The film never takes a stand one way or the other on whether the Amish nonviolence or Book's violence is "correct." The end is notable for the way it splits the difference between the philosophies. The Amish passively witness the villain's crimes, which proves to be his undoing, but just witnessing him would not have stopped him if it were not for the police, who are willing to arrest him under threat of violence.
Maurice Jarre's BAFTA-winning score is realised entirely on synths. It has been argued that it would have been more majestic—especially the famous "Raising the Barn" cue—if it had been performed by a live orchestra, and indeed it's been arranged for and recorded by orchestra. But the synths are entirely appropriate: in the scenes shot in Philadelphia, they give the score a gritty urban feel, and in "Raising the Barn" the fact that this deliberately archaic music (it sounds like something from a Bach cantata) is played on synths, illuminates the way that, for John Book, helping to raise the barn is a sort of idyll in which he becomes (briefly) integrated into the Amish community as a helpful member, but it's really an illusion. He's still a stranger, and for the other people helping to raise the barn, for all that everyone comes together and works and has a good meal, it's not any kind of special, sacred occasion: they're just helping the neighbours get their barn up. Only later on, when Book has risked his life to defeat Schaefer and save the Lapps, does Eli symbolically grant him honorary membership of the community when he says goodbye to Book with "You be careful out among them English."
