Witness

Rating:
Summary: Beautifully directed, wonderfully acted
Review: Australian film director Peter Weir creates a minor masterpiece with a uniquely American story in totally American settings: Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Amish country. There are stellar performances by Harrison Ford as Detective John Book, and Kelly McGillis as the Amish widow he grows to love. And there is an effective portrayal by a young Lucas Haas of the Amish boy who is "Witness" to a brutal murder. But what makes this film stand out is its study in contrasts. Weir constantly compares the ugliness of a violent and corrupt city with the purified, pacifist culture of the anachronistic Amish. More than most other directors, Weir has a special knack for conveying moods, thoughts, loves, fears, and other human emotions without expanatory dialogue. Under his direction, Ford, McGillis and Haas often use body language, timing, a knowing glance, a stare, a turn of the head, and hardly a stitch of dialogue to involve the audience completely in a fast-paced, engrossing story.

Rating:
Summary: Impressive film!
Review: "Witness" is defineately one of the greatest thriller/romance movies ever made. Directed by Peter Weir, the plot concerns a yuong Amish boy (Lukas Haas) who witnesses a murder in a Philadelphia train station bathroom while traveling to the city with his mother Rachel (Kelly McGillis in her best performance). Detective John Book (Harrison Ford) is assigned to the case, and quickly discovers that a corrupt narcotics cop (Danny Glover) is the killer. After a close shave, Book, Rachel, and her son escape to Amish country, where Book hides out as an Amish farmer--while also protecting the witness and his mother.
Of course, at the end there is one whopper of a scene when the corrupt cop & friends discover Book's safehouse.
"Witness" received several Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, and won for Screenplay, Cinematography, Sound, and Film Editing.

Rating:
Summary: Ford at the top of his game
Review: Some of the most powerful romances can spring up when both sides have to be restrained; here, the widowed Amish woman and the cop-in-hiding know that they come from different worlds, know that a relationship between them will not practically work, and so fill the screen with unresolved sexual and romantic tension.

Woven into the more grisly details of murder and police corruption are scenes of humor and beauty. Dancing in the barn to "Don't Know Much About History". Having to wake up at 4 a.m. to milk the cows. It's funny to see how the cop, John Book, tries to fit himself into Amish life the best he can. And it's very moving to see his growing love for the Amish woman who nursed him through a bad gunshot wound and has enchanted him with her character and beauty. The movie's climax is also riveting; it's not often that one sees gunfighting at an Amish farm.

Rating:
Summary: Terrific thriller etched in a poignant love story
Review: Witness is a movie that makes you glad you witnessed it. The plot quickly unfolds, within the first 15 minutes, preparing the viewer for what seems to be an intricate thriller of murder and drugs perpetrauted by none other than the men assigned to prevent it, the police. The witness is an unlikely candidate, an amish boy, accompanied by his beautiful widow mother, who lost her husband in the preceding scene, visiting the city for the first time. The events were foreshadowed earlier when he was told he "would see many things in the city". The man assigned to the case and the boys guardian is a hard-nosed cynic, who is good at "whacking" people. A most unlikely character, played stupendously by Harrison Ford, for whom an amish woman would fall for. At this point the story is all laid out for the viewer, what typically should follow is an edgy, over-the-top duel between good and evil, but herein lies the twist. Ford gets shot 10 minutes after ascertaining the identity of the culprit and is carried into the conservative, gas lanterned, cow milking at sun-up realm of the amish. The metropolitan cop is torn from the corrupt sands of the city and placed into the serene, picturesque wheat fields of the country. The unthinkable romance between an outsider and a widow takes over, in a manner that is subtle and fully perceptive of value and consequence. Ford is taken out of context and lo and behold fits perfectly the puzzle of love and chores. The romance is dominant, lucid and obscure, feared yet uncontrollabe. A love that melts together issues of tradition, righteousness and a desire, understood only by two people. But wait, there remains a murder and 22 million dollars worth of PCP. A linking witness who must perish, a price paid by Ford's partner who wouldn't divulge his whereabouts. The melting pot overflows as both love and death are confronted and resolved in the brilliant final segments of the film. The cinamotography is like eye candy, offering sublime scenery and close-ups revealing every gesture, every angle of facial implication, most befitting of Kelly McGillis' lovely face, which says so much without saying anything at all. The denoument is as expected, except for those sentimentalists who just can't let it be so, with Ford returning to his world and McGillis remaining in hers, but that spirit of poignant love never leaves eithers face, remaining as a remnant of a love that just couldn't be.

Rating:
Summary: I used to be Amish and I love this movie!
Review: I was but an innocent Amish teen when this was filmed in my native Lancaster County, PA USA. It was shot just a few miles from my home. My friend Jebediah was even an extra in it.

I was busy helping Father build a new buggy and was unable to watch the actual filming. However, when it was released to theaters, me and my friend Jebediah (a different Jebediah than the one I already mentioned) went into town to see the movie.

