Witness
“Witness” is a title I’ve always been familiar with- through brief glimpses of scenes, through knowing the story, through it starring Han Solo and Indiana Jones- but had never seen completely. Now, having seen it, it feels like a re-experience I didn’t realize I was having, like I had seen it before but didn’t remember, and it rewarded that with an entertaining and exciting thriller.
Peter Weir is a filmmaker I’ve admired for decades without having seen most of his best-known films, and I’ve been gradually correcting that. “Witness” is one that I’ve been most curious to get to for all of the reasons listed above, and primarily because it has Harrison Ford being directed by a great director whom has gotten fantastic work out of the likes of Russell Crowe, Robin Williams, Mel Gibson and Jim Carrey, among others. Ford is someone whose greatness as an actor can sometimes be overshadowed by the high-concept he finds himself in, but in “Witness,” his gruff, but charming, manner and sense of right and wrong is on full display as John Book, and it’s easily some of the best work he’s ever done. That alone is reward enough for finally seeing this film.
The screenplay by Earl W. Wallace and William Kelley fits with the high-concept nature of Ford’s better-known films, but it’s also a subtle and smart character thriller at its core. The film begins with a funeral among a community of Pennsylvania Amish; it is for the husband and father of Kelly McGillis’s Rachel and her son, Samuel (Lukas Haas). After a brief series of scenes that introduces the community, Rachel and Samuel are in Philadelphia, getting ready to board a train to go visit family in Baltimore. Samuel goes to the bathroom, and witnesses the murder of a police officer. Their travel plans are put on hold when the Detective on the case (Ford’s Book) is trying to get an ID on one of the murderers from Samuel. When the person Samuel IDs is, in fact, a cop (played by Danny Glover, who is always fun to watch play bad), Book realizes the danger Samuel and Rachel are in, and he’s forced to take them back to their community, and hide out with them, leading to some significant clashes of culture.
Weir does not approach genres the way other filmmakers do, whether it’s war films like “Gallipoli,” romantic dramas like “The Year of Living Dangerously,” satire like “The Truman Show” or adventure films like “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.” His focus is not on the conventions of the genre but the inner reality of the story, and that’s a big part why his films always seem to work effortlessly, even if they are not immediately memorable. “Witness” is fundamentally a thriller, and while it certainly plays to conventions of the genre, it’s more interested in the dynamics between characters, unveiling the truth of their actions and feelings while not heading entirely in the direction you think it’s heading. The murder plot is convention; what Weir wants us to hold interest in is the way the Amish community operates both within itself, and with the outside world. The scenes we remember most here are the barn raising; the Amish being harassed; and seeing Book assimilate into the community. We enjoy the movie as a thriller- and the climax of that storyline is an exciting piece of genre filmmaking- but we feel much more satisfied watching the film simply live with these characters. Peter Weir is not a filmmaker capable of disappointing; you’re always going to get a fascinating experience when he’s behind the camera.
