Witness - 1985

So a young Amish mother (Kelly McGillis) and her son (Lukas Haas) are traveling through Philidelphia when the son witnesses a murder. The killing is sudden and brutal. The Amish are pulled into the police system in hopes of indentifying the killer. They are placed under the protection of detective John Book (Harrison Ford).
The boy identifies a fellow policeman and everything falls into place. Book must get them out of there. As tries to get the mother and son away he gets into a shootout and becomes wounded. Where to take them? Back to their home and hope that they can get lost within their community. Once he arrives, his wound overcomes him and he's taken in to heal.
What follows is a race. Can he heal quickly enough to get away before they find him? Can the crooked police find him in such an alien community? Will love blossom in the meantime?
This is a great movie. One of my favorite moments is a barn raising scene with very very good music by Maurice Jarre. Also of note, one of the Amish men is played by Viggo Mortensen, aka Aragorn.

Comments

MamaD4 said…
Holy cow, Kelly McGillis' naked breasts! That's all I remember from the first time I watched this, which would have been about 1986. All of our movies were begged from friends who had HBO and would record them on VHS tapes for us. This was one of the tapes Mom and Dad tried to "hide" in their bureau drawer (probably because of the breasts) but we found it and watched it anyway.
4:33 PM
Peder said…
Well...that was one of my other favorite moments.
6:51 PM
DD4 said…
WITNESS is one of my favorite movies, and I also love the music during the barn raising. What about the burial in the silo storing corn? It gets me everytime I watch it.
By the way, I have been to the store where they filmed the portion where the tourists want to take photos of the Amish!
7:24 PM
DD4 said…
WITNESS is one of my favorite movies, and I also love the music during the barn raising. What about the burial in the silo storing corn? It gets me everytime I watch it.
By the way, I have been to the store where they filmed the portion where the tourists want to take photos of the Amish!
7:25 PM
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