I was awestruck when I saw it. The story was truly wonderful. Harrison Ford should have worn a beard, but other than that he was great in this role. Also, what can I say about Kelly McGillis? She stirred up amazing feelings within me. The only time I'd felt like that before was the time I caught a quick glimpse of my neighbor Hildegarde's bare ankle during a barn-raising.

Due to a nasty altercation with my friend Jebediah (a different Jebediah than the other two I mentioned) I am no longer Amish. However, this film will always be special to me.

Hollywood needs to make more classy films like this.



Rating:
Summary: Hign Noon in Lancaster County
Review: If you enjoyed "High Noon", the western with Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly, then the chances are good that you'll enjoy "Witness". The story line is pretty similar; a law man has three bad guys coming for him and a girl friend who can't stand up for him because of her religious convictions against any form of violence. In the case of "Witness" the law man is a Philidelphia detective (Harrison Ford) and the bad guys are some dirty cops. A young Amish boy on a rare trip to the city witnesses a murder but is unable to communicate and so he cannot identify the murderer. However, the fact that the murderer is a cop means that he knows that the Amish boy knows. The scene necessarily switches to a Pennsylvania Amish community where a wounded Harrison Ford goes to hide and recover. Being cut off from the outside world provides a cover for all until one day Ford, posing as an Amish man, creates a scene that exposes himself. And what a scene it is. It may be the highlight of the movie when Ford decides to show some local rowdies that not everyone with a wide brim hat turns the other cheek. I won't say more about the plot because I don't want to spoil any of the very real suspense that the movies creates.

There is a love interest in this movie that is somewhat ackward and somewhat believable. It challenges some of our stereotypes but in a way that makes us all understand that love cries out beyond boundaries. The protrayal of the Amish seems to be very well done although I don't pass myself off as an expert on the subject. The clash of cultures in this movies is also handled well. The director lets us hope but he reminds us that love can sometimes be challenged in the conquering department.

"Witness" is a quality movie. It's not in the category of "High Noon" which had superior writing, directing and acting. However, I would rate it a "4.5" if that were a choice. Watch it and ask yourself how would you have handled the end to this movie?

Rating:
Summary: Harrison Ford shines in a well-crafted film
Review: 'Witness' is probably Harrison Ford's best film, and when it was released it showed him another facet of a gifted actor who until then had been known only to most moviegoers only as Han Solo and Indiana Jones. In 'Witness', Ford is police detective John Book, called to interrogate a terrified little Amish boy named Samuel Lapp, and his young widowed mother. An undercover cop has been killed in the men's room at the railroad station, and Samuel, hiding in a stall, is the only eyewitness. Samuel is unable to identify the perp from the usual log of suspects; but there he is, posted prominently on the precinct bulletin board -- a decorated narcotics agent. When Book relates his findings to the police captain, he ends up getting shot himself -- seems the captain is in on it as well. With the captain, the narcotics agent, and a third dirty cop gunning for him, Book needs a place to hide, and what better place than the Lapp house deep in Amish country?

The contrast between the gritty urban police precinct and the bucolic Amish farm country is one of the best things about the film. Book dressed in a blue shirt and black trousers several inches too short for him, looking like the proverbial fish out of the water, is a sight to behold. All of a sudden he's back in the nineteenth century -- no electricity, no cars, no TV or computers. He might as well be on another planet. And the Amish are as different from him as space aliens; gentle, quiet pacifists, hardworking and industrious, intent on keeping the outside world as far from them as possible. They are neighborly and cooperative; the barn-raising scene is inspiring to watch. We feel sympathy for these quiet, decent people as the outside world keeps encroaching, and see them trying to navigate a horse and buggy on the Interstate. Book has to try to fit into this world, and he gives it his best shot. He joins in the barn-raising, does odd chores around the farm. But the Amish, while they respect his abilities, hold him at arm's length. For one thing, he's falling in love with the young widow Lapp, whose feeling for him is mutual. For another, his assimilation is only skin-deep; on a trip into town, when a group of local louts start pestering the Amish, Book chips in with a right to the lout's nose that leaves his face a bloody mess. It's going to prove his undoing; back in his precinct, the narcotics agent and the captain have gotten wind of his hideout, and now they come to shut him up once and for all, and silence Samuel as well.

In contrast to his one-note performances in the 'Star Wars' films and as Indiana Jones, Ford gives a much more nuanced performance in this film; he's the tough city cop on the one hand and the refugee who doesn't fit on on the other. Lukas Haas is very effective as the young boy Samuel, all big eyes and ears; and Kelly McGillis is excellent as his mother, torn between her feelings for Book and her ties to her Amish community; faced with the threat of being shunned for the rest of her life and cut off from everyone she knows if she marries him. There are several notable supporting performances as well, especially the late Alexander Godunov as the widow Lapp's admirer whose innate civility prevents him from expressing the resentment he feels at Books presence, and Danny Glover as the murderous narcotics detective. Peter Weir's sensitive direction plays up the contrast between time and place, sustaining the tension throughout the film. 'Witness' is not an action/adventure blockbuster like the movies that made Ford a household name, but it doesn't need pyrotechnics to stand out. It's a well-crafted, well-acted, eminently satisfying movie.


