Witness - Toilet Scene

Title: Witness

Director: Peter Weir
Year: 1985

Starring: Harrison Ford, Kelly McGillis, Lukas Haas

The film 'Witness' by Peter Weir surrounds the story of a young amish boy and his traumatic encounter. He is intending to travel on a train with his mother for the first time. When using the toilet at the station, the young boy

The toilet scene in witness is the key scene in the film and has a huge impact on the audience when watching. Many different aspects of the scene give a severely intense feel to the film and create suspense throughout.

The scene begins with the boy walking towards the toilets. This is a very clever shot because it shows both the boy and the spacious area that surrounds him. He is in an isolated train station with nobody around him. The long shot puts in perspective the fact that he is a young, naive child and his innocence and inferiority are emphasised. The door of the toilet is visible in the distance and creates a vanishing point in the shot. It suggests to us that the child is going to enter what could seem like 'a whole new world'. We assume that he is about to encounter something that no boy of his age should.

The shot as the young boy walks into the toilet also proves powerful in several ways. There is a difference in lighting which emphasises the contrast between where he has come from to where he is now. The lighting is unusually bright for this type of scene. Peter Weir is challenging generic conventions from the thriller genre here, he purposely chooses the light in the bathroom to be considerably bright so that the crime that is going to be commited there seems more brutal and shocking. Many murders that take place in thrillers happen in dark, isolated places, so that nobody is around to see, however, in this case it is very different. It can be compared to the shooting of the Melanie by Louis in Jackie Brown. The murder is commited in broad daylight, which emphasises his brutality because he is not afraid to do this sort of thing, even in daylight.

The boy is dressed in all black and because of the way the light surrounds him in the mis-en-scene, it is difficult to make out any great detail on the boy. He almost looks like a silhouette or shadow. A shadow symbolises another presence which is exactly the role the boy plays in this scene. He is witness to a murder and see's every detail, although the villain is unaware of this. Shadows have been cleverly used in the past to portray another presence in many thriller films, perhaps best in Carol Reed's film 'The Third Man'.

Later on in the scene, after the boy has witnessed the murder, there is a very powerful shot which creates great impact amongst its audience. An extreme close up on only the boys eye almost forces us to show sympathy towards him which we do to an extent already. Any further sympathy allows us to relate to the boy and put ourselves in his shoes. We become increasingly nervous and tense as a result, something which all great thrillers include.