Witness (1985)

Witness (1985) directed by Peter Weir is a thriller about a young Amish boy who is a sole witness to a murder; policeman John Book goes into hiding in Amish country to protect him until the trial.


The demographic that rate this film highest on IMDB are females aged 45+. The reason for this could be because of Harrison Ford who plays John Book who is the main character. Due to Ford playing many roles as a romantic hero and could be seen as a charming man to women. The reason why older females rated it higher than younger females  may be because of the era in which Ford played his romantic roles in films, the older women aged 45+ during the 90s and 80s would have been in their teens and early adulthood, appealing to the older women rather than the younger generation of women.

When at the train station, this low angle shot of the stature portrays how significant it is. As the boy is Amish this means that when in the city (which would be very modern to him) landmarks like this would be new and very strange, even possibly frightening.

This next shot of the statues changes to a high angle/over the shoulder. This shot suggests that the boy is insignificant, and is a small boy unaware of the dangers of the big city. This shot may also connote how the statue is overwatching him and is his guardian protecting him from possible threats in the big city.



This vanishing point of Samuel (the Amish boy) is an effective shot. This indicates to the audience that Samuel is heading to another world, he is heading into danger. The vanishing point is of Samuel walking to the toilet which connotes that he's entering the dirty, criminal side of the city, he's walking away from the captivating city and going to a darker side of it. The location of this shot is very isolated and dim. The colours in this shot are all unattractive and dim, which implies that the city is unattractive and dirty. The fact that there are very few people adds to the isolation to this very open space. Open and isolated spaces creates an atmosphere of danger because of their being an absence of people to witness a crime. The use of open and isolated spaces can be seen by Peter Jackson in 'Heavenly Creatures' when the mother is killed by her daughter and friend.


Next there are several close up shots of the action going on in the toilet. These are done in quick cuts to  create more drama and suspense in the scene. The use of quick cuts also keeps the audience at the same pace that murder is happening at. The scene in which the murder takes place is an enigma, which is a generic convention. The audience asks several questions in this scene such as, who are the murderers? Why are they killing this man? Who is the man?


Peter Weir uses many generic conventions of the thriller genre in this scene, for example the use of an enigma. Another generic convention Weir uses is the use of weapons, the use of a flick knife is the weapon used to murder in this scene. It is a small weapon which is easy to get hold of and is common within the thriller genre.

Shot List for Thriller opening

Shot list:

- High angle shot of Jon walking up the stairs with the rucksack.

- Close-up/ Tracking shot of a leaf falling down and landing on the windscreen of the white van.

- Shot from within the van, camera focused on the leaf and windscreen, shift in focus to Jon at the top of the stairs walking around to the right.

- Extreme close-up of Bill's eyes (angry or emotionless expression), diegetic sound of the van starting up.

- Mid-tilt of Jon entering the car park stairwell.

- Tracking shot of the van going round the corner.

- Long shot through broken window of the van going into the car park (test shot on previous post).

- High-angle of Jon walking up stairs.

- Mid-shot of the third person checking their watch, Match on Action close up of the watch (Maybe pan to white van in the background).

- Close-up of Jon's feet as he turns the stairwell.

- Low angle/ Tilt of Jon walking up the final set of stairs.

- Mid-shot to Close-up of Jon walking through the door.

- Point of view, Jon looking around (Spots van, shot holds for a second).

- Long shot of Jon looking around.

- Over the Shoulder/ Tracking of Jon walking up to the van with one door open, gets to the van see's third persons watch on the floor.

- Close-up of the watch getting picked up by Jon, has a smashed clock face.

- Close-up of Jon's worried face.

- Mid-shot/Tracking shot of Jon running towards stairwell doors and throwing them open, camera movement shaking to symbolize running/ add to the action.

- Mid-shot from other side of the doors of Jon busting through and getting to the lift.

- Extreme close-up of Jon's finger repeatedly pressing the down button.

- Medium close-up of Jon impatiently waiting for lift.

- Point of view shot of lift doors opening, third person slumped dead on the lift floor with a business card placed on her.

- Worms-eye shot from third person's perspective of Jon walking in an crouching down in front of her.

- Close-up on the business card whilst Jon picks it up.

- Diegetic sound of lift doors closing, shot from the back of the lift of Jon turning around.

- Just before the lift doors close, close-up of a foot stopping the door from shutting.