steven@ism70.UUCP (02/13/85)
WITNESS Starring Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis. Also starring Josef Sommer, Jan Rubes, Lukas Haas, Alexander Godunov and Danny Glover. Directed by Peter Weir. Written by William Kelley and Earl W. Wallace. Story by William Kelley and Earl W. Wallace and Pamela Wallace. Produced by Edward S. Feldman. Photographed by John Seale. Production Designed by Stan Jolley. Edited by Thom Noble. Music by Maurice Jarre. From Paramount Pictures (1985) I didn't enjoy _W_i_t_n_e_s_s as much as I could have, I guess. The film boasts some nice scenes and good chemistry between the two leads, but the film fails to address a fatal structural flaw that makes it drag on from the middle to the concluding scenes. The young son of the Amish (and newly widowed) Rachel (Kelly McGillis) witnesses a murder while on a train trip. Enter Harrison Ford, as Detective John Book of the Philly Police Department. Book manages to get an identification of the killer from the child (Lukas Haas), but when it becomes clear to him that other police officers are involved in the killings, Book must flee to the Amish countryside with his witness. So far, so good. So what happens next? _N_o_t_h_i_n_g. At least, nothing that advances the plot of the story. Ford holes up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and tries to blend into the Amish countryside. He and Rachel strike the sparks of forbidden love. The movie, as usual for Peter Weir, is elegantly photographed and impeccably acted. McGillis and Ford have a strong erotic chemistry that makes their scenes work. We have plenty to watch and discover. Yet, the narrative stalls out almost completely until the screenwriters look at their watch and say, "Whoops, 20 minutes left, better let the bad guys find out where Harrison is hiding." (Which isn't even that much of a spoiler if you've seen the 30 second TV spot or the trailer that Paramount has released.) With a structural hole like that in the middle of the narrative (it's an okay flick except nothing happens for an hour), it's hard for me to get excited about _W_i_t_n_e_s_s. Weir explores the Amish existence very sensitively and carefully. No one gets overemotional about the potentially disruptive influence in their community. And Ford's character wishes to remain as anonymous as possible. The writers have painted themselves into a corner, able only to give us a delicate travelogue instead of the kind of conflict that would point up the different worlds that Ford and McGillis travel in. Including that conflict would have made _W_i_t_n_e_s_s stronger, perhaps. Perhaps not. It would certainly have diverted the movie from its suspense origins, though I suspect that Weir cared less about the cop stuff anyway. But I missed the conflict. I wanted it. Two and a half stars out of four.
mfs@mhuxr.UUCP (SIMON) (02/13/85)
> [WITNESS] fails to address a fatal structural flaw that > makes it drag on from the middle to the concluding scenes. > I felt that the film addressed the conflict between the Amish world and that of a detective from the Philadelphia police force very well. The Amish point of view, as explained by old Eli to young Samuel when the child is found playing with Book's gun is that involvement with evil automatically corrupts, even if the involvement was innocent. The fact that despite his best efforts, Book deos not fit in is graphically demonstrated by his several phone calls, and especially by his beating up the young toughs harassing the Godunov character. In my opinion, the thriller aspect of the plot is only a cover for the essential point, which is the contrast between the peaceful, picturesque and pastoral world of the Amish and the violent, grimy and hurried world of John Book. Book's world and that of the bad guys do not differ by much: they are both evil. Marcel Simon