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Witness (1985)
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Movie Review by Jarrod
February 19th, 2008
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'Witness' is both a superb thriller and a superb love story, and how it blends the two together so well is one of its most impressive qualities. This is arguably Peter Weir's best movie, and it features what is arguably Harrison Ford's best performance. It gives him a chance to really act, in a way he is not required to when playing Han Solo or Indiana Jones. He earned a well-deserved Oscar nomination. The film opens at an Amish community in Pennsylvania. An Amish man has died. His wife Rachel (Kelly McGillis) takes their son Samuel (Lukas Haas) and leaves to pay a temporary visit to her sister. They travel by train, and get delayed at the station, thus stranded in the big city. Samuel goes to the bathroom and witnesses a murder. He sees only one of the perpetrators. A cop named John Book (Ford) shows up and questions him. Samuel eventually identifies a prominent narcotics officer, McFee (Danny Glover), as the man he saw. This poses serious problems. Samuel's life is in danger, and so is Book's. There is corruption reaching to the highest levels of the police department. Book escorts Rachel and Samuel back to their farm. Book has been shot and Rachel convinces her father, Eli, to let him stay until he recovers. The Amish are suspicious of the outside, or English, world. They want nothing to do with its laws, but Book's presence changes that.
Eli demands that Book make himself useful, so he has him milking cows and raising barns. Book falls for Rachel, and she for him. This creates slight tension with Daniel Hochleitner (Alexander Godunov), who shows an interest in taking Rachel as his wife. Book's relationship with Rachel is also threatened by Amish tradition. These are people who live like their ancestors, a way of life unaltered for 200 years. They marry only within the confines of their community, and venture beyond it only to sell what they have grown or built. Rachel seems to develop a curiosity about Book and where he comes from; there is always the possibility that she may decide to leave with him, or that he may stay behind with her. The romance is intelligent and involving, and also often understated; there is no sex, and only one scene of nudity, and a particularly sensuous kiss.
The culture shock elements are successful, and the movie has nothing but respect and affection for the Amish and their ways, never are they ridiculed or ostracized for their simplicity or their devout, archaic religious beliefs. And it is also a smart and exciting thriller. Lukas Haas is wonderful and almost unbearably adorable, especially in his little black hat and suit. McGillis is striking, pretty yet plain, complicated and defiant, not as bound by tradition as Eli would like to believe. There is an effective moment where he sadly tells her the consequences of being shunned, something that would obviously be hard for him, but necessary for him to accept. Overall, an expertly written, marvelously directed, stupendously acted film.
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