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

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Rating: - Competent 80's Thriller.

I feel this film is rather over-rated, a mildly fresh spin on the witness who sees a murder & uncovers corruption etc- forcing together people as in Someone to Watch Over Me. The spin here is that the witness is Amish & this leads to the discovery of police corruption- forcing good detective Harrison Ford to take flight to Amish-land. Here we get lots of agrarian positives- somewhere between new age and Himmler's land values. Look, see how they don't fight back, or see how they erect a house with their bare hands, see how nice Kelly McGillis is when she takes her hat and top off. The religious element is rather pious and the romantic one seemingly underwritten, as if they didn't want to be too controversial. Bizarre that David Cronenberg was offerred this film, prior to Peter Weir doing it- not that it is close to Weir's other achievments such as The Year of Living Dangerously, The Cars That Ate Paris or Picnic at Hanging Rock.

Lukas Haas is rather good, as is Danny Glover in an antithetical role to his famous role in Leathal Weapon films- and this was one of the last times Ford would act (the other is The Mosquito Coast)- now he just makes product like Six Days, Seven Nights or What Lies Beneath. Witness is worth watching, the cinematography is very good- but hardly a stone cold classic unlike the slightly similar One False Move.

Rating: - A decent story well told.

Witness is a pretty decent film. The story begins with a young Hamish boy witnessing a brutal murder on his first visit to a big city. John Book (Ford) then enters the story, a tough city cop who has to protect his witness.

The film examines the class of two cultures, the Amish and city folk. Book slowly begins to be influenced by the Amish way of life and begins to fall for an Amish girl. The idea of a cop going being influenced by foreign values has been done since (Black Rain, Red Heat) but never as well. At times you feel like you're watching two separate films, one about the Amish and a fairly conventional cop thriller.

Witness is very well written (Raymond Frensham refers to Witness as a template in his book Teach Yourself Screenwriting). Barely a scene is wasted and all of them work within the story. The soundtrack and the film in general is very eighties. Due to the stories simplicity and audience expectations I don't think Witness would get made today.

The DVD contains a short documentarily which is fine. Witness is not the kind of film you want to analyse but a film that tells a story well.

Rating: - Beautiful piece of filmaking

One must give credit to Peter Weir for resisting the usual trappings of Hollywood mainstream films , and has delivered an original and well presented script with literate and believiable characters.The dicotomy between the Amish world and that of John Book is nicely contrasted.The DvD lokks good but could have done with a few more extra features.No doubt they will bring out a "special Editon" soon

Rating: - BUY THIS FILM

Although the editing in this film did win an oscar I feel that it leaves a little too much to the imagination with the scene of the two parralel communities we are not introduced to any clear charaters and at times it can even be difficult to realise what significance Harrison plays in the film

Rating: - TOP!

A thriller, a lovestory and a critical analysis of two completely different societies. Great movie and great Harrison Ford!

Review Pages: 1 2 3 4