witness
...g to plunge her *hole community into the shadows of moral darkness Read is employed to hint at passion, sexuality, and an awakening of the senses. The colour is principally used in scenes involving Rachel and Book to invite suggestion that the widow's passion is enflamed by the mysterious outsider. More significantly, it is the mediating colour between the threatening blacks of the city and the idyllic blues of the Amish world. Red is used symbolically to show the awakening of Rachel's heart, and the potential for spiritual wholeness in her love for Book. It is therefore a colour representing the power of emotional truth to liberate Book and Rachel from their stilted, artificial worlds. Water Water is a harbinger of evil in Witness. Just as God in the Old Testament destroys the earth in a flood and drowns the Egyptian captors of Moses and the Jews after the parting of the Red Sea, so too is water a destructive force in Witness. Samuel stares at a fountain of water before entering the cubicles where he witnesses the murder. The victim of the murder splashes his face from a basin of water before he is grabbed from behind by McFee. Book stares at the naked Rachel in a shower of water, which is a provocation for their illicit sexual union - an `evil' act in the eyes of Amish law. Importantly, the consummation of their relationship is not confirmed by Weir, but rather Book and Rachel are merely depicted kissing in the rain (in cinema language, or semiotics, rain is symbolic for `new life'); therefore Weir does not allow for an `evil' interpretation of their act, as it is the metaphoric bridging of two opposing worlds, and thus stands beyond the moral definitions of either the modern or Amish perspective. Samuel shows Book how water is dragged up from the well in their village, and we are eerily reminded that it is Samuel who has inadvertently brought evil to the community by his witnessing of McFee's murderous act. Water is later shown in the scene where Schaeffer talks to Book on the telephone in his study, while behind him his children swim in a large outdoor pool. Schaeffer is nervous at this point of the film. What began as a fountain spray, has grown to a basin, to a shower, to a pool of water -the retribution for his evil acts is imminent. The final depiction of water is in the closing scenes where Book sits by the river-bank with Samuel explaining that he must leave. The steady flow of the river suggests both Book's departure and the idea that his actions have restored peace to the Amish world and water to its rightful place; it is no longer a destructive force but a powerful symbol for the current of life itself. Biblical References There are many biblical references in Witness. Principal among these is the depiction of Book as a Christ-like figure who is persecuted for his pursuit of the truth and the exposure of corruption within his own sect. Weir makes obvious (even blatant) references to the link between Book and Jesus of Nazarus. Book is a carpenter, who is betrayed by one of his own, attacked and left for dead with lasting wounds in his hip. Notwithstanding that his counterpart preached the virtue of turning the other cheek, the anger Book displays in hitting the tormentors of the Amish is reminiscent of Jesus overturning the money-changing tables in the Temple. Moreover, the name Book is a pun on Good Book or The New Book, which plays with the idea that Book brings a novel way of thinking to the Amish community he visits and offers a type of New Testament thinking to the strict legalities of their moral code. Rachel's sacrifice in caring for Book is that of the Good Samaritan's: she looks beyond the constraints of her sect's strict divisions and responds to a situation of need with a caring heart. This sacrifice is portended symbolically in the scene at the train station when Samuel gazes upon a statue of a man supporting a limp figure, which reminds us of the famous Michelangelo sculpture of Mary holding the limp figure of Jesus. The character of Eli is reminiscent of Moses in the scene where he explains to Samuel the absolute values of the Amish sect and more specifically, the belief that it is always wrong to kill. The Amish Eli is linked to the Jewish Moses in yet another scene at the train station, where Sam...