Bauer Witness and Mosquito Coast

Both Samuel in Witness and Charlie in Mosquito Coast gain knowledge beyond the patriarch. In Witness, this becomes evident when Samuel is talking with his grandfather about the handgun and in Mosquito Coast after Charlie helps his father kill the intruders.

The scene where Samuel and his grandfather Eli are discussing whether it is right or wrong to kill another person. Samuel's grandfather does not believe that there is ever a circumstance where it is right for a human to take another humans life. Eli asks Samuel whether he thinks he can see if a man is bad by looking into his heart. Samuel says he cannot see their heart but he can see what they do. In this scene Samuel is sitting on Eli’s lap and there is low light. They are sitting at the kitchen table and the handgun is in the foreground on the table. The focus is on Samuel who is in the center of the shot just behind the gun. It makes Samuel appear to be the most important figure in the shot and that his grandfather does not quite understand what it is that he has witnessed. Samuel has seen what men can do and understands the power the gun. Unlike Eli, Samuel believes bad men should be stopped, much like John Book.

In Mosquito Coast, Charlie idolizes his father for the first half of the movie until his father begins to become obsessed with living on his own and is willing to kill other men and pay no attention to his family to do so. The scene where it becomes evident that Charlie no longer wishes to blindly follow his father is when they are sitting and looking over the destruction of the village. Allie thinks that it is okay the village was destroyed as long as they remained free but Charlie does not think that what his father wants should be at such a high price of death and destruction. In this shot, Allie has been looking at the destruction for a while and he looks to be content with the outcome. Charlie however is slightly behind his fathers shoulder and is looking at him judgmentally for everything that he has done. He is not happy with what his father has done and no longer believes in his cause. Also notable here is that Charlie’s younger brother is leaning on his shoulder showing that Charlie is now the one responsible for the well being of his family. Both Allie and Charlie are in the center of the shot with the camera on the same plane. Their faces are well lit but the background is rather dark.