NOTES ABOUT “WITNESS” in relation to general theme of IDENTITY & BELONGING
I took these notes, whilst watching the movie last week. You may find some of these
useful (or not) when considering writing to a CONTEXT, with the theme of IDENTITY
& BELONGING. Remember that “WITNESS” is your text, whereby you link ideas of
Identity & Belonging, evidenced in the film, with those you choose to focus on in
your own work.
These notes appear in chronological order, as they appear in the film.
Opening/establishing Images:
 Serenity & Purity of Amish environment in Pennsylvania country-side
 Funeral ritual/rites being administered in German language
Initial contrasts between rural Pennsylvania & big city Philadelphia, through
the eyes of Rachel, and particularly Samuel:
 Travelling to ‘town’ in horse-drawn buggy holding up line of traffic, including
semi-trailer
 Catching Amtrak train to big city railway station in Philadelphia
FISHES OUT OF WATER # 1.
 Many images seen through Samuel’s eyes.
Samuel’s purity and vulnerability/powerlessness vs. Contaminated Impurity
of events in the ‘washroom’: Murder committed
Lack of respect or time for understanding (at first) of who these (Amish)
people are:
 Book casually calls Samuel, “Sam”…
 Book and other cop in car mocking & deriding Rachel’s attitudes to “The
Law”
 Street kids hanging outside bar (contrast with Samuel)
Corruption:
 Philly cops using violence, lack of respect for legal process, lack of trust &
belief in their own system – needing to use violent apprehension of (black)
suspect so Samuel can identify him under duress
Presence/Lack of Moral codes & connectedness/disconnectedness from social
ritual:
 Book’s sister is having a relationship with a guy, whilst looking after her kids
 Rachel & Samuel pray before consuming hot-dogs in diner
Police Station as a microcosm of urban society…who can you trust?:

Samuel goes on a little journey. Meets a young kind woman, then a guy who
looks reasonably friendly, who is actually hand-cuffed to a chair and is
obviously psychotic
Belonging to a Culture of Corruption:
 Cops know the ‘culture’ and how to survive and prosper, despite being
trained and having sworn allegiance to uphold the Law
Philadelphia as symbol of ‘freedom’, The City of Brotherly Love has become
corrupted…read any quick reference on Philly (Wikipedia is fine).
FISH OUT OF WATER # 2:
 John Book is nursed back to health by the Amish
Dilemma:
 Rachel is advised by Eli to send Book to hospital, but she pleads for them not
to. Eli: “This a man’s life, we hold it in our hands.” Life is precious.
John Book’s sub-conscious:
 Language during his delirium whilst recovering reveals a contamination, lack
of ‘filtering’…ingrained & habitual
Amish District Leadership (Elders)
Guns:
 Amish beliefs in non-resistance dictate no guns
 Book allows Samuel to handle the hand-gun as long as it’s emptied of the
bullets, whilst Rachel is appalled at the mere presence of the weapon
 Eli mentors Samuel about the hand-gun and Amish pacifist beliefs
Contamination of Samuel & Rachel
 Eli fears that Samuel’s purity has been corrupted by what he witnessed in
Philadelphia
 There’s a strong suggestion that Rachel is in danger of being
infected/affected by her closeness to John Book
Mennonites & Amish beliefs
 The Mennonites are an umbrella group of churches. The Amish fit as a subgroup under this umbrella. There is also a faction known as Mennonites. I
came across a community of these in Belize in Central America, where thy
probably fled during the Second World War, as they do not believe in war,
and they were persecuted by the Catholics and Protestants, even though they
are all Christians.
 Amish believe that buttons (for example), express “pride”, “display”,
“ostentation”. Farming is a pure, simple and honest pursuit-a ritual

Mennonites (according to movie script) are a little more liberal in that they
have cars, fridges and telephones
John Book transforms:
 He begins to purify, to purge. He does milking, carpentry…(Jesus was a
carpenter)
 As he continues to immerse himself in Amish life, and participate in their
ways, Rachel begins to flirt with him more and more
Sam Cooke’s “Wonderful World”/Rachel Lapp transforms:
 John Book is able to get the radio working (electronic device, not permitted
in the Amish world) in his VW station wagon (a German car, ironically
bringing the outside world in the form of John Book, to the Amish
community-also not permitted in Amish life)
 The song is “Wonderful World” by the great Sam Cooke
 The ‘puritan’ dances with John Book. Is she dancing with the devil? She has
body contact with him. Rock and Roll will ‘free’ your soul.
 Rachel knows that she is more independent in her thinking and she is
isolated, now that her husband has died
Eli’s response:
 Eli is shocked when he catches Rachel and Book dancing
 He accuses Rachel of bringing “this man to this house, with his gun of the
hand…you bring fear to this house.”
 He reminds her that she risks being ‘shunned’ by the community
Paul (The Police Chief):
 “We’re like the Amish, we’re a cult too. A club with our own rules. John has
broken those rules…”
Community “Raising The Barn”:
 John lends his carpentry skills to the Barn-Raising day, a total Amish
community event where everyone contributes to the one objective and a
unified purpose (and meaning?)
 Community welcomes John as they witness his efforts in contributing to the
construction
Integration:
 John, Rachel & Samuel integrate with each others’ culture and pick up traits
from the other
Love-making scene:
 The union of two people; two cultures; contamination of each other?
John quotes Paul back at him:
 Talking about how Paul used to say about corrupt cops: “Somewhere along
the way, they lost the meaning.”
Book’s violent response to the town red-necks:
 Once infected, it’s always in your blood
Re-construction of Bird-House
 Fixing the damage (John knocked it over when he passed out when he first
tried to leave the community). Reconciling the account.
Sexual Tension:
 Dealing with human needs, desires…to be loved, wanted
 Rachel wanted John, but she began to attach herself emotionally first, after
witnessing that he was a good person.
Image of corrupt cops arriving over the hill:
 Like a silent viral force. The outside world arrives with their contamination
Paul’s shouting match with John:
 We laugh because he should be in control, but he is no longer in his home
territory or comfort zone. He’s been found out and it’s close to being all over
for him. He is now out-of-control and yelling like a child having a tantrum. A
carefully constructed choice from the director