Witness

“Lady, you take my picture with that thing and I'm gonna rip your brassiere off... and strangle you with it! You got that?”

Witness is a captivating film that gives us an open window into a world that most are completely unfamiliar – the Amish community. Displaying the kind of narrative that didn't fall in line with a majority of films released in the 1980s, the film revolves around the story of Samuel (Lucas Hass), a young Amish boy who witnesses the murder of an undercover police officer while in Philadelphia. When Samuel identifies the killer as a police officer, hardened detective John Book (Harrison Ford) flees with Samuel and his windowed mother (Kelly McGillis) back to their Amish community after discovering corruption within his department.

What I find so enjoyable about Witness is the beauty in the honesty it conveys. It doesn't try to place the Amish community on a moral pedestal. Instead, it truthfully portrays them as human beings; ones that can make mistakes and presumptions just as much as the English. Weir skillfully brings together the cultural collision of Book’s harshly violent outside world and the peaceful and religiously fervent Amish. In the hands of a less capable director, the fish-out-of-water scenario could have easily turned this film into a comedy. Thankfully, it did not and because of it, we’re left with a wonderful film that’s worthy of re-watching time and again.

Making his American film debut with Witness is Australian director Peter Weir. Known later in his career for extracting fantastically dramatic performances from comedic actors, Peter started with the genre-pigeonholed Harrison Ford, who in turn gave his only Oscar nominated performance. While Ford was already a household name – known primarily for his iconic roles as Han Solo and Indiana Jones – his role in Witness is probably one of my favorites alongside The Fugitive. This was the first film that allowed him to break away from his genre-specific typecasting, even though he still played the “heroic man with a gun.”

Furthermore, Weir does not treat the characters in this film as caricatures or stereotypes; each is richly textured. John Book’s connection with Samuel is extremely touching. He especially treats the scene where Samuel is intrigued with the gun with tenderness. As someone who grew up with guns in the house, I identified with Samuel’s fascination. I also understood the safety concerns that Book made by removing the bullets, making the gun safe for Samuel to hold. Nevertheless, the scene’s shocking sincerity still makes me cringe every time I watch it, knowing how much the Amish despise man-made objects that cause violence – especially those that are from the outside world.

Note: The slow build of drama and the ethereal synthesized score can seem to reflect the pace of the Amish community. Told with diligence and appropriateness, the pacing of the film is felt throughout. Witness is an intelligent slow-burning thriller where some might feel the pacing is slow. The payoff is well worth the time invested.

Film Geek Footnotes:

1. Written by Earl W. Wallace and William Kelley, the film’s script aptly exhibits clear and precise structure and has been commonly used as a model for writing classes and workshops, inspiring budding screenwriters. For those unfamiliar with traditional screenplay structure – made extremely popular by author and USC Professor Syd Field – most motion pictures are told in three acts including the setup (I), the confrontation (II), and the resolution (III).
2. Of the eight Academy Awards it was nominated for, it took home two: Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing. It lost a majority of its nominations that year to the dominating Sydney Pollack film, Out of Africa.
3. In 2005, the Writer’s Guild of America compiled a survey of ballots sent out to all of its members, asking them to list their favorite produced screenplays, past or present, English-language or otherwise. The end result was this: 101 Greatest Screenplays. Witness was listed at position #80.