The Clash of Two Cultures Between the Amish and the English

Good morning everyone. I don't really want to be here delivering this piece of crap speech which I wrote 5 minutes ago but otherwise my teacher's going to fail me and then my parents are going to kill me then bury me in the backyard. In my speech today, I will endeavour to show that Peter Weir has used effective film techniques to create meanings and engaging themes for his audiences. I will attempt to show that film techniques such as camera angles and shots, background music and dialogues have been used to illustrate a number of engaging themes, such as cultural differences, forbidden relationship, and violence versus pacifism.

Body: culture

The clash of two cultures between the Amish and the English is one of the major themes in the film and is portrayed using a number of film techniques. The film commences with the view of long, lush wheats with the Amish emerging from it soon after, accompanied by natural and ambient lighting. This establishes the Amish effectively as peaceful people who are in harmony with nature. However, this view of the Amish is soon juxtaposed in the next scene with the English. Weir effectively uses a long shot of a train station with everyone doing their own thing along with harsh and artificial lighting. The traditional values are furthered through the fact that the Amish reject modern technologies. This is depicted through their old modes of transportation, using only a horse drawn carriage to commute. Weir uses a long shot to juxtapose the modern vehicles with the horse drawn carriage in the frame, thus demonstrating the conflicting values between the Amish and the modern world.

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