Movie Title: Witness
Made immediately after “The Year of Living Dangerously”, “Witness” continued a winning streak for
Australian director Peter Weir. His first “American” movie, “Witness” deals with the conflict between two
cultures and, in a sense, two centuries as part of a much more conventional police drama about an Amish
boy (Lukas Haas) who witnesses the murder of an undercover police officer in the men’s room of a train
station. His mother Rachel (Kelly McGillis) is traveling with the boy and both are drawn into the police
investigation. What Detective Captain John Book (Harrison Ford) who is investigating the case doesn’t
realize is that someone is out to kill them both. As a result, Book goes undercover himself taking them
back to the Amish community they come from and hiding out with them there until he can resolve who is
trying to kill them.
Featuring a rich, startling performance from Ford and a powerful turn by Kelly McGillis (who had only
appeared on “One Life to Live”, a TV movie and the marvelous film “Rueben, Rueben” at that point in her
career) “Witness” still manages to amaze with the suspense that Weir generates in the film. His focus on
the contrasting cultural values of Book and the Amish community makes the film much more than a
conventional “B” movie police crime drama adding depth and nuance to the film.
A much needed improvement over the previous edition of “Witness”, this collector’s edition looks sharp
with vivid colors, sharp image quality and very few digital artifacts. Blacks are rock solid throughout. The
original release was a non-anamorphic widescreen image and, as such, this anamorphic presentation is a
huge improvement over the previous edition of the movie. The 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround mix sounds
solid throughout.
The original “Witness” was released bare bones so this new edition is a welcome change. There’s a 5 part
documentary “Between Two Worlds” which features new interviews with producer Edward S. Feldman,
director Peter Weir, actors Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis. Feldman discusses how the original script was
presented to many directors (including director David Cronenberg “The Fly”) and many turned it down.
Feldman and his wife happened to see Weir’s “The Year of Living Dangerously” and he commented to his
wife about how that was “a movie” and how perfect he would be to direct the film. McGillis discusses how
lucky she was to work with Ford and Weir on one of her first major movies. Ford focuses on how difficult
it can be to work with a Foreign director where English isn’t their primary language so they can frequently
lose the nuance of the performance. As Ford points out Weir had the advantage of their common
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language plus the added advantage of being an outsider culturally giving added perspective to the film.
Weir’s comments are, not surprisingly, the most valuable as he discusses the challenges of making a film
in the United States vs. his home country. He also focuses on how he made substantial changes to the
script shifting the point of view from Rachel (McGillis) to Book (Ford) since Book was the outsider in
Amish country much like Weir was with the American crew and actors. His perceptive comments are
always valuable it’s a pity he’s not a believer in doing film commentary tracks. He also points out that the
sequence in the grain tower was improvised and created by he and Ford a couple of days before shooting
as they wanted their “High Noon” like showdown to have something different and unique that might take
advantage of the setting.
We get one deleted scene that was added to the network broadcast (it isn’t integrated here into the
feature either). Like “The Truman Show” it’s clear why the deleted scene was cut although it wouldn’t
have damaged the pacing of the film all that much. Still, the point made in the deleted sequence where
Book’s nephews show the Amish boy his first video game is charming; thematically it’s echoed by other
far superior sequences throughout the film. There are also the original TV spots and theatrical teaser and
trailer for the movie.
“Witness” was a pivotal film for director Weir as it cemented his reputation as a major film director. It
also set the stage for his collaboration with Ford on the underrated “The Mosquito Coast” as well as Weir’s
work with producer Edward Feldman on “The Truman Show” another pivotal film in Weir’s career.
Although he didn’t wriwrite “Witness”, Weir brought his experience as a writer/director to the film and
kept the original writers on board to retool the script to fit his unique vision. Typically, the film was
honored with an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay but Weir was passed over as director (as he
continues to be much like Hitchcock and Welles two other giants of the cinema to which Weir can be
compared for his unique personal vision). Paramount has done a great job here improving the transfer as
well adding much needed extras to this classic contemporary film. Although 20 years old, “Witness” holds
up extremely well today (Weir comments that he thought that it was the one film would be least likely to
continue to hold up well and has been pleasantly surprised). Definitely worth an upgrade for fans of this
terrific movie!
‘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
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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
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name, but it doesn’t need pyrotechnics to stand out. It’s a well-crafted, well-acted, eminently satisfying
movie.
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