Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9781415713150
Format: Collector's Edition
ISBN: 1415713154
Label: Paramount
Manufacturer: Paramount
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Paramount
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2005-08-23
Running Time: 112
Studio: Paramount
Theatrical Release Date: 1985-02-08

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Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating:

Summary: Witness (Special Collector's Edition)
Comment: I love this movie. I love the characters, the storyline, the performances from Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis and Lucas Haas. The music by Maurice Jarre is really fine, and the photography is terrific. Just a great film from beginning to end. The extra bits on the Collector's Edition are frosting on the cake - fantastic!!

Customer Rating:

Summary: Blade Runner
Comment: As much as like Harrison Ford, this movie had me yawning. It was supose to be a futuristic time, but it was just an old dark rainy Japan setting with a few futuristic type vehicles sprinkled in.

It was a cat and mouse chase type movie where you practically know every move of the cat and mouse. Anyway, for me it was a disapointing yawner.

Customer Rating:

Summary: loved it
Comment: witness very good i enjoyed it very much, i was hopeing that harrison would have married her.....

Customer Rating:

Summary: Witness
Comment: The movie was as good as I remembered, and I have grown-up Grandchildren who loved it.

Customer Rating:

Summary: One of the best films of the 80's
Comment: A young Amish boy (Samuel Lapp played beautifully in his film debut by Lukas Haas) while traveling with his mother Rachel (Kelly McGillis) witnesses a murder. The Philly detective assigned to the case is John Bock (Harrison Ford), a cynical, hardened, yet very ethical man who is married to his job. The murder turns out to be an inside job performed by Bock's associates on the police force. The three of them soon escape to the Amish community to avoid being the next victims and soon... well, that's what you need to find out when you watch this fine film.

This is an excellent film any way you slice it. Great acting, writing, directing, musical score, etc... It is my favorite film by director Peter Weir and in my opinion the best performance of Ford's career. It's a nice change of pace to see Ford actually come down to Earth and play a common man instead of the super-hero he so often portrays. He had quite an amazing run of very successful films in the 80's and 90's but it's very difficult at times to take him too seriously as a dramatic actor despite the money making machines a great many of his films turned out becoming. Yet he's fantastic as John Book! He is so much more accessible and unguarded, and it's beautiful to watch. The man truly can act! Anyway, it's a shame he hasn't played more parts like this one (see "The Mosquito Coast" and "Frantic" for two other excellent examples).

I have to be quite honest and finally get this off of my chest - I have never thought Kelly McGillis could act! This is her best performance, and yet, I don't think she is all that convincing as an Amish woman. Her performance, for me, is the only real flaw in this film (not enough to dock a star though!) She is so stiff and unimpassioned, and I'm not sure if she was trying to speak with an Amish accent or not, but if she was, heaven help her. The three or four other films I have seen her in, before she descended into being a B-movie star or Lifetime Television regular, she pretty much played the same wooden, passionless character. Somebody tell me I am wrong or being too harsh. I apologize to all of you Kelly McG fans out there!

The film also had some very fine performances in supporting roles. Lukas Haas as the young Amish boy is excellent and very believable. You kind of knew that the kid would go on to bigger and better things if he stayed clean. Danny Glover is solid as always as one of the rogue cops out to get Book and the boy. Viggo Mortensen also gets his career up and running with a small role as an amish man named Moses and does an excellent job. As do Patti Lupone, Josef Summer, Brent Jennings, and Jan Rubes. Rubes in particular is amazing as Eli Lapp, (Samuel's grandfather and Rachel's father-in-law). I think this man deserved a best-supporting nod, he was that great.

Finally, the story itself is truly terrific. It's a film that both men and women of any age will enjoy. It's part love story, part crime drama, part character study, and also part cultural study as well. Yes, I know, I know, the Amish were pissed off about how they were portrayed in this film. Yet, I can't figure out why. To me, they were portrayed to be much more benevolent, kind-hearted, level-headed, and practical than we 'English'. There were several buddies of mine that wanted to become Amish after seeing this film. However, me thinks these converts-to-be were enticed more by the beauty of McGillis (especially one scene in particular) than they were by the hard-working, extremely moral, plain folk. Go figure.

In a relatively weak decade when it came to classic films, I would without a doubt put this one on my top-ten best film list for the 1980's. You can't go wrong with this one!

More Reviews

Editorial Reviews:

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. --James McGrath