Witness (2005, DVD)

If the Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogies proved Harrison Ford could play cliffhanger-serial style action heroes without breaking a sweat, his performance in 1986's Witness as a Philadelphia detective hiding in an Amish community after discovering some of his fellow cops are on the other side of the law proved that he could play more down-to-Earth, believable and even vulnerable leading man roles.

Ford plays John Book, a dedicated if rather world-weary detective captain in the Philadelphia police department who is called in to investigate the brutal slaying of an undercover officer in a public restroom at the train station. His only witness: eight-year-old Samuel Lapp (Lukas Haas), an Amish boy who's traveling with his beautiful (and recently widowed) mother Rachel (Kelly McGillis).

At first, Book and Rachel clash when he insists that Samuel's testimony is badly needed to identify the cop killers, but when the investigation leads to the corrupt Lt. James McFee (Danny Glover) and others in the police force, the young and terrified Amish woman must become Book's protector when he is wounded in a parking lot shootout with McFee and some of his accomplices. Making their way to Lancaster County in Book's car, Rachel, Samuel and the wounded detective find temporary refuge in the rural and definitely back-to-basics Amish community in the Pennsylvania countryside.

Australian director Peter Weir, working from a well-written screenplay by William Kelley and Earl W. Wallace, combines the fish-out-of-water theme of a modern American cop hiding out in a community that shuns his modern, "English" ways with a beautiful love story and a taut mystery thriller. Weir (Gallipoli, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World) balances all these masterfully, never letting one part of the story overwhelm the other.

Ford had tackled the action/romance hybrid genre before, in 1979's forgettable Hanover Street, but his performance in Witness is absolutely wonderful. He is still in an action-hero role of sorts here, but in a more believable setting and definitely more vulnerable than either Han Solo or Indiana Jones. He's earthy and sometimes profane, yet there is a loneliness and tenderness that comes to the fore when he falls for Rachel...and realizes that his life and hers are universes apart even though they live only a few counties apart.

As for Kelly McGillis, this was her best film in her surprisingly short career in Hollywood. She portrays Rachel as a lovely cultural tightrope walker, fiercely trying to resist the ways of the "English" -- the non-Amish Americans -- and shielding Samuel from the dark side of the modern world, yet still vulnerable to the strong sexual attraction she feels for Book.

Witness also has a great supporting cast, including Patti Lupone, Josef Sommer, the late Alexander Godunov, Viggo Mortensen (Lord of the Rings), and Beverly May.

Also worth mentioning is Maurice Jarre's (The Longest Day) simple yet evocative score that reflects the gentle reverence and simplicity of the Amish community, and underscores the budding love between the tough but wounded detective and the beautiful and lonely widow.