harrison Ford) undergoes quite a few changes throughout the film, but he maintains one very key quality of his character that becomes very key to understanding his character more thoroughly. John Book most dominantly changes his view on community from always being a "lone wolf" type character archetype to one that embraces the community. Even though John Book had a partner in the police force and a sister, Book very quickly abandons his partner in order to do what he believes is right and abandons his sister with no information on his whereabouts, probably the best choice of action in order to protect her. However, after John Book lived with the Amish for an extended period of time, he began to feel the very close sense of community, especially during the raising of the barn together with the whole town/communities.

                Another change that he underwent was learning to control his anger and will to fight aggresively. This is exhibited in the scene when John Book, Eli, Daniel, and the school children returned home but were picked on by the bullies. Many argue that he lost his temper and fought against the Amish's pacifist ways, but in fact, Book warned the bully that he was "making a mistake." If this were his past self, he would not have stopped at first, so he showed a renewed control over his emotions. This shows that he adapted some of the Amish thinking into his own character (Pfeiffer 151).

                One other change that he underwent was his outlook on love. Before, his sister hinted that he was always single, but he fell in love with Rachel. As I mentioned previously, Book's character is often seen as a lone wolf type of character. However, it was interesting to watch his transformation into a renewed human being and show that opposite to the violent side that he first exhibitied in the beginning of the film, he also has a softer side that was able to be cultivated.

                 However, the one thing that Book does not change about himself is his morality of defending the weak. This is important to understanding him because it is his biggest leftover detail from the "English" world. It essentially shows that he did not completely turn to the Amish ways overall. Using the same scene mentioned earlier, it demonstrated one of Book's stronger points in the film but also his lowest point in the film. This overall develops his character more because it shows that even the hero is flawed and may not always be able to overcome the last obstacle that ties him back to his old world. However, John Book's character comes very close and overall undergoes a great deal of character development.

Kunzig – Witness

   An important, obvious way in which John Book fails to change to change, grow from his experience in the Amish community is in his tendency to violence, which is what we discussed in class. He is still violent in a way that is unacceptable to the Amish. This is observable in two scenes: first, in the scene that takes place in Strasburg; a local teenager is in effect bullying Daniel, one of Rachel's friends, by smearing ice cream on his face. While Daniel, in the Amish way, does not react, John beats the kid up. The second scene where Book resorts to violence occurs at the end of the movie, when the dirty cops visit the Amish community looking for him. He kills two of them.

   While his failure to abandon violence is notable, I still believe that he has changed in that regard. At the beginning of the movie, he is unnecessarily, appallingly violent as he pulls a suspect out of a bar, and slams his face against the car window to show it to the young boy. That behavior was completely uncalled for, and in no way excusable. However, the two times I mentioned above – the only times he is violent after arriving in the Amish community – seem to me to be slightly more justifiable. In Strasburg, he did not have to beat the boy bloody, that was definitely going overboard; however it was not completely unprovoked (the boy was being despicable), and he was only trying to defend the honor of a friend. It must be noted that he had also just learned that his good friend and partner back home had just been killed, so it is no surprising that he was a bit on edge. Had he not just gotten that news, he might not have resorted to such violence. And in the second scene, Book kills two of the three dirty cops, but this was in an attempt to save himself and the people who took him in. It would have been difficult to do that without killing them, since they were armed and he was not, and there were three of them and only one of him. Had he chosen the pacifist route, and let them kill him, they probably would have also killed the boy and his mother, to cover up the original crime they committed, and possibly others, so Book did not have many options. And when the last of the dirty cops comes for him, he does not try to kill him. Therefore I think that while Book has in no way become an Amish pacifist, he has learned of the harm violence can cause, and I believe he would be less unnecessarily violent back in Philadelphia.

   Another way in which he has changed from this experience is in his relationship towards others. He has learned the happiness brought by being part of a community, and he has learned to be part of a team, to work together rather than individually. This can be observed in the scene of the building of the barn.

   And finally, he has learned respect. For other people, for other ways of life. He respects the no gun rule in the Amish household. He does not sleep with Rachel, because he understands the consequences for her as well as for him.

O'Connell: Witness

As John Book awakes in an Amish household, he is immediately thrust into a lifestyle that holds a drastically different set of ideals from his own. Coming from highly individualized and self-centered city living, Book is accustomed to managing his own affairs, and his affairs alone. It’s the English way to take care of oneself independently from others, as the rest of the population does the same in autonomous peace. When he arrives in the Lapp house, however, he is helpless and relies upon the kindness of others, humbling him and teaching him humility. Once he is able-bodied, he begins to pay it forward and benefit the community much in the way they benefitted him, as we see through his chores, the barn raising, and even rebuilding the birdhouse.

Also whilst living in the Lapp household, Book unconsciously takes on a father role as he protects Samuel, humbles himself to Eli, and falls in love with Rachel. Never starting a household of his own, this introduces to Book the importance of family values, a virtue he may have gone on without knowing were he to continue his life in the city uninterrupted. In mealtime scenes this makeshift family looks natural from the outside, and leads Book to roleplay the father in something of a training experience for him.

Though he is in constant conflict with the Amish way, making mistakes and faux pas one after another, Book eventually learns to subjugate his own cultural norms and accept the ones around him. His stubbornness slowly wears off, and as their values of modesty and hard work rub off on him, he abandons the traits of individuality and selfishness that conflict with his new way of life. His steady adaptation to the Amish way is often comic relief, but he eventually realizes that their living is not backwards or inferior to his own, and embraces it almost in its entirety.

But unfortunately he cannot completely transform into a denizen of the Amish world. As we see in his conflict with the abusive tourists, he cannot learn their stoic pacifism due to his origins in a world saturated with brutality. However, the director’s original intention was not to present this as the final message of the film. “Peter Weir wanted the climax to Witness to downplay the violence and stress the love affair between Book and Rachel.” (Pfeiffer 152) The persevering violence ingrained into Book makes a powerful statement about his nature. Though he can be conditioned into much of the peaceful Amish way of life, his failure to completely adapt reinforces the idea that these are indeed to very different worlds, just as Eli Lapp believed.  You can take the man out of the violence, but you can’t take the violence out of the man.