An Amish community outside Lancaster, Pennsylvania, attends the funeral of Jacob Lapp, leaving behind his wife, Rachel, and eight-year-old son, Samuel. Rachel and Samuel travel by train to visit Rachel's sister, which takes them into Philadelphia. While at the 30th Street Station waiting for a connecting train, Samuel goes into the men's room and witnesses the murder of undercover police officer Detective Ian Zenovich.
Detective Captain John Book and his partner, Sergeant Elton Carter, are assigned to the case. They question Samuel, who is unable to identify the perpetrator from mugshots or a lineup. Samuel then sees a newspaper clipping in a trophy case of narcotics officer Lieutenant James McFee and points him out to Book as the murderer.
Book investigates McFee and discovers that he was previously responsible for a seizure of expensive chemicals used to make black-market amphetamine, after which the chemicals disappeared. Book surmises that McFee sold the chemicals back to drug dealers, and Zenovich was investigating. Book expresses his suspicions to Chief of Police Paul Schaeffer, who advises Book to keep the case secret so that they can determine how to proceed. Book is later ambushed in his apartment parking garage by McFee, who shoots and wounds him before fleeing. Since only Schaeffer knew of Book's suspicions, Book realizes that Schaeffer is corrupt and tipped off McFee.
Knowing that Samuel and Rachel are now in danger, Book orders Carter to hide their police files. He then drives them back to their farm. While beginning his drive back to Philadelphia, he passes out from his wounds and crashes into their birdhouse. Rachel insists that he be taken to a hospital, but Book refuses and states that going there would allow him and, by extension, them to be found. Rachel's father-in-law, Eli, reluctantly agrees to shelter Book.
Book slowly recovers in their care and begins to blend into the Amish community and lifestyle. He and Rachel develop feelings for each other, which becomes a source of friction for Daniel Hochleitner (a neighbor who had hoped to court Rachel after her husband's death). Book's relationship with the Amish community deepens as they learn that he is skilled at carpentry and seems like a decent, hard-working man. He is invited to participate in a barn raising for a newly-married couple, gaining Hochleitner's respect. However, the attraction between Book and Rachel is evident and causes gossip in the tight-knit community.
Meanwhile, Schaeffer searches for Book by contacting authorities in the Amish area. However, since Amish communities have no modern means of communication and little contact with the outside world, he hits repeated dead ends.
When Book goes into town with Eli to use a payphone to call his precinct, he learns that Carter was killed in the line of duty. Realizing that Schaeffer was behind it, Book calls him at his home (where the call cannot be traced), chastises him for being corrupt and threatens to kill him. As they leave town, a group of locals harass the Amish. Book retaliates, breaking with the Amish tradition of non-violence. The assault is reported to the local police, and word eventually gets back to Schaeffer.
Upset with Book over the assault, Eli orders him to leave. Rachel approaches Book in a field, where they passionately embrace, finally acting on their feelings. Soon after, Schaeffer, McFee and another corrupt cop, Sergeant Leon "Fergie" Ferguson, arrive at the Lapp farm. They take Rachel and Eli hostage. Eli manages to alert Book, and Book tells Samuel to hide at Hochleitner's farm. Book tricks Fergie into the corn silo and suffocates him under tons of corn. He then uses Fergie's shotgun to kill McFee. Schaeffer holds Rachel and Eli at gunpoint, but Samuel secretly comes back to ring the Lapp farm's bell. Book confronts Schaeffer, who threatens to kill Rachel, but the bell has alerted and summoned all of the neighbors. With so many witnesses present, Schaeffer surrenders and is later arrested.
With Rachel and Samuel no longer in danger, Book departs for Philadelphia, bidding farewell. Before he drives off, Eli wishes John well by saying, "You be careful out there among them English.”
