Witness

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of tranquillity and happiness. Significantly, Book's light blue car (symbolic of the freedoms of technological progress) crashes into a post when he initially attempts to withdraw from the community, and then fails to start when he must escape from Schaeffer and McFee in the final scenes. Thus Book's motorised token of freedom is shown as useless compared to the traditional horses of his Amish hosts - an irony in relation to modern world understanding of progress and sophistication.

In terms of the cinematography, it is the (metaphorical) dark shadows of the modern world which threaten to encroach upon the contrasting light blues of the Amish world. This is represented by the dark lighting of the scene in which Rachel nurses Book to health after his shooting; in the silhouette shot of Schaeffer and his accomplices striding into town with rifles in hand; and in the shadows cast along the wall where Schaeffer holds Rachel at gunpoint. threatening to plunge her *hole community ...

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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 ...

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