Witness on PAL Laserdisc

• Cat. No: PLFEB 34871
• Cert: 15
• Running time: 108 minutes
• Sides: (CLV)
• Year: 1985
• Pressing: UK, 1996
• Chaptered: YES
• Sound: Dolby Surround
• Widescreen: 1.85:1
• Price: £19.99

Director:

Peter Weir

Starring:

Harrison Ford
Kelly McGillis
Lukas Haas
Danny Glover

This first American movie by Australian director Weir was also Ford’s first attempt at serious acting (for all those who think the star didn’t have his work cut out on the Indiana Jones or Star Wars films which previously made his name).

The piece shifts constantly between a generally unremarkable gun-laden American cop thriller on the one hand and an utterly unique portrait of Amish life on the other – so unique, in fact, that most people who have heard of the Amish have done so through this film. The simple respect afforded the Amish – an extreme post-Anabaptist, post-Mennonite Christian tradition that abhors post-industrial material in favour of a pre-industrial community lifestyle – is quite extraordinary given Hollywood’s usual smack-in-the-face/pat-on-the-head attitude towards Christianity.

Here, Weir just notes and observes, making no judgements one way or the other, leaving us to make up our own minds. What Weir does do, though – and to remarkable effect – is juxtapose this clean and idealistic world with a foul-mouthed urban universe of corrupt cops.

Ford, perfectly cast as good guy detective John Book in this literal lavatory of a world, gives one of the most genuinely affecting performances of his career, with then bit-player Danny Glover providing strong support as the villain. Two more major casting coups come in the form of Kelly McGillis as an Amish widow (Witness, like The Third Man, opens with that most religious of rituals, a funeral) and Lukas Haas as her eight year old son.

The plot sends rural, pious mother and son to the big city, where, waiting for a connection at a railroad station, son wanders off and (in a truly terrifying scene) witnesses Glover and associate bag a man’s head and slit his throat. John Book, questioning the kid, is forced to disappear when events turn nasty and finds himself hiding out among the Amish wearing their clothes. The perpetrators, meanwhile, will stop at nothing to get their hands on the boy.

While laserdisc is obviously the best way to see this film, Weir employs a lot of close-ups of faces that perhaps work better as a print enlarged on a massive cinema screen. Even though much of the murky, oil-lamp lighting of the Amish scenes would be near unwatchable on VHS, and Pioneer’s typically excellent transfer ensures the images are equal to their task here, the unexceptional cinematography does little to show off the laserdisc medium.

There are welcome exceptions to this – both the toilet murder scene and the Amish barn raising scene are well served by LD. Widescreen is always commendable, but while this is the best way to see Witness, it isn’t one of those movies where information constantly appears at one or the other extreme edges of the screen.

Use of Dolby Surround isn’t much to write home about, either. Chaptering varies, with parts of the disc having all the chapter stops you’d wish, while other sections run somewhat irritatingly for up to fifteen minutes without any breaks.

For admirers of the movie itself, its director or any of the three leads, this disc clearly stands head and shoulders above any inferior VHS version. It’s unlikely, however, to make it on to most LD buyers’ lists of essential purchases.