Genre Film

Neil Perry has just performed A Midsummer’s Night Dream against his fathers wishes and even though he is congratulated by all of his peers and gets a standing ovation, his father is disappointed and we see that in the long shot through he expression on his face, the posture and the fact that he is the last man standing in the theatre. At home, when he is being spoken to by his parents, a low angle is used to show the fathers superiority over Neil and a high angle shot is used to show how miniscule Neil is to his father.

Also, the framing of the door surrounding Nil’s father symbolizes how the only way for Neil to escape the stronghold placed on him by his parents is through his father. As the viewers, we assume that this is the scene where Neil makes up his mind to commit suicide. The scene where Neil is shown half-naked standing by his bedroom window with the window wide open is the last time we see him alive. After the suicide has happened, we see Nil’s father rush into the study and the slow-motion shows the emotion on his face and it also elongates the reaction.

The clash of cultures is very evident in the beginning of this scene when Emcee and Schaeffer take out their weapons from the trunk of the car when in the Amiss community, guns are heavily frowned upon and modern objects are rarely used in this society. With the amplified sounds of the guns, their intentions are clearly made. When they breach the house, the pickup in the pace creates tension and with the high angle shot shows the SOCIO of power in the room. The tension heightens with Book when he tries to flee but the car won’t start.

Then when the cows and dogs make noise this further increases the tension. Book is able to make an escape by climbing up the grain silo. This silo is dark and mysterious and with the music playing in the background, the tension hasn’t been lost. Then Book realizes that he can use the silo as a weapon and a high angle shot is used here to show the enormous size of this silo. He runs out shouting ‘Samuel! ‘ because he knows that the only reason why the corrupt cops are out there is to kill Samuel.

The insertion is appropriate at this stage because it is a moment of intense drama which produces a lot of emotion both inside and outside the movie. Because of the high-paced tension coming from Witness, this scene from Dead Poets Society can be the ‘calm before the storm’. This could also make it seem like John Book fears what could happen to Samuel since he treats him like his own son and is abbey afraid that Samuel could take his own life for being witness to a murder.

Earlier in the movie, we saw that Samuel was fascinated by Book’s gun and that might have been a possible motif if the suicide where to happen later in the movie. There is a juxtaposition of characters between Nil’s Father and Book because where we see that Book moved to the Amiss community in the first place was for Samuels sake meanwhile Nil’s father is too harsh on his son. This adds value because of the different characters and also because of the pickup in drama after a depressing scene.