A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of the Film “Witness for the Prosecution”

Abstract

This study conducts a multimodal discourse analysis of the 1957 courtroom suspense film “Witness for the Prosecution”, investigating how verbal and visual modalities collaboratively construct and deconstruct the credibility of witness testimony. The analytical framework integrates the Attitude System within Martin’s Appraisal System with the interactive meaning components of Visual Grammar proposed by Kress and van Leeuwen, specifically contact, social distance, and shooting perspective. Five representative courtroom clips, selected for their high density of adversarial discourse and multimodal resources, form the dataset. The analysis reveals that Judgement resources overwhelmingly dominate the verbal data, while Offer images and eye-level angle shots establish a baseline of objective narration; in contrast, Demand images, close-ups, and strategically deployed high and low angle shots intervene at pivotal narrative moments to modulate viewer empathy and cognitive judgment. Both prosecution and defense are based on clarifying the facts on judgmental interrogatives, increasing the power of cross-examination on direct camera gaze, and manipulating the authority of speech on perspective shifts. Finally, the multimodal design of this film shows that, finding facts in courtroom is just like performance, and jury-based adjudication is explained in manipulation of rhetorical and visual. Therefore, it provides an analytical framework for legal suspense films.