History Film / Witness

* ScaryBlackMan: [=McFee=], especially when shown from Samuel's perspective. Him being played by Creator/DannyGlover, he's like an DirtyCop EvilCounterpart to his later heroic CowboyCop characters [[Film/LethalWeapon Roger Murtaugh]], [[Film/Predator2 Mike Harrigan]] or even [[Film/{{Saw}} David Tapp]].

* DoesNotLikeShoes: The Amish women and some of the children, as seen during the barn-raising scene.

* ScaryBlackMan: [=McFee=], especially when shown from Samuel's perspective. Him being played by Creator/DannyGlover, he's like an DirtyCop EvilCounterpart to his later heroic CowboyCop characters [[Franchise/LethalWeapon Roger Murtaugh]], [[Film/Predator2 Mike Harrigan]] or even [[Film/{{Saw}} David Tapp]].

* ScaryBlackMan: [=McFee=], especially when shown from Samuel's perspective.

* {{Arcadia}}: ZigZagged. While the life of the Amish is portrayed as peaceful, calm and with a closely knit community that supports all members, it doesn't shy from also portraying all the hard work it takes to run a farm, especially one with only basic tools, while also showing the concept of shunning.

* BadassPacifist: All the Amish. Best shown when [[spoiler: the ''entire town'', from the oldest elder to the youngest child, confronts Schaeffer, an armed known murderer with a shotgun, and simply stand watching til he gives up and surrenders.]]

** In a way, the tradition of "shunning" comes back when [[spoiler: the entire town comes back to passively observe Schaeffer's sin, and he realizes there's no way out for him and gives up.]]

* CrimeAfterCrime: [[spoiler:Schaeffer]] and his gang killed the undercover cop in the first act because he uncovered their drug operation. They then spend the rest of the movie trying to kill Samuel who was witness to that crime as well as Book and Carter who who he told about it. [[spoiler: While they do kill Carter, Schaeffer is unable to murder Book and Samuel because he'd have to murder the entire Amish community to cover that crime.]]

* DirtyCop: Schaeffer, [[=McFee=]], and Fergie run a drug-dealing ring, and are willing to murder fellow police officers to hide their crimes.

* HaveYouToldAnyoneElse: When Book finds out that the perpetrator of a recent cop murder is a narcotics detective, and upon further investigation realizes the detective was involved in the theft of confiscated drugs, he [[spoiler:goes to Police Chief Schaeffer and, upon telling everything he knows, is asked whether he has told anyone else. When Book says no, Schaeffer tells him to keep it quiet. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by the fact that Book trusts Schaeffer and, as a police corruption case, it would make sense to keep as few officers in the loop as possible. It turns out Schaeffer was in on it though and he uses this]].

* JustAFleshWound: {{Subverted}}. [[spoiler:Book is badly hit and only barely survives getting shot in the side by [=McFee=]]].

* KnowWhenToFoldEm: [[spoiler: Schaeffer gives up at the end when the ''entire town'' comes to Rachel's rescue, and he realizes that he would literally have to kill every single person in the entire community there to escape and avoid being identified, something he is either [[PragmaticEvil incapable]] or [[EvenEvilHasStandards unwilling]] to do.]]

* MundaneMadeAwesome: You ''will'' want to run to the countryside and participate in a BarnRaising after watching this movie. Carpentry in general has never looked so uplifting.

* OneWordTitle

* RecklessGunUsage: Averted, if not outright defied. Out of pure curiosity, Samuel starts looking through John's things, including a revolver, when Book is not in the room. However, before he can even touch the gun, John shows up and stops him. Then he takes a long while to carefully explain the boy the dangers of handling a loaded weapon. He then tells Rachel and Eli about it, making it explicit to them it was his own fault and neglect, not Samuel's, all while being genuinely freaked by the sheer possibility of the boy handling the gun. [[note]]The Amish use guns, but only for hunting. Any other use is a sin.[[/note]] Then Eli explains to Samuel why it's wrong to even touch a weapon. The entire sequence is handled with amazing grace, given the subject, and without any heavy-handed preaching, while also carefully explaining the Amish pacifistic stance.

* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: [[spoiler: John convinces Schaeffer to turn himself in rather than try and kill [[LeaveNoWitnesses every last person in town]].]]

* WretchedHive: UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}} gets this treatment. It's portrayed as a massive city, where people get shanked in a public restroom, cops are corrupt or rabid, women indecent and everyone remains anonymous in their actions.

** Played straight in the case of McFee. It's strongly implied that he would have murdered Samuel had he found him in order to eliminate the only witness to the murder of a fellow police officer.

* FireForgedFriends: Downplayed, but [[RomanticRunnerUp Daniel Hochleitner]] has clearly developed a mutual respect for Book after he joins in on the barn-raising and beats the shit out of the obnoxious redneck who was being a dick to Daniel for no reason. After he's [[spoiler:saved the entire community from Schaeffer and his goons]], they're like flesh and blood to each other, and on passing him on the road out of town, Book waves to Daniel like they're old friends.