Rating:
Summary: Great film, poor quality transfer
Review: As I write my title, it is weird to think this film is nearly 20 years old! How time flies! Anyway...I first saw this film when it first came out and I remember I really really liked it. I was 23 years old and not a Christian at that time. Now, I am soon to be 42 and have been a Christian for over 18 years. For 10 years of my life, I lived as a Mennonite (like Amish in many ways, but we drove cars, had electricity, etc.) I am no longer a Mennonite, and now I watch films again. I appreciate classic cinema very much, but recently have wanted to watch Witness again, to see if I would like it as much as the first time, and to see if I thought they portrayed the Amish correctly.

So, I watched it last night. It was interesting in that I remembered so much, even some small details about it. So it really did impress me that first time when I was young. This time, I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't say it is a film I would watch over and over again, as I watch some classic films. To see it once more was enough to just satisfy my curiosity about my memories of it.

I did feel they portrayed the Amish quite well, with the clothes and such. What they did wrong about the portrayal was that in no way would it be allowed for an Amish woman to tend to a wounded man who wasn't her husband, by herself in a room alone with him. It just isn't proper, isn't done. In reality, a man would have done that, or an older woman would have done it, with another woman there. I think the movie allowed the Rachel character to have way more "access" to a man alone than would be allowed in a real Amish or Mennonite community. I doubt he would have really been allowed to stay in the house. In reality he would have been placed in a home with a family who had a bunch of boys and he would work with them and the father, and not have all that time alone with Rachel.

I don't like violence...I knew that the bad part happened in the train station in the beginning, so we were able to fast forward that part. Also, we were able to fast forward the ending "shoot out" stuff. I didn't care for the bad language. The scene with Rachel taking her sponge bath, well when I was young and not a Christian, I found that very romantic. Now, I found it rather silly. A devout Amish girl/woman would not have just calmly turned around and let a man stare at her while unclothed. And later on, when she and he finally "meet" for the romantic moment, I found that sort of offensive. Why kiss out in the yard where anyone could see you? Eli could have easily looked out the window (a real Amish father would have kept better tabs on his daughter with a strange man around the place). I felt that scene was very much just an animal passion thing...sort of vulgar. Not at all romantic, truly loving or gentle. It seems people sure knew how to kiss and show romantic love a lot better in the old movies! And right before she went out there, she took her prayer veiling off. Which again, no Amish woman would do. But then she obviously was rebelling. There was that other time too, when she and John Book were in the barn listening to his radio, and she had it off then, and I am not sure why, for no Amish or Mennonite woman will go without it in front of people or outside the house.

The ending left me wondering...would Rachel just go ahead and marry Daniel? Would she really be happy with him? She really would have to repent of her sins with John Book to be truly happy. I also noticed that the film never showed a church service. Also, none of the Amish folks never seemed to care to tell John Book how to be a Christian. But then there are many Amish who are not born- again Christians, but just are "culturally Amish"...they live the way they do because they have always done so. These must have been that type of Amish. It did seem that Grandfather knew the Bible...he quoted some good verses when talking to the boy about the gun. That was good to see, yet sad that such violence had to even be witnessed by this child.

Oh, of course any film with Amish must have a barn raising scene, and this one did. Also, so many movies with cows mus have the scene where the city person doesn't know how to milk a cow. Of course John Book must learn. He makes a joke about "teats" in this scene, and grandfather Eli laughs at it, which again, I doubt a devout Amish man would do.

Well, these are my thoughts. It was interesting to revisit this film again. In closing, I would say it is an okay film for adults but I would not recommend it for children.

Rating:
Summary: A Touching Classic
Review: The movie Witness starring Harrison Ford features one of his best performances. He received his only Oscar nomination for this film in 1985. This definitely goes to show what kind of performance you are in for. This is an extraordinary story; it is a combination of a thriller and a love story.

The movie is about a young Amish boy (Lukas Haas) who witnesses a murder in the men's room of a train station while traveling with his mother, Rachel (Kelly McGillis). When the young boy identifies the murderer as a fellow detective, the detective John Books (Harrison Ford) who is assigned to the case must protect them. John gets shot but realizes he must save the young boy and his beautiful widowed mother. He knows they must go into hiding so he drives them to their farm in the Amish community before he collapses. While learning the ways of the Amish lifestyle, a romance begins between John and Rachel. During several twist and turns the action and suspense continues. The chemistry between Ford and McGillis is remarkable and realistic. This thriller, love story is very touching and definitely one you don't want to miss.