Witness (2005, DVD)

I still remember Witness causing a bit of a stir back in 1985 when it was released. Why? Up until that time, Harrison Ford was known for either cracking wise and shooting aliens in the Star Wars trilogy or smacking people with a whip in the Indiana Jones films. Ford, though popular, was perceived as a one-dimensional "action" actor.

That all changed in Witness, a truly enjoyable film that established Ford as a "serious" actor with impressive skills that no one had really seen in his earlier movies. Ford has earned a lot of respect over the years, of course, and Witness helped keep him from being typecasted and opened up a lot of opportunities for him.

But, enough about Ford. Witness, at it's heart, is a film about clashing cultures (the Amish vs. everyone else, really). Impressively, the film never looks down at the Amish or portrays them in an overly stereotypical manner. Rather, we see the beauty of a simple lifestyle and the film offers up an explanation -- perhaps -- of why the Amish might want to avoid mainstream American culture.

The movie starts in Pennsylvania Amish country with Rachel Lapp (Kelly McGinnis) grieving at the funeral of her husband. Joining in all the grief are Lapp's son, Samuel (Lukas Haas), and her father-in-law, Eli (Jan Rubes). Rachel takes Samuel to visit her sister in Baltimore. Unfortunately, that means they've got to go to the train station in Philadelphia and there's trouble aplenty when the nice Amish folks are out among the "English" (their slang for people operating in mainstream America).

Samuel heads to the bathroom and witnesses a cop being murdered by two men. The police come in to investigate and learn that Samuel is the soul witness to the crime. John Book (Harrison) then spends some time with Samuel and tries to get him to identify the murderer. Several suspects are reviewed by Samuel, but the kid sees a photo of Lieutenant James McFee (Danny Glover) and identifies him as one of the killers.

It turns out that McFee is involved in a conspiracy to sell drugs from a police evidence room. Book makes the mistake of telling Chief Paul Schaeffer (Josef Sommer) of McFee's misbehavior. Naturally, that's a mistake -- Book winds up getting shot and his partner ends up dead. Rather than going to the hospital for treatment (Book's smart enough to figure out that Schaeffer is up to no good), he takes Rachel and Samuel back to Amish country. Book chooses to live among them and adopt their way of life for a time so he can recover and hide out from the bad cops who want him dead.

Along the way, we see the Amish raise a barn (great, great scene), express their pacifist ideals and etc. Book doesn't fit in well at all and winds up causing all sorts of chaos. For one thing, he and Rachel fall in love (thus causing all manner of rumblings in the community) and he can't quite get the hang of pacifism. In fact, Book joins the Amish on a trip to town and whips up on some bullies picking on the group. That act really gets him in trouble as the word gets out quick about someone traveling with a group of known pacifists gets into a fight. Before long, the bad cops hear of that fist-flinging Amish fellow, figure out Book must be the troublemaker, grab the guns and head off to Amish country.

So, does Book engage in hot Amish love? Does he ever fit in well in the Amish community? Do the nasty cops silence Book and the kid for good? Watch the movie and find out as I've said enough already.

On the whole, this is a fantastic film. It's visually striking as the pastoral life of the rural Amish provides the backdrop for most of it. The settings are absolutely gorgeous, and that barn raising scene is a great one, indeed. Ford plays his roles of both "fish out of water" and "good cop striving for justice" perfectly and turns in a fantastic performance with plenty of depth. The clash between the Amish and the "English" is portrayed time and time again with both sympathy and understanding in that one gets a pretty good idea why the Amish in the film want little to do with mainstream culture. We also come to understand how disruptive the mainstream is through Book -- his aforementioned defense of the Amish while in town brought a bunch of gun-packing outsiders to their peaceful community, after all.

There are but two downsides to this movie. First of all, there are action elements but this isn't an action film. You've got to have some patience to watch this thing as the movie is mostly about character development, setting up the budding romance between Rachel and Book and clashing cultures -- setting up such concepts takes time. But, I found all of the time spent on plot development rather entertaining. Some might find large parts of the movie boring, however.

Also, the soundtrack is peaceful and serene, but it's also a product of the 1980s. Yes, that, means the music is heavy on synthesizers and the "electronic" nature of that instrument clashes a bit with the simple, Amish life portrayed in the film.

Still, those are minor gripes. Witness is a great romantic thriller featuring a great cast, plenty of philosophical musings and an ending that seems extremely authentic (again, you'll have to watch it and find out what that is). This is one of Ford's best movies, and that really is saying something.