Witness – 1985
This was a very good movie that was a crime drama, a romance, and a thoughtfully handled look inside a culture about which most people know very little. It starred Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis in the leads and they both did a great job.
At the time this movie was made, Ford was a very popular actor, riding high on his parts in the Star Wars franchise and the Indiana Jones Franchise. But here he showed a bit of a softer side in the character of John Book. He is a homicide officer in Philadelphia who is assigned to work on a case in which a police officer has been murdered. But this was no run-of-the-mill case. The murder had been committed by crooked cops, and had been witnessed by a young boy named Samuel Lapp, played by Lukas Haas, who happened to be Amish.
His mother, Rachel, played by Kelly McGillis, does her best to protect her son from the outside world, but after the boy identifies the murderer as a police officer who works for a narcotics division, Detective Book forces them to abandon their plans and stay with his sister Elaine, played by Patti LuPone. The killers attack and shoot John, forcing them to flee into Amish country.
The Amish nurse John back to health, but here is where the real beauty of the script is revealed. The way the Amish are portrayed is insightful, respectful, and honest. They are shown to be a peaceful people who are strong in their beliefs and their faith. Because they keep to themselves, many of us have a number of misconceptions about the Amish which cause us to look down on them as quaint, or backwater, or even primitive. I have to admit that I was just as guilty of such thinking.
The Wikipedia article about Amish religious beliefs is brief and sums up what the film did such a great job of portraying, and it is worth paraphrasing here: “Two key concepts for understanding Amish practices are their rejection of pride, arrogance, and haughtiness, and the high value they place on humility, calmness, and composure. This is better understood to be a reluctance to be forward, to be self-promoting, or to assert oneself. This anti-individual orientation is the motive for rejecting labor-saving technologies that might make one less dependent on community. Modern innovations like electricity might spark a competition for status goods, or photographs might cultivate personal vanity.” The film did a great job of getting this philosophy across.
They also spent some time showing how the Amish view the world around them. For example, at one point, Rachel says the she is aware that the rest of the world considers them to be quaint. They come and stare and take pictures, and she comments that it is rude and she doesn’t like it. And she is right. It is rude.
John Book is thrust into this world that is completely unlike anything he has ever experienced. He learns to appreciate the simple lifestyle that the Amish people lead. To fit in and hide, he begins to dress like them and work with them. And of course, he falls in love with Rachel. But then, the film almost seems to forget about Samuel, the witness, concentrating on the love story. As the viewers, we want them to end up together. And we begin to wonder which one of them will leave their life behind to be with the other? And the answer, in the end, was the right one. Neither. The star-crossed lovers are bound to part, and once the threat to the witness has been dealt with, they do. The end was sad, but believable.
I also have to mention the excellent performances by Jan Rubes, playing Rachel’s father, Eli, Danny Glover, playing McFee, the murderer, and Alexander Godunov, playing Daniel, a young Amish man who is jealous of Rachel’s affections for John. The cast all did a fine job. I enjoyed the movie, but not so much for the crime drama, but for the honest, and somewhat educational way in which the Amish people were depicted.
The film’s director, Peter Weir, obviously had a lot of respect for them and their way of life. And through the film, I found that I respect them as well. I enjoy my modern conveniences, but I do not think any less of them for choosing to live without them. The film makes it easy to see how happiness can be found in such a life.