Witness (1985)

Unusual and striking thriller directed by Peter Weir. A child from an Amish community witnesses a murder that Philadelphia detective John Book (Harrison Ford) is assigned to investigate. When it turns out that the Chief of Police is in on the crime, Book goes into hiding among the Amish people he now has to protect. There, he meets a young widow (Kelly McGillis), who he begins to fall for, and he starts to understand her very different way of life. 

The film brilliantly balances a standard thriller with a full-on study of another culture within the USA. It does this with real empathy. There’s a lengthy sequence in which you see a traditional “barn raising”, a custom demonstrating how the community chooses to work collectively to assist its members. 

Ford is his usual charming self, effortlessly watchable as ever, but Kelly McGillis (later in the woeful Top Gun) is the real revelation. She manages to seem simultaneously innocent, naive, frightened and smoulderingly passionate. Her very expressive face conveys so much. There’s a hugely romantic scene in which she and Ford dance to Sam Cooke’s “(What a) Wonderful World”. It expresses her joy, delight and nervousness so well. 

There’s also a timeless quality to the film (it doesn’t seem “1980s” at all) that means it holds up extremely well today. 

Ultimately, it’s touching and even profound. A treasure.