* CrimeAfterCrime: [[spoiler:Schaeffer]] and his gang killed the undercover cop in the first act because he uncovered their drug operation. They then spend the rest of the movie trying to kill Samuel who was witness to that crime as well as Book and Carter who who he told about it. [[spoiler: While they do kill Carter, Schaeffer is unable to murder Book and Samuel because he'd have to murder [[UpToEleven the entire Amish community]] to cover that crime.]]

* SuspectIsHatless: The best description Samuel can give of the killer whose face he saw can be summed up as "he was black". Detective Book gets nowhere until Samuel wanders the police department and spots the murderer in a newspaper clipping.

* AdultFear: The film likes to slap a lot of it on you, especially when concerning Samuel's well being.
** The most prominent being the Gun scene. You have Samuel who as an Amish person, let alone a child, has never seen or known how a handgun works. He sneaks into Book's room while he's in another room, still recovering from his own gunshot wound. Out of sheer curiosity he opens the drawer and takes Book's gun out. Book walking in and seeing Samuel, knowing the gun is loaded, yells at him not to move. You can tell by the tone of his voice, he's more worried that Samuel would get hurt rather than angry. Book gives Samuel a stern lecture about handling a loaded gun and even shows him how to properly disarm it. As if that wasn't bad enough Rachel walks in, not knowing the gun was unloaded, but still upset that her kid is handling a handgun. She justifiably chews Book out over it and rather than argue with her, he agrees and asks her to hide it in a safer place. Eli gets in on it too and gives a less stern, but reasonable lecture to Samuel on why it's not ok to use a gun and take human life.[[note]]The Amish use guns, but only for hunting. Any other use is a sin.[[/note]] You can even tell by his voice, that he's seen his fair share of violence and that he just doesn't want to see his own grandson get hurt or hurt anyone else too.
** [[spoiler:Later, Rachel and Eli are reduced to prayers about Samuel's well-being as they don't know if he was killed or managed to escape from the corrupt cops. Eli is more than relieved when he notices Samuel hidden in the corridor of their own house, but before that he had a really hard time not to burst into tears, all while trying to put on a strong face and keep Rachel calm]].

* RecklessGunUsage: Averted, if not outright defied. Out of pure curiosity, Samuel starts looking through John's things, including a revolver, when Book is not in the room. However, before he can even touch the gun, John shows up and stops him. Then he takes a long while to carefully explain the boy the dangers of handling a loaded weapon. He then tells Rachel and Eli about it, making it explicit to them it was his own fault and neglect, not Samuel's, all while being genuinely freaked by the sheer possibility of the boy handling the gun. Then Eli explains to Samuel why it's wrong to even touch a weapon. The entire sequence is handled with amazing grace, given the subject, and without any heavy-handed preaching, while also carefully explaining the Amish pacifistic stance.

** During the milking scene, Eli asks Book, who is having trouble with it, "Come on man, have you never held a teat before?" to which Book deadpans "Not one this big." You expect the dour Eli to get indignant at this fairly sexual quip, but after taking a second to realize what Book means, he instead gives a roar of laughter and claps him on the back in a "You're all right, kid" manner.[[note]]TruthInTelevision, Amishmen are farmers and don't mind this kind of sexual humor. At the funeral dinner, they're joshing around about a horse with one testicle, and Hochstetler says "One good ball, that's all it takes".[[/note]]

* TranslationConvention: When Eli is explaining to Samuel all the complicated matters of taking life and staying away from weapons, he makes a quote from The Bible. The translated quote is from the King James' version, which the Amish rarely use, but is much more accessible to Anglophone audiences.

A 1985 film directed by Creator/PeterWeir and starring Creator/HarrisonFord, who also earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Also starring Kelly [=McGillis=], Creator/LukasHaas and Creator/DannyGlover.

* ConvenientPhotograph: Samuel would have had no clue who McFee was, how to identify him, and nobody else would have ever known that [[TheBadGuysAreCops the police are involved]] if there wasn't a photograph of him on the noticeboard of the police station in his plain view.

A 1985 film directed by Creator/PeterWeir and starring Creator/HarrisonFord, who also earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Also starring Kelly McGillis, Creator/LukasHaas and Creator/DannyGlover.

A 1985 film directed by Creator/PeterWeir and starring Creator/HarrisonFord, who also earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Also starring Creator/KellyMcGillis, Creator/LukasHaas and Creator/DannyGlover.

* BuriedAlive: [[spoiler:Fergie.]] [[CruelAndUnusualDeath Ouch.]]

* ShownTheirWork: Ferguson's death in the grain silo highlights the fact that a good portion of deaths in such places aren't usually due to being buried in grain, but being suffocated by grain fragments that are inhaled into a person's lungs. In fact, the falling grain increases the amount of grain particulate in the air, and soon enough, Ferguson is struggling to breathe until he essentially suffocates to death.