{"id":34114,"date":"2014-10-14T12:04:57","date_gmt":"2014-10-14T19:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=34114"},"modified":"2020-12-18T23:21:04","modified_gmt":"2020-12-19T06:21:04","slug":"witness-1985","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=34114","title":{"rendered":"Witness (1985)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;It&#8217;s not our way.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-Poster-201x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"201\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-58440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-Poster-201x300.jpg 201w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-Poster-685x1024.jpg 685w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-Poster-86x128.jpg 86w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-Poster-768x1147.jpg 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-Poster-181x270.jpg 181w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-Poster.jpg 1004w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 201px) 100vw, 201px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nWhen an Amish boy (Lukas Haas) travelling with his mother (Kelly McGillis) witnesses a brutal murder in a train station bathroom, the policeman (Harrison Ford) assigned to the case does whatever he can to protect the pair from harm.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Christianity<\/li>\n<li>Corruption<\/li>\n<li>Cross-Cultural Romance<\/li>\n<li>Harrison Ford Films<\/li>\n<li>Peter Weir Films<\/li>\n<li>Police<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary\u2019s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary writes that &#8220;Australian director Peter Weir&#8217;s&#8230; fascinating meditation on violence\/peace is extremely well made&#8221;: it&#8217;s &#8220;gorgeous to look at&#8221; (John Seale&#8217;s cinematography is &#8220;excellent&#8221;), &#8220;very suspenseful&#8221;, and features &#8220;truly memorable performances by the two leads&#8221; (though I&#8217;m equally impressed by Haas&#8217;s child performance as the wide-eyed &#8220;witness&#8221;).  He points out the &#8220;delicately sensual sexual content&#8221;, including &#8220;beautiful, radiant McGillis standing bare-breasted and unembarrassed as she exchanges stares with [Ford] in the next room&#8221; and &#8220;the two danc[ing] in the barn&#8221; together. However, Peary concedes that &#8220;the Amish people&#8217;s protest that this film didn&#8217;t represent them properly seems to have foundation&#8221;, given that &#8220;we learn little about them except for their abhorrence of violence (which at times seems like a convenient plot device) and their sense of community&#8221; (he accurately notes that &#8220;the film has the best communal building scene since the one in <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=20651\"><em>Seven Brides for Seven Brothers<\/em><\/a>&#8220;). <\/p>\n<p>Peary further notes that &#8220;the major problem with the film is that it has trouble mixing commercial Hollywood elements with the mysterious elements that usually dominate Weir&#8217;s films&#8221;, specifically in its glorified emphasis on &#8220;violent action sequences&#8221; &#8212; though I believe this is intentional; indeed, Weir and &#8220;screenwriters Earl W. Wallace and Bill Kelley&#8221; seem to bank on audiences&#8217; shock at the collision of these two radically different cultures (Amish country life and an urban homicide squad). <em>Witness<\/em> is ultimately a romantic thriller at heart &#8212; and my primary complaint is that its stock villains (sociopathically corrupt cops) are too predictably one-dimensional. However, what&#8217;s primarily at stake here are the lives of Haas and McGillis &#8212; and to that end, the film cleverly keeps us in suspense, all while bathing our senses in a uniquely pastoral late-20th-century setting.  <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lukas Haas as Samuel<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-Haas.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-Haas-1024x572.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"358\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-34139\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-Haas-1024x572.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-Haas-128x71.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-Haas-300x167.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-Haas.png 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Kelly McGillis as Rachel<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-McGillis.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-McGillis-1024x572.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"358\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-34136\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-McGillis-1024x572.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-McGillis-128x71.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-McGillis-300x167.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-McGillis.png 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>An authentic sense of culture and place<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-Barnraising.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-Barnraising-1024x572.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"358\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-34138\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-Barnraising-1024x572.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-Barnraising-128x71.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-Barnraising-300x167.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-Barnraising.png 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Joan Seale&#8217;s cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-Cinematography.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-Cinematography-1024x572.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"358\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-34137\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-Cinematography-1024x572.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-Cinematography-128x71.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-Cinematography-300x167.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Witness-Cinematography.png 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, as a taut, well-crafted thriller. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Good Show<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0090329\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.reelviews.net\/php_review_template.php?identifier=84\">ReelViews Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.qnetwork.com\/index.php?page=review&#038;id=1510\">Q Network Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/movies.tvguide.com\/witness\/review\/123053\">TV Guide Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeout.com\/london\/film\/witness\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not our way.&#8221; Synopsis: When an Amish boy (Lukas Haas) travelling with his mother (Kelly McGillis) witnesses a brutal murder in a train station bathroom, the policeman (Harrison Ford) assigned to the case does whatever he can to protect the pair from harm. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Christianity Corruption Cross-Cultural Romance Harrison Ford Films Peter Weir Films Police Response to Peary\u2019s Review: Peary writes that &#8220;Australian director Peter Weir&#8217;s&#8230; fascinating meditation on violence\/peace is extremely well made&#8221;: it&#8217;s&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=34114\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34114"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58441,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34114\/revisions\/58441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}