She’s played refreshingly vanity-free by Kelly McGillis, a fine actress whose self-imposed semi-exile from Hollywood decades back was a genuine loss to the industry. The film’s final act, where (spoiler) Book’s crooked colleagues turn up to the farm he’s been holed up in, firearms a-ready, even uses some western iconography in the sweeping countryside vistas the three men are framed against.īut ultimately, aside from the obvious thriller machinations, Weir sculpts a very credible and at time, erotically-charged, illicit romance between Book and his Florence Nightingale-like carer, Rachel. The wounded Book being taken to an insular and wary Amish community – far removed from his own and one which has to rely on a very dated way of living – could almost be a Federal Army infantryman seeking refuse within a hostile Sioux village. Wallace and William Kelley – resembles a modern western at times. The eponymous witness, Samuel Lapp (played by Lukas Haas) However, he slips effortlessly into the role, and any of that baggage he may have ostensibly brought falls away almost instantly. For audiences versed in the actor’s most popular roles at that time, seeing Ford shorn of his bullwhip or blaster and in a contemporary earth-bound setting must have been initially a little jarring.
He’s a cop who is forced to flee the city with a young Amish child and mother when the former is witness to a brutal killing with has implications of police corruption. In fact, the entirety of Peter Weir’s first American feature is still a powerful and sympathetic commentary on the clash of cultures, and features perhaps Harrison Ford’s finest performance of his career. John Book (Harrison Ford) and Rachel Lapp (Kelly McGillis) are in a pickle together
The witness movie movie#
Although it was mercilessly mocked in the Farrelly Brothers’ movie Kingpin, it’s to the ultimate strengths of the film that the scene – which is a rousing piece of cinema enhanced immeasurably by Maurice Jarre’s towering score – remains intact and hasn’t succumbed to being a jokey afterthought. Ask anyone familiar with Peter Weir’s fish out of water cop thriller Witness what they remember most about the film, and chances are they will cite the barn-building sequence. Everyone grows a bit more tolerant of others here.Some iconic scenes in cinema can run the risk of being diluted, and worst still, lose all their power after they’ve been successfully parodied. The Amish don't condone his methods, but in the end they realize that the cop's way - the violent way - is the only way to ensure their safety. His sense of outrage is palpable, as is his determination to see that justice is done. The main reason he's there is to watch over the boy, and Ford is best in this film when he's playing protector.
Nor is there any way that the spark between Book and the young witness' widowed mother ( Kelly McGillis) could ever become a real relationship, and they both know it. However, it's clear he doesn't fit in, especially when a gang of prejudiced punks insult his hosts and the hot-headed cop is unable to turn the other cheek. Book is initially perplexed by their choices, but gradually comes to appreciate their quiet ways. Witness is a well made fish-out-of-water story, contrasting the violence and complications of the big city with the simpler lifestyle of the Amish, who decline modern technology.
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