In his book The Amish in the American Imagination (2001), scholar David Weaver-Zercher notes that Witness is primarily concerned with the intersection of contrasting cultures, a recurring theme in several of Weir's films, including The Last Wave (1977) and The Year of Living Dangerously (1982).[3] Weaver-Zercher notes that the conflict between Amish and non-Amish as depicted in Witness "reflect[s] well on the Amish ways" and also serves as a redemption story for Captain Book, who regains a new sense of humanity during his displacement in the Amish community.[4]
Production
Development
Producer Edward S. Feldman, who was in a "first-look" development deal with 20th Century Fox at the time, first received the screenplay for Witness in 1983. Originally titled Called Home, which is the Amish term for death, it ran for 182 pages, the equivalent of three hours of screen time. The script, which had been circulating in Hollywood for several years, began with an idea by novelist Pamela Wallace for a novel about an Amish woman who witnesses a murder in Los Angeles. Earl W. Wallace, who wrote for the television Western "How the West was Won" recalled an episode with a similar plot and contacted its writer, William Kelley. Kelley had reworked the plot for the show from a script he had written for a 1972 episode of "Gunsmoke." [5][6] Earl Wallace and Kelley wrote the original screenplay together.
Feldman liked the concept, but felt too much of the script was devoted to Amish traditions, diluting the thriller aspects of the story. He offered Kelley and Wallace $25,000 for a one-year option and one rewrite, and an additional $225,000 if the film actually were made. They submitted the revised screenplay in less than six weeks, and Feldman delivered it to Fox. Joe Wizan, the studio's head of production, rejected it with the statement that Fox did not make "rural movies".[7]
Feldman sent the screenplay to Harrison Ford's agent Phil Gersh, who contacted the producer four days later and advised him his client was willing to commit to the film. Certain the attachment of a major star would change Wizan's mind, Feldman approached him once again, but Wizan insisted that as much as the studio liked Ford, they still were not interested in making a "rural movie."[8]
Feldman sent the screenplay to numerous studios, and was rejected by all of them, until Paramount Pictures finally expressed interest. Feldman's first choice of director was Peter Weir, but he was involved in preproduction work for The Mosquito Coast and passed on the project. John Badham dismissed it as "just another cop movie", and others Feldman approached either were committed to other projects or had no interest. Then, as financial backing for The Mosquito Coast fell through, Weir became free to direct Witness, which was his first American film. Starting the film immediately was imperative, because a Directors Guild of America (DGA) strike was looming.[9]David Cronenberg was offered the role of director, but declined as he "could never be a fan of the Amish".[10]
Casting
McGillis on the set of Witness in 1984
Lynne Littman had originally been in talks to direct the film, and though she ultimately did not, she recommended Lukas Haas for the part of Samuel, because she had recently worked with him on her film Testament. The role of Rachel was the most difficult to cast, and after Weir grew frustrated with the auditions he had seen, he asked the casting director to look for actors in Italy, because he thought they would be more "womanly". As they were reviewing audition tapes from Italy, Kelly McGillis came to audition, and the moment she put on the bonnet and spoke a few lines, Weir knew she was the one. The casting director recommended her old friend Alexander Godunov, who had never acted before, but she thought his personality would be right, and Weir agreed.[citation needed]
Viggo Mortensen was cast because Weir thought he had the right face for the part of an Amish man. Mortensen had just started his acting career, so this was his first film acting role, and he had to turn down another role as a soldier in Shakespeare in the Park's production ofHenry V. He credited that decision and the very positive experience on the film as the start of his film career.[11]
Pre-production
During the weeks before filming, Ford spent time with the homicide department of the Philadelphia Police Department, researching the important details of working as a homicide detective. McGillis did research by moving in with an Amish widow and her seven children, learning how to milk cows and practicing their Pennsylvania German dialect.[12]
