Witness         

By James McGrath

When Samuel (Lukas Haas), a young Amish boy traveling with his mother Rachel (Kelly McGillis), witnesses the murder of a police officer in a public restroom, he and his mother become the temporary wards of John Book (Harrison Ford), a detective who's been assigned to solve the crime. After suspect lineups and mug-shot books yield nothing, Samuel, in the most memorable scene of the film, recognizes the murderer as a narcotics agent whose picture he sees in the precinct. Once Book realizes that the police chief is in on it, too, he whisks Samuel and Rachel back home to Amish country, where he himself goes into hiding as a plain Amish man. The juxtaposition between the life of the Amish and the violence of inner-city police corruption work surprisingly well for the story, and Kelly McGillis as the falling in love widow gives an almost perfect performance. Directed by Peter Weir, the film is extremely successful in drawing the viewer into its world and, accordingly, is immensely entertaining. The only thing that mars its polish is the one-dimensional, almost cartoonish handling of the upper-echelon police corruption--a subtler, more realistic treatment of this aspect of the story would have rendered the film near perfect.

Academy Awards

Witness received Academy Awards for Writing (Best Screenplay written directly for the screen: Earl W. Wallace, William Kelley, Pamela Wallace) and Film Editing (Thom Noble). Witness also received Academy Awards nominations for Best Picture (Edward S. Feldman - Producer), Actor (Harrison Ford), Directing (Peter Weir), Art Direction/Set Decoration (: Stan Jolley - Art Direction, John Anderson - Set Decoration), Cinematography (John Seale) and Music Scoring Awards (Best Original Score: Maurice Jarre).

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