Harrison Ford in Witness in a ‘serious’ film.

After swashbuckling in Indiana Jones and being cool in The Empire Strikes Back, Harrison Ford took on the role of a detective in Witness (1985, USA).

 

 

If we know Harrison Ford the actor and star, his transition to a ‘serious’ film is smooth.

The serious Witness is not police procedure or thriller, it is a crime drama with the emphasis on the drama.

The drama takes place as detective John Book becomes involved with the Amish community.

A drama

When Samuel, an Amish boy, goes with his mother to the city for the first time, he witnesses a murder.

John Book (Ford) must protect the boy as the sole material witness to the crime. Book stays with the boy’s family in the country.

The perpetrators of the murder hone in on finding Book to prevent him from taking them to trial.

A focus on the Amish

While Witness may sound like a thriller on paper, about an hour of the film is spent on the Amish community.

There is also a sub-plot about the mutual attraction between Book and the boy’s mother, Rachel, who is a widow. It causes chatter and controversy.

Meanwhile, Book helps out where he can, such as farming and barn raising. Book and the Amish seem to get along despite their differences.

Their world isn’t the same

Despite Book getting along, there is tension.

Eli Lapp, the grandfather of the boy, is gentle strength, but as a man in a tricky situation.

Eli and his people must face the presence of the world entering the strict conservative Amish community.  Good cops like Book are needed out in the world, and not in Amish communities.

When the boy is found handling Book’s gun, Eli addresses the gun’s challenge to Amish values with firm, but gentle, guidance for the boy:

“Would you kill another man? Eli asks the boy.

“I would only kill a bad man.”

“And you know this bad man by sight? You are able to look into their hearts and see this badness?”

“I can see what they do. I have seen it.”

“And having seen you become one of them. Don’t you understand, what you take into your hands, you take into your heart. Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch not the unclean thing.”

The Amish world isn’t the same with the boy’s exposure to a murder. Though the Amish will have to put the whole incident behind them and continue once Book leaves.

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Harrison Ford (John Book), Kelly McGillis (Rachel), Josef Sommer (Schaffer), Lukas Haas (Samuel), Jan Rubes (Eli Lapp), Alexander Godunov (Daniel), Danny Glover (McFee), Brent Jennings (Carter), Patti Lupone (Elaine)

Peter Weir (director)

Earl W. Wallace William Kelley (screenplay/story) Pamela Wallace (story)