Weir and cinematographer John Seale went on a trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which was running an exhibition of 17th-century Dutch Masters. Weir drew attention to the paintings of Johannes Vermeer, which were used as inspiration for the lighting and composition of the film, especially in the scenes where John Book is recovering from a gunshot wound in Rachel's house.[11]
Filming
Principal photography took place between April 27, 1984 and June 29, 1984.[13][14] The film was shot on location in Philadelphia and the city and towns of Intercourse, Lancaster, Strasburg, and Parkesburg. Local Amish were willing to work as carpenters and electricians, but declined to appear on film, so many of the extras were actually Mennonites. Halfway through filming, the title was changed from Called Home to Witness at the behest of Paramount's marketing department, which felt the original title posed too much of a promotional challenge. Principal photography was completed three days before the scheduled DGA strike, which ultimately failed to materialize.[15]
During the set-up and rehearsal of each scene, as well as during dailies, Weir would play music to set the mood, with the idea that it prevented the actors from thinking too much and let them listen to their other instincts. The barn-raising scene was only a short paragraph in the script, but Weir thought it was important to highlight that aspect of Amish community life. They shot the scene in a day and did, in fact, build a barn, albeit with the aid of cranes off-camera. To film the scene in the corn silo, corn was actually dropped onto the actor, while a scuba diving regulator with a compressed air tank was hidden on the floor so the actor would be able to breathe.[11]
Originally, the script ended with a scene of Book and Rachel each explaining their feelings for each other to the audience, but Weir felt the scene was unnecessary and decided not to shoot it. The studio executives were concerned that the audience would not understand the conclusion, and tried to convince him otherwise, but Weir insisted that the characters' emotions could be expressed only with visuals.[11]
The film opened theatrically in 876 theaters in the United States on February 8, 1985, and grossed $4,539,990 in its opening weekend, ranking number two behind Beverly Hills Cop. The film went on to become a sleeper hit, topping the charts in its fifth week of release.[18] It eventually earned a total of $68,706,993 in North America.[19] Internationally, it grossed $47.4 million for a worldwide total of $116.1 million.[20]
Home media
Paramount Home Entertainment released Witness on VHS, with a DVD in initially in 1999 and then in 2005, along with a Blu-ray Disc in 2015.[21][22]
British boutique label Arrow Films released the film in the United States on 4K Ultra HD disc and remastered Blu-ray on October 31, 2023.[23]
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, Witness holds an approval rating of 93% based on 45 reviews, with an average rating of 8.4/10. The site's critics consensus states: "A wonderfully entertaining thriller within an unusual setting, with Harrison Ford delivering a surprisingly emotive and sympathetic performance."[24] On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100 based on 14 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[25]
[F]irst of all, an electrifying and poignant love story. Then it is a movie about the choices we make in life and the choices that other people make for us. Only then is it a thriller—one that Alfred Hitchcock would have been proud to make... We have lately been getting so many pallid, bloodless little movies—mostly recycled teenage exploitation films made by ambitious young stylists without a thought in their heads—that Witness arrives like a fresh new day. It is a movie about adults whose lives have dignity and whose choices matter to them. And it is also one hell of a thriller.[26]
Ebert also praised Ford's work and believed he had "never given a better performance in a movie."[26]
It's not really awful, but it's not much fun. It's pretty to look at and it contains a number of good performances, but there is something exhausting about its neat balancing of opposing manners and values... One might be made to care about all this if the direction by the talented Australian film maker, Peter Weir... were less perfunctory and if the screenplay... did not seem so strangely familiar. One follows Witness as if touring one's old hometown, guided by an outsider who refuses to believe that one knows the territory better than he does. There's not a character, an event, or a plot twist that one hasn't anticipated long before its arrival, which gives one the feeling of waiting around for people who are always late.[27]
