Witness (1985)

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I guess the detective had No Body he could trust or No Body he could go to about the corruption. Movie lost me when Ford gave up his gun and bullets to the woman. NO police detective would ever give up his gun when hunted by other corrupt cops. Totally Unbelievable. Found something else to watch.

Police thriller in Amish country. Harrison Ford plays a policeman who protects a little Amish child that witnessed police brutality. The policemen go after the kid. Harrison Ford is there to protect the kid. They both flee to Amish country. Will they corrupt policemen find the kid? That is the suspense of this story. Really great suspense and I have seen decades of police thrillers. Witness is out there with the very best.Seriously.However back in the eighties the studios werent interested in this script about a rural Amish community sheltering a little boy who was witness to a police killing. Rural stories dont sell, was the fear of the studio executives. How wrong could they haven been! Witness became the second biggest box office hit of 1985. This movie was directed by Peter Weir known from "The Truman Show" with Jim Carey, "Dead Poets Society" with Robin Williams and "Fearless" with Jeff Bridges. It is one of the few movies that are highly praised by critics and the movie masses simultaneously. Witness is Included among the American Film Institute's 1998 list of the 400 movies nominated for the Top 100 Greatest American Movies and was one of the biggest box office hits of the entire eighties.Initially the Amish community was asked to take part in the movie, but they refused for several reasons: one being the fact that they dont want their picture taken, the other being the violence that was portrayed in the movie. In preparation for her role, Kelly McGillis lived with an actual Amish widow and her seven children for a while before filming began to get the speech cadence down and to observe the daily life of an Amish widowed mother. Harrison Ford worked alongside real policemen to learn the police jargon and attitudes. Harrison Ford was nominated for Best Actor, his one and only Oscar nomination in his entire carreer! When a movie is praised by critics and welcomed by the popular masses it is difficult to choose where I want to begin in reviewing the brilliance of this movie. I want to highlight 2 brilliant parts of this movie that really mesmirized me with their beauty. One being the lighting of this film. I rarely have seen such excellent qualities of lighting and photography in other movies. Some still shots almost resemble the beauty of paintings. Kelly McGillis playing an Amish widow, was lighted and photographed in such a splendid way that it looked as if the director had created a painting like aura of light around her. Breathtaking beauty.The other part I want to highlight is the synthesizer music by Maurice Jarre. Almost resembling church organ sounds, Jarre's soundtrack is overwhelmingly powerful. Altough very modern sounding it fits perfectly into the old fashioned Amish style of living. Some viewers hated it though, but I am very picky about music in movies and I really was impressed by it. I have seen it over 10 times now and some movies just stay as powerful as they were when they were first released. 30 years old, Witness has become a timeless classic. I love it!

This is the movie that proved Ford could work. As a detective whose investigation nearly gets him killed, he hides among the Amish. This is a great movie. Fine story, doomed love story. It goes together very well. Not a wasted scene. Well worth seeing.

This movie starts with the scene that a child witnesses a man being killed by the two murderers in a restroom. The child and his mother are chased by two killers because of the witness, so the detective helps them an pd lives in a country. I was very impressed with the scene that the boy witnesses the crime. One of the murderers checks all toilets when he hears the sound. The kid barely escape from the danger, but I can feel his tension from his expression. I was also scared that the killer peeps into a gap between the door and the floor. The camera angle makes me more horrible and tense. It was also memorable for me that the detective and the kid's mother run to and hug each other. I can feel they really love one another. and the impulse of their love makes them do such a passionate action from their serious expression. I like this movie because I can enjoy the tension of the detective, the mother ,and a kid. I can forget their tense expectations. I also enjoyed the heartbreaking love since I cannot imagine the ending of the two people.