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Witness [DVD] [1985] starring: Harrison Ford, Kelly McGillis, Lukas Haas, Josef Sommer, Jan Rubes

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Rating: - Well crafted thriller with a good heart

Inventive thriller which chooses a great setting and character type to give a much needed shot of originality to a crammed genre. Ford is a great choice to play the hard cop with a soft heart and McGillis is perfection as her character. There's chemistry there too. Doesn't try to be too spectacular but instead remembers the quiet dignity of its hosts, and makes great use of this. Interweaved a good little thriller around them, and Ford's compassion for his new friends sets the seal on a class thriller.

Rating: - Slow, un-moving and positively boring in parts!!!

I'd never seen this film before, I purchsed this as part of a triple pack together with Clear and present danger and K-19: The Widowmaker, I watched all of these trailers and decided that 2 were well worth buying (I was correct after viewing them), but this film looked like it was ok and that was about it.

There simply is not enough going on in this film to engage you for the entire 1 hour 45 minutes running time, several times I had to fast forward over some scenes as all that was going on was music playing with very little going on.

The acting from everyone was poor, Harrison Ford gave the best performance, but that's really not saying much, this film could and should have been alot better than it is, the worst thing is that the bad guys simply were not particularly bad, menacing or believable, there's only one of them that I recognise, indeed only 3 members of the entire cast for that matter, after these performances it's not hard to see why!!

From Star Wars to The Fugitive to Air Force One I've always enjoyed Harrison Ford, he's a good solid actor, but he should have avoided this one like the plague, I rarely buy films from the 80's or before, this kind of film is the very reason why.

Rating: - Timeless classic

Slow moving, but fabulous film, giving wonderful insight into Amish community life. The plot revolves around protecting a young Amish boy who witnessed the murder of an undercover cop by another cop.
A few 'f' words here and one instance of nudity, but mild by today's standards. Generally a thrilling warm movie that should be appreciated by all the family.

Rating: - Meditative, beautiful - near perfect

Like many other Peter Weir films (see Truman Show and Mosquito Coast, for example), Witness juxtaposes two very different worlds, highlighting both the value and the shortcomings of each. In this slow, meditative film, Book's immersion into the Amish world is beautifully handled, mirroring the viewer's own immersion. The love story, for once, rings true and is extremely touching. There are numerous memorable scenes - the throat-cutting scene in the public toilet near the beginning, Samuel recognising the perpetrator as the narcotics officer in the police station, the barn-building scene, and the death-by-corn scene near the end. A beautiful, near-perfect film.

Rating: - A Harrison Ford Classic

I do love this flick, despite its age. Although the plot is a little lacking as far as the details of the crime, the juxtaposition of the Philadelphia cop and the Amish is quite nice. The Amish German is quite interesting as well, they have a funny accent - I'm not certain if it is the actors or truly represents their normal speach. Despite the small amount of gun-play compared to a contemporary cop-flick, there is still quite a bit of tension. Worth seeing.

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