Witness

If there is one thing I have learned while watching my way through every film nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award it is that they’re not all snobbish dramas with lofty ideals that appeal only to the artsy scene. There are comedies, fantasy films, even the occasional horror/thriller movies that manage to crack into the Oscars. There’s also the crime drama, a style of film that usually is well regarded but not decorated with awards. Some of the great ones that never made the list include Dirty Harry, Serpico, Heat, and Bullitt. These, and many others, are considered classics of the genre but never got respect from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Then in 1985, a film about police corruption, drugs, and murder did manage to crack into the top list for the year. Peter Weir’s Witness, a film about a police officer protecting the witness to a murder, struck a chord with the voters and became one of the five nominations for Best Picture. Going into this one, I had to ask myself why. Why was this film so revered that it merited its spot on the list? 

The film opens with a funeral at an Amish community outside Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Rachel Lapp (Kelly McGillis) and her son, Samuel (Lukas Haas), are mourning the loss of her husband and plan to travel by train to visit her sister for comfort. The train has a stop in Philadelphia, and while there, Samuel makes a stop in the men’s room where, while in one of the stalls, he witnesses a brutal murder take place. 

Detective Captain John Book (Harrison Ford) and his partner, Sergeant Elton Carter (Brent Jennings), are assigned to the case, but none of the men brought in for identification are the one Samuel saw. Instead, he recognizes Lieutenant James McFee (Danny Glover) from a newspaper article pinned up on the wall inside the police station. Book does some digging and realizes that McFee was involved in a major drug bust where the evidence later disappeared. He brings his suspicions to his boss, Chief Paul Schaeffer (Josef Sommer), but when later that day McFee shows up at his place, guns blazing, Book knows that his boss, Schaeffer, must be involved, too. Wounded, Book takes Rachel and Samuel and flees to their Amish village, where he stays with them in case McFee, Schaeffer, or anyone else comes to silence them. 

There is a reverence for the Amish in this film that is not the way we usually see them in the movies. Usually, when the Amish are a key factor in films, they are depicted in a comical way, such as in Kingpin or For Richer, For Poorer. Neither film is derogatory towards the Amish, but they also don’t portray them accurately, either, instead exaggerating their beliefs for an easy laugh. Films like 49th Parallel depicted the Hutterite community, similar to the Amish, with respect and dignity, but that was also a small part of a much longer picture. Witness has humor, but it is never mocking or poking fun at the Amish; the humor comes naturally with its fish-out-of-water scenario. 

Harrison Ford is an interesting choice for the lead role. He was just coming off of Return of the Jedi and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, films that were part of some of the biggest franchises of the time, and had made him a major star of the action genre. Witness, while it has its share of action set-pieces, is not that kind of film. There’s a single shootout in a parking garage and the final scene when the villains descend on the Amish farm ready to kill Book, Rachel, and Samuel. Outside of this, there really isn’t any action. In fact, a good deal of this film is Book’s assimilation into the Amish community and his growing feelings for Rachel. For a large portion of the film, the impending danger takes backstage to this budding romance, including the insertion of a rival in the form of Daniel Hochleitner (Alexander Gudunov), a neighbor who has set his eyes on Rachel with the intent to marry her now that she is a widow. Part of me wished Book would choose to take up the life of an Amish man and stay with Rachel in the end, but I knew that it just wasn’t going to happen. That is too much of a clichéd ending for this film. 

There are some weird choices that Peter Weir made when putting this film together, one of which really pulled me out of the picture. In the middle of nowhere, we get a scene where Rachel is giving herself a sponge bath, and Book comes in, seeing her upright and in the nude. He stares at her for a moment before embarrassingly exiting the room. This scene is exploitative and unnecessary, there primarily to give audiences a titillating glimpse at Kelly McGillis’s naked body in a film where this would feel out of place. Peter Weir fails to add this scene in a way that feels natural to the picture. The scene, itself, could have been maintained without the full-on nudity and it would have fit better into this picture. Unfortunately, as shot, it feels gratuitous, like it was only added for the male gaze and serves no function beyond that.  

The film, as a whole, doesn’t really feel like a movie that should be ranked amongst the best. As a crime story, it is merely adequate. There is very little to the mystery, and what there is here is explained very early on.  McFee is a non-character, only standing out because he is being portrayed by Danny Glover, who was soon to be known to genre fans as Roger Murtaugh, one half of the buddy cop team in the Lethal Weapon series. Here, he gets little to do beyond shooting a gun and looking menacing. There is nothing to flesh out his character. The same goes for what ultimately turns out to be the main villain, Paul Schaeffer. These are generic baddies that exist only to move the plot and have no depth beyond that. That can work if all you’re doing is making a generic action film but is inexcusable for a film going for the Oscar.

The one major saving grace for this film is its look at the Amish and how the outside world treats them. There is little regard from outsiders for a people who are peaceful and just want to be left alone. This is one sticking point that Book has trouble assimilating into his own mindset. Late in the film, Book and several other Amish men are in town and are accosted by some young men who take advantage of the Amish mindset of turning the other cheek. After harassing them, Book loses it and breaks one of their noses. This assault is what brings the villains’ attention to their location, but it also draws the ire of the Amish who have been hiding Book. Their beliefs are not compatible, which is why Book would never be able to stay with them permanently. These are two different worlds, and while they have to exist side-by-side, they cannot function together as a single group.

Peter Weir has a good eye for developing the Amish and gives us moments that seem like they are superfluous but end up enriching the film rather than being just filler. There are scenes where Book learns to milk a cow, how the water is pumped into the houses, and even a barn raising. None of these feel unnecessary or obligatory. In fact, they serve to flesh out the character of Book and give us a tempting look at the simplicity of Amish living. If more care had been given to making the villains more interesting, this could have been a truly great film. 

Witness is a good crime drama with some legitimate thrills along the way. But it is not a great film for the reasons I have already mentioned above. It struggles with giving us compelling villains and tells us virtually nothing about what they are up to beyond one brief mention of selling seized drug materials. We see nothing of their operation, nor their endgame beyond making money and not getting arrested themselves. It’s shallow in that regard, which prevents it from deserving its spot on the Best Picture ballot. It’s unfortunate because Harrison Ford is very good in it, and he has real chemistry with Kelly McGillis. Even Lukas Haas is great in one of his first film roles. This is far from a film that should be avoided; it just suffers from being over-hyped thanks to it being amongst the ranks of the greats. 

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Edward S. Feldman

Best Director: Peter Weir

Best Actor: Harrison Ford

Best Original Screenplay: Earl W. Wallace, William Kelley, and Pamela Wallace (won)

Best Art Direction: Stan Jolley and John H. Anderson

Best Cinematography: John Seale

Best Film Editing: Thom Noble (won)

Best Original Score: Maurice Jarre

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Release Date: February 8, 1985

Running Time: 112 minutes

Rated R

Starring: Harrison Ford, Kelly McGillis, Lukas Haas, Danny Glover, and José Sommer

Directed By: Peter Weir