Good 80's Films: Witness

1985 Drama
From Paramount Pictures
Directed by Peter Weir

Starring
Harrison Ford
Kelly McGillis
Lukas Haas
Josef Sommer
Jan Rubes
Alexander Godunov
Danny Glover
Viggo Mortensen

It's not just another cop movie... not by far.  It was turned down by some studios because they thought it was the type of routine cop drama they had seen many times before.  One studio refused it because it was a rural movie.  That's a head-scratcher.  Both Harrison Ford and director Peter Weir accepted it within a couple of days... a rarity.

The Australian Weir had done films only out of his home country but luckily The Last Wave, Gallipoli and The Year of Living Dangerously were the last three.  They helped establish his name in the U.S. where he had a desire to work, although Europe appealed to him as well.  He admits he was ecstatic when he got the call.

Ford was one of those who admired the director's work but more than that he was looking for a script that would get him away from science fiction and period adventure films, successful as they were for him.  He wanted to sink his teeth into something solid, something to shine a light on his acting skills.  He certainly must have seen something because playing Philadelphia cop, John Book, got Ford his only Oscar nomination.  It's still the best work he's ever done.

My high regard for Witness stems from its basic plot point... a meeting of two worlds under very unusual and dangerous circumstances.  It brings the harsh, unpredictably intrusive world of a big-city detective with the cloistered, ordered, rigid lives of the Amish.  

In some ways there's never been a movie like it because movies about the Amish are virtually non-existent.  The title star is 8-year old Lukas Haas, an adorable, absolutely irresistible kid actor who plays Samuel.  He and his mother, Rachel (McGillis), are traveling by train from their Lancaster, Pennsylvania farm to Baltimore, Maryland.  While using a restroom at a train station, Samuel becomes the only witness to a vicious murder.  Neither of the two killers sees him hiding in a stall.   

John Book is assigned to the case and learns that the only person Samuel actually saw was a black man (Glover).  Book has Samuel, who is sure he'd recognize the man again, go through mug shot photos and even a line-up.  Then comes the scene with Samuel wandering around the police station and...  well, here, have a look:

Book tells his captain (Sommer) about his discovery, not realizing he's another bad cop.  Soon the black cop, McFee, is trying to kill Book in an underground garage.  Book scoops up the mother and son and they flee to the family's home.  It is there, after meeting the boy's grandfather (Rubes), that they realize Book has been shot.  He will have little choice but to convalesce there... while they all hide in the open.

Here, in the film's long second act, we learn more about the Amish way of life which coincides with the unfolding of a touching love story.  A beautifully played scene unfolds when Book catches Rachel topless and they wordlessly gaze at one another across the room. They later have a passionate kissing scene outdoors.  Book tells Rachel at one point that if they proceed any further, he'll have to stay although she would probably have to leave.  Both realize there's not much of a chance of their relationship turning into anything permanent.

A scene played for comedy comes when Book, with nothing else to wear, dons Rachel's late husband's plain, black clothing and hat.  Some excitement arrives in the form of a ruckus in town when the pacifist Amish men are picked on by the town ruffians and Book gets so irritated that he roughs up some offenders.

Ultimately the film moves back to a thriller with the final segment, the arrival of the bad guys.  It opens with a long shot of the dirt road leading away from the family's home and a car with three men silently creeping to the top of a small bluff.  Two of the men break into the house and terrorize Rachel and Grandpa.  A short distance away in one of the outbuildings, Book and Samuel spot another thug coming their way and Book sends the youngster off to alert the neighbors.

Book dispatches the two bad cops in the film's most exciting cat and mouse scenes.  Taking place in a cattle-filled barn and around a grain silo, it would not be forgotten by those who have seen the movie.  Samuel rings a bell that brings scores of neighbors to the farm at the same time Book gets the police captain to surrender. 

Several of the top cast were making film debuts or in the earliest stage of their movie careers.  I have to believe that Weir deliberately chose actors who had a natural calm about them, an exterior that almost seems closed off.  Those types wouldn't have to act Amish... just dress them in the plain garb, don the hats and let them be themselves.  Little Lukas is an obvious pensive kid and how about McGillis, Rubes, Godunov and Mortensen?  Not the liveliest of actors.  

Weir sensed Rubes would nail his grandfather role and looked every inch an elder of the group and yet in real life he was an opera singer.  Godunov was a ballet dancer but looked like he was born and raised in the community.  His good looks were ignored to help express the Amish disdain of boastfulness and pride and yet he played the role of Rachel's suitor with an amused self-assurance.

Ford, too, of course, is a pretty laconic guy but one who is given to bursts of temperament.  And while he has scenes that display his great physical acting, it is combining all of this with some very tender moments with both mother and child that secured him that Oscar nomination.  He worked for a while with the Philadelphia police department to knock out the cop sequences while McGillis lived with an Amish widow and her seven kids to better understand her role.  She seems like she was born and raised on an Amish farm.

The real joy of the film is little Lucas Haas.  He doesn't do a lot of talking but offers so much with his expressive face.  In the  restroom murder scene, his fright is palpable.  It's even more so when one considers the actor never saw the murder staged at all.  He had to react to nothing at all.  He looked so terrified with those big brown saucer eyes, mouth slightly open and one can just imagine him trembling as his innocence is stripped away.  Most actors would agree that working with children presents a list of special concerns but for all intents and purposes, this was one easy kid to work with.

Weir has to be commended for coming to the states and jumping right into a film about the Amish.  He certainly has a unique feel for people and places and the land.  He is a director known for putting his characters in strange situations where they do not fit.  John Book technically does not fit although he does his best to do so.  The director sought real Amish locals in Lancaster County to assume atmospheric roles but they would not do so due to their rigid stand against being photographed.  Mennonites did happily fill in some of those roles.  Some Amish folks apparently served in a technical adviser capacity but generally distanced themselves from the finished product.  I have to assume the way Rachel was portrayed was a bit much for them.  

I have been fascinated with the Amish since 1966 when I was going to college in Iowa.  My wife and I took a January drive to visit a local Amish community.  We were on a very icy rural road when we slid down an embankment.  We had only seen a dot here and there of homes.  It was so pristine white and bone-chilling cold.  She began honking the horn while I climbed to the top of the road.  Already there were four or five horses and buggies coming our way.  Seven men got out and inquired as to our welfare as they grabbed ropes and chains and pulled the undamaged car back onto the road.  Someone had brought hot cider. 

I am occasionally among the Amish when I travel upstate to visit a friend who is surrounded by a large community of them.  It's fun shopping in their stores and observing their dedication to quiet simplicity.  While there is no doubt their lifestyle is not for me,  they remain a constant source of fascination.

Aside from the thriller aspect of Witness (so well done), I am still taken in by something that originally captured my attention... the plot device that takes a calm, God-fearing, pacifist people and puts them in the middle of murder and terror.  So well done.

Next posting:
Another good 80's film with
the same director and star