Review of Witness (1985) by Harry W — 10 Feb 2013

Witness succeeds as a provocative thriller and a study of Amish culture, as well as being one of the more character-driven Harrison Ford films.

Unlike in many other Harrison Ford films, this time he doesn't portray an unkillable warrior of any kind, as his need to recover in an Amish community reminds us of the mortality of man. The entire film succeeds in setting up John Book into intense and interesting situations, and all that Harrison Ford needed to do was bring a character to the screen that we would cheer for without the requirement of tons of action. His performance in many of the film's later scenes display a strong ability to portray raw emotional intensity, also notable in his on-screen chemistry with Kelly McGillis as John's love for Rachel is never compromised by false hope of glamourisation. This is one of his best roles.

Kelly McGillis' portrayal of Rachel as a young Amish woman whose innocence remains in tact even once she takes a trip to the city that results in many lives being threatened is one ripe with young talent and beauty, and her character never loses any of her natural charm throughout all of Witness.

Lukas Haas portrays one of the more realistic children of a feature film without a ton of clearly scripted lines, but rather a sense that Samuel was actually involved in all the events, and his Amish instincts have been all important to him. Laap's portrayal is more physically driven and supplies a new level of innocence to the events surrounding Book, and is a strong display of promising young talent.

Josef Sommer and Danny Glover both portray corrupt police officers with specific skills, respectively. Sommer provides a sense of manipulation to his character, while Glover relies more on his intimidating stature to instil fear in the characters and a sense of corruption in the viewer.

Also, the entire cast of the Amish community did an excellent job at portraying their culture to the point that I don't know if they were a well selected cast or an actual Amish community. I learned more from the Amish community from witness than from anything else in my life, and they have my admiration now.

The entire situation is also enhanced by the fact that Witness was filmed on an excellent location and features great costumes, as well as quality cinematography with small amounts of shakiness, but a necessity for it.

Witness also draws strength from an excellent musical score with a strong balance between peace and intensity, and a strong atmosphere that does the same.

All of Witness draws a key strength from a strong and convincing screenplay, but largely from it's directional job by Peter Weir, capturing the proper tone and heart of the story with a level of charm on an epic level, thanks to his treatment of the premise, the script and the subject matter of the story.

So Witness was a film I largely enjoyed and found myself thinking a lot about afterwards, so I would call this one of Harrison Ford's ways more memorable films, thanks largely to his powerful performance.