My Life In Movies Flashes Before My Eyes: Witness, 1985

Let's think back to a time (1985) and a place (America, I guess) where there was no fourth Indiana Jones movie and the legacy of Harrison Ford's career wasn't dragged down by crap like Random Hearts and whatever one he made with Anne Heche while she was still with Ellen. This is a time when Harrison Ford is successful from films like Raiders of the Lost Ark (my favorite ever, but it came out the year before I was born, what are you gonna do?) and Star Wars, once again, before crap sequels/prequels were made. He's just starting to delve into deeper work and that work is Witness. By the way, this is already the second Harrison Ford movie on this list and I think it could be as high as five.



This is the film where Kelly McGillis plays an Amish woman. This was before she taught at Top Gun, so I guess that makes sense. Anyway, she's the mother of a young boy and they're on their way to visit relatives when her son witnesses a murder. Harrison Ford plays John Book, the cop who's investigating that murder. There's immediate tension between the Amish and non-Amish characters in the film. Book asks Samuel to identify the killer by looking at a bunch of pictures, but then the killer is in a newspaper at the police station because he's a cop (Oh, yeah, it's Danny Glover. That's not really a spoiler, it happens in like the first fifteen minutes anyway. Also, I don't really care if you think it's a spoiler.) So, next Book discovers that his police captain is in on it and takes Kelly McGillis and the kid back to Amish country, after an attempt on his life. There, he recovers and stays in hiding as an Amish guy, making this even more fraught with tension between the Amish and the English, which is apparently what the Amish call the non-Amish.

And here's one of my favorite scenes, though it is so atypical of the film. Cute, but not too cute, and I always watch wondering when the other shoe is going to drop.



So, overall summation, this is such an incredible movie because it is so sparing and so subtle. Director Peter Weir doesn't waste a moment but doesn't overdo anything, either. The love story between Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis, albeit inevitable, is told in a very mature way, not sensational and the film doesn't resort to any cheap tricks. The thriller part of this movie is in there, but what's most important are the characters.

So, opinions on Witness or my spoiler policies? Let loose in the comments section.