SHERDOG MOVIE CLUB: Week 217 - Witness (1985)

[europe1]

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Here's a quick list of all movies watched by the SMC. Or if you prefer, here's a more detailed examination.

Our Directors
Peter Weir

Our Star
President James Marshall


Film Overview

Premise: When a young Amish boy is sole witness to a murder, policeman John Book goes into hiding in Amish country to protect him until the trial.

Budget: $12 million

Box Office: $68.7 million



Trivia
(courtesy of IMDB)
* In preparation for her role, Kelly McGillis lived with an actual Amish widow and her seven children for a while before filming began to get the speech cadence down and to observe the daily life of an Amish widowed mother.

* Rachel asks John, "You know carpentry?" He replies "A bit..." Harrison Ford was a carpenter before he became an actor.

* Although he once again plays a heroic man with a gun, this was the first starring role that broke Harrison Ford away from the science fiction and fantasy genres that made him famous, and gave him his first and only Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

* When shooting the murder in the men's room scene, Peter Weir claimed it was the most violent scene he'd ever filmed. Even today, he still thinks it was perhaps too violent. But he wanted to have an outrage over the violence that occurred before the eyes of an innocent Amish boy.

* Viggo Mortensen's feature film debut. He was offered the part in the film on the same day that he was offered to play a role in "Henry V" in Shakespeare in the Park in New York City.​

Members: @europe1 @SwampThing @MusterX @Scott Parker 27 @HTTR21 @Bullitt68 @Yotsuya @jei @HARRISON_3 @Bubzeh @the ambush @SalvadorAllende @moreorless87 @HenryFlower @Zer

 

[ufcfan4]

Wow- legit choice, fellas. I thought Harrison Ford was the coolest actor out there when I was a kid and made an effort to see a lot of his other movies after I got through Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogy.

Witness was one of the best. It was just a good story executed effectively. I had, in fact, forgotten that Weir was the director but that doesn’t surprise me. He is really, really good and it bums me out that we haven’t seen anything from him in the past decade.

the last film I recall him directing, The Way Back is very solid in its own right and I’d recommend it to you guys if you haven’t already seen it. It’s on Hulu.

Going to give Witness a rewatch for sure. Cheers.

 

[the ambush]

Witness (1985) - It has always been one of my personal favorites. The capable movie stars were there with Harrison Ford, Kelly McGillis, Josef Sommer, Viggo Mortensen and Danny Glover. Loved the beginning sequence with the little amish boy inadvertently seeing a murder. If not for more character screen time for McFee (Glover) I would have raised the grade to a 10 instead, he was more interesting than Schaeffer (Sommer). 9.5/10

 

[Scott Parker 27]

This flick, I think I had seen it years ago, God knows how high I was to sit through it. Sorry, this movie doesn't do it for me. Yes the the majority of the protagonists are Amish, but besides that the whole movie is pretty damn predictable imo. The death by corn was about the only fun part, not to mention we had to see Kelly mcgillis's awful boxeater cans. 3/10

 

[therealdope]

Went to see this movie in the theater when i was in high school.

Watched it again 2 years ago with my kids. My younger daughter knows all of the words to Amish Paradise so I tried to explain the "churnin' lots of butter, raise a barn on monday, soon I'll raise another" thing and it just didn't make sense to her until we watched witness.

 

[HARRISON_3]

Finally got around to watching this one during the crazy snowfall we had here. Seen it twice now, in fact.

I dug it.

Classic Harrison Ford and a great cast, IMO

I immediately recognized Fergie (Angus McGinnis) from Hellraiser 2, and Schaeffer (Josef Sommer) from The Family Man.

Never knew Lukas Haas was the young boy, and that he's been acting for so long.

Previously I just knew him from Inception.

Quality flick with some interesting trivia behind it as well.

 

[ufcfan4]

Finally got around to watching this one during the crazy snowfall we had here. Seen it twice now, in fact.

I dug it.

Classic Harrison Ford and a great cast, IMO

I immediately recognized Fergie (Angus McGinnis) from Hellraiser 2, and Schaeffer (Josef Sommer) from The Family Man.

Never knew Lukas Haas was the young boy, and that he's been acting for so long.

Previously I just knew him from Inception.

Quality flick with some interesting trivia behind it as well.

Glad you liked it. Really entertaining movie. And pretty damn intense too.

The one thing I have to wrap my mind around is the name John Book. While I know Book certainly can be surname, that name as the name of the protagonist just seems like a lazy day in the writers’ room.

 

[HARRISON_3]

The one thing I have to wrap my mind around is the name John Book. While I know Book certainly can be surname, that name as the name of the protagonist just seems like a lazy day in the writers’ room.

I thought the same thing, too.

Was trying to think of what movie/character that reminds me of, because I know I've seen that kind of lazy character name before.

But then I figured, it's so lazy or easy, that it has to work!

 

[ufcfan4]

I thought the same thing, too.

Was trying to think of what movie/character that reminds me of, because I know I've seen that kind of lazy character name before.

But then I figured, it's so lazy or easy, that it has to work!

haha

Fassbender had one of the greatest head scratchers of all time with his character Harry Hole in that thriller The Snowman a few years back.
but that was based on a novel so the screenwriters cant take responsibility for that one.

 

[HARRISON_3]

haha

Fassbender had one of the greatest head scratchers of all time with his character Harry Hole in that thriller The Snowman a few years back.
but that was based on a novel so the screenwriters cant take responsibility for that one.

Funny you should say that, because that's exactly who and what I was thinking of!