POST 8: WITNESS AS A THRILLER

From the blog: http://bethrigby.blogspot.com.es/2011/01/section-one-thriller-genre.html

DEFINITION: These are types of films known to promote intense excitement, suspense, a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety, and nerve-wracking tension. Thriller and suspense films are virtually synonymous and interchangeable categorizations, with similar characteristics and features.

There are some Thriller sub-genres:

Legal Thriller: eg- A Few Good Men
Disaster Thriller: eg- The Day After Tomorrow 
Psychological Thriller: eg- The Talented Mr. Ripley 
Medical Thriller: eg- The Experiment
Religious Thriller: eg- The Da Vinci Code 
Crime Thriller: eg - Silence of the Lambs

Techno Thriller: eg- The Matrix  

Primary elements of  the Thriller as a genre	Witness as a thriller Illustration in the film
1.Central protagonist   The protagonist faces death, it can be his own or someone else's.	John Book faces his own death when he gets shot in the undergroud parking lot. he also faces the death of his partner, when Carter gets killed. Samuel also faces death when he is in the bathroom and then when he has become an eyewitness.
2.Force/s of antagonism ... must initially be clever and/or stronger than the protagonist.	At first the dirty cops are more powerfull because they are in a higher positions (Schaeffer is John's boss/higher up) and then John is alone and isolated in the Amish community were he is vulnerable.
3.Main storyline For the protagonist it is either a quest or the character who cannot be put down(=defeated)	John's quest consists in finding the killer and uncovering the corruption ring. He also wants to avenge Carter's death.
4.Main plotline The main plotline focuses on a mystery that must be solved.	The mistery John has to solve is obiously the motive behind the murder of the police man.
5.Narrative construction It is dominated by the protagonist's point of view.	The beginning of the film is only concerned with the Amish and their lifestyle. But then when learn about Carter's death through John's point of view, so as we see Rachel and Samuel through his eyes mostly.
6.Action and characters They must be credibly realistic/natural in their representation on screen.	The Amish way of live is very credibly depicted through, for instance, the way they are dress, the barn-raising, the cow-milking, Rachel's sponge bath, or like when Elaine describes John...
7.Major themes ... are the desire for justice and the morality of individuals.	John takes justice in his own hands in order to avenge his murdered colleage. The Amish as a whole embody the highest degree of morality.
8.Small but significant aspect ... is the presence of innocence in what is seen as an essentially corrupt world.	The whole Amish community embodyinnocence because their values are basically pure. On the other hand the corruption inside the police represents the corruption of the modern world.

                                                                                                  

                                                                                                        

                   

POST 7:WITNESS - A DOCUMENTARY ON THE AMISH WAY OF LIFE

Here is a worksheet about the amish way of life and the way it is illustrated in the movie Witness.

POST 6: WITNESS - A Peter Weir movie (1985) - TWO MAIN CHARACTERS

Here is Rachel's portrait in the link below:

Rachel Lapp's Portrait in the movie Witness

POST 4: The Idea of Progress in Witness, a movie released in 1985

This video is the trailer of a movie called Witness, released in 1985.

This movie is a thriller, and it tells the story of an amish family who gets involved in a murder case because a little boy was apparently a witness to this murder. In the trailer we can see the little boy and his mother who are "protected" and followed by a police officer, played by Harrison Ford. Obviously it is a movie with a lot of action, because we see in the trailer scenes were people get shot, or scream, and the family running away with the police officer. Also, I guess it is also a love story because at the end of the trailer, the amish mother and the police officer kiss, and we hear a woman saying that people are "talking about them". I think it is the typical Hollywood action movie with a little love story in it to make even more interesting and not that violent because it still is about a homicide. I also would love to see it because it is kind of an old movie (1985) and old thrillers are the best, I love to watch them with my parents. Also, I love Harrison Ford and I think he would be an excellent police officer in that kind of movie because he is well known for his roles in action movies.