Variety said the film was "at times a gentle, affecting story of star-crossed lovers limited within the fascinating Amish community. Too often, however, this fragile romance is crushed by a thoroughly absurd shoot-'em-up, like ketchup poured over a delicate Pennsylvania Dutch dinner."[28]
Time Out New York observed, "Powerful, assured, full of beautiful imagery and thankfully devoid of easy moralizing, it also offers a performance of surprising skill and sensitivity from Ford."[29]
Halliwell's Film Guide chose Witness as one of only two films from 1985 to receive a four-star review, describing it as "one of those lucky movies which works out well on all counts and shows that there are still craftsmen lurking in Hollywood."[30]
Radio Times called the film "partly a love story and partly a thriller, but mainly a study of cultural collision – it's as if the world of Dirty Harry had suddenly stumbled into a canvas by Brueghel." It added, "[I]t's Weir's delicacy of touch that impresses the most. He ably juggles the various elements of the story and makes the violence seem even more shocking when it's played out on the fields of Amish denial."[31]
Leading up to and following its release, Witness was met with controversy from the Amish communities where it was filmed,[40] and was subject to debate from editors, scholars, and other parties regarding its depiction of the Amish.[41] Some accused the film of exploiting the Amish community for commercial purposes, while others felt that the depiction of Amish characters in an R-rated film was insensitive to the Amish's beliefs.[42]
A statement released by a law firm associated with the Amish claimed that their portrayal in the movie was not accurate. The National Committee for Amish Religious Freedom called for a boycott of the movie soon after its release, citing fears that these communities were being "overrun by tourists" as a result of the popularity of the movie, and worried that "the crowding, souvenir-hunting, photographing and trespassing on Amish farmsteads will increase." After the movie was completed, Pennsylvania governor Dick Thornburgh agreed not to promote Amish communities as future film sites. A similar concern was voiced within the movie itself, where Rachel tells a recovering Book that tourists often consider her fellow Amish something to stare at, with some even being so rude as to trespass on their private property.[43]
Legacy
Negotiation expert William Ury summarised the film's climactic scene in a chapter titled "The Witness" in his 1999 book Getting to Peace (later republished with the alternative title The Third Side: Why We Fight and How We Can Stop) and used the scene as a symbol of the power of ordinary citizens to resolve conflicts and stop violence.[44]
This scene from the popular movie Witness captures the power of ordinary community members to contain violence. The Amish farmers were present as the third side in perhaps its most elemental form, seemingly doing nothing, but in fact playing the critical role of Witness. Like the Amish, we are all potential Witnesses.
Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa cited Witness as one of his favorite films of all time.[45][46]
Notes
^The end credits does not list the full name of several characters including Rachel, Schaeffer, Samuel, McFee, Carter, Elaine, Fergie, Zenovich, etc.[2]
^ abcdKeith Clark and Jon Mefford (2005). "Between Two Worlds: The Making of Witness". Witness (DVD). Paramount Pictures. OCLC949729643.
^McGillis, Kelly (January 24, 1985). "Kelly McGillis for "Witness'". The Bobbie Wygant Archive (Interview). Interviewed by Bobbie Wygant. Archived from the original on June 4, 2022. Retrieved June 4, 2022.{{cite interview}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^Drybred, John (April 27, 1984). "Filming of 'Called Home' Will Begin In Area Today". Intelligencer Journal. p. 40.
^Ferguson, Jon (June 30, 1984). "It's A Wrap: 'Witness' Crew Finishes; Film Opens In '85". Intelligencer Journal. p. 28.
Silver, Alain; Ward, Elizabeth, eds. (1992). Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style (3rd ed.). Woodstock, New York: The Overlook Press. ISBN978-0-879-51479-2.
Hostetler, John A.; Kraybill, Donald B. (1988). "Hollywood markets the Amish". In Gross, Larry P.; Katz, John Stuart; Ruby, Jay (eds.). Image Ethics: The Moral Rights of Subjects In Photographs, Film, and Television. Communication and Society. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-195-36184-1.
Wahlbrinck, Bernd. WITNESS Revisited: An Appreciation of Peter Weir's Famous Film, Tumbleweed 2020, ISBN978-3-9821463-5-5
Kelley, William and Earl W. Wallace (based on the screenplay by Earl W. Wallace and William Kelley). Witness, Pocket Books; Media Tie In, 1985 ISBN978-0671545956
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