Witness (1985) * * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Peter Weir

Starring:  Harrison Ford, Kelly McGillis, Jan Rubes, Lukas Haas, Josef Sommer, Danny Glover, Alexander Gudonov, Patti Lupone

Witness is more than a fish-out-of-water story or even a crime thriller, it is a splendid mixture of the two.  In a pitch meeting, it would have sounded like a surefire hit, and as a movie fleshed out by director Peter Weir, it was.   Witness starts ominously with a death and then a widowed Amish mother and son traveling to Philadelphia's 30th Street Station to catch a train to Baltimore.   While in the men's room, the son named Samuel (Haas) witnesses two men murder another man.  Detective John Book (Ford) is assigned to the case.  Book and the Amish mother Rachel (McGillis) and Samuel approach each other hesitantly and without any exposure to each other's culture.   The plot and the relationship between Book and Rachel grows significantly deeper when the boy identifies a police officer (Glover) as the murderer and Book's trusted friend and superior (Sommer) reveals himself as the ringleader of a corrupt group of cops.  

After surviving a shootout, but sustaining a gunshot wound, Book finds himself hiding in Amish country after driving Samuel and Rachel home to supposed safety to recover from his wound.  Book finds it hard to adjust to the rural farming lifestyle in which the Amish are accustomed.   The Amish don't use phones, electricity, or have much contact with the rest of the world.  They are self-sufficient and pacifist, to which Book can only abide for so long.  In a key scene, we see Book behave in an un-Amish manner when it comes to dealing with local bullies.  We know Book and Rachel will fall in love despite their different backgrounds, but we also know it likely won't end happily ever after for them.  Rachel's father-in-law Eli (Rubes) warns her of possible expulsion from the group if she falls for "the Englishman Book"  

Witness is Harrison Ford's only Academy Award nomination to date despite his expansive movie resume dating back over fifty years.   Ford masterfully handles the subtle changes within Book and provides one of his deepest and richest performances.  McGillis isn't a simple pushover for Ford or a handy plot device.  She is a woman at war with herself and her budding feelings for Book.   When Rachel and Book finally thrust into each other's arms, it is as if forces of nature have pushed them towards each other.   They resisted as much as they could, but a power greater than either overwhelms them.

Witness won Oscars for Original Screenplay and Film Editing.  Witness melds together elements which in lesser hands would have been cliched and formulaic, but the cast and director Weir make it special.