{"id":27344,"date":"2023-11-02T01:36:55","date_gmt":"2023-11-02T08:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=27344"},"modified":"2023-11-02T01:36:55","modified_gmt":"2023-11-02T08:36:55","slug":"blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review-witness-1985","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=27344","title":{"rendered":"Blasts from the Past! Blu-ray Review: WITNESS (1985)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This Arrow Video \u201cLimited Edition\u201d Blu-ray is currently available for purchase. A 4K Ultra HD “Limited Edition” will be available next week.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As a child, I was taken to the movies every week by my\nparents. Often, I went in cold, not knowing anything about what I was about to\nsee. One of the films I distinctly remember watching was Witness<\/em>. Star\nHarrison Ford was familiar to me from the Star Wars<\/em> and Indiana Jones<\/em>\nfranchises, but this picture immediately struck me as being different. It was a\nsmaller, more serious effort set mostly on a picturesque farm among the Amish\ncommunity of Pennsylvania. Despite being, well, quiet and different tonally\nfrom his other works, it was incredibly compelling to me, even as a child (this\nmay have also had something to do with the fact that a young person was\nfeatured prominently in the story). In fact, if memory serves the entire\naudience seemed completely engaged in the story and the events unfolding\nonscreen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In general, the film managed to impress both critics and\naudiences, eventually earning Oscar nominations and winning two trophies (for\nBest Original Screenplay and Best Editing). Now, Arrow Video has given the\nmovie a spiffy upgrade. The new transfer and picture look spotless on both the\n4K Ultra HD release and the Blu-ray edition. Both also come with the\nexceptional bonuses from the previous 20th<\/sup> anniversary DVD, along\nwith a new and compelling film historian commentary track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those who haven\u2019t seen the picture, the story begins\nwhen Amish widow Rachel (Kelly McGillis) decides to take a trip with her son\nSamuel (Lukas Haas) from Lancaster, Pennsylvania to Philadelphia to visit\nrelatives. While stopping in the restroom, the young boy witnesses the murder\nof an undercover cop by two fellow officers. Detective John Book (Harrison\nFord) and partner Elton Carver (Brent Jennings) arrive on the scene to conduct\nthe investigation. It quickly becomes clear that fellow officers were involved\nin the slaying. The bad guys target witness Samuel and after trying to get the\nmother and son to safety, Book is wounded. The group return to Lancaster, where\nthe hero recovers and hides out, immersing himself in Amish culture. As an\nattraction forms between himself and Rachel, the villains slowly close in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The movie is sharply written and features gorgeous\nphotography of the Pennsylvania countryside and its Amish community. But\nanother major highlight is the exceptional cast. This was an early dramatic\nturn for Ford and he takes full advantage of it, emphasizing his character\u2019s\ninner turmoil as he attempts to adapt to a completely rural and technology free\nworld. Ford\u2019s lead must also act as a surrogate father\/protector to Samuel and\nstruggle with his feelings towards Rachel. Both he and the widow seem aware that\nany sort of relationship would be doomed, and their attraction leading to a\ngreat deal of romantic tension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Amazingly, all of these issues are conveyed largely through\nthe eyes of the characters, rather than direct discussion. Today, we rarely see\nfilms that don\u2019t explicitly state their themes out loud in dialogue. It\u2019s\nwonderful to see a story told so perfectly through glances and looks between\nthe cast. And because we care so much about these characters, when the action\ndoes arrive it is incredibly tense, not to mention uniquely captured (this\nincludes the way in which a couple of the persons meet their sudden end).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Witness<\/em> is a superb film and one that holds up\nremarkably well after nearly 40 years. The film\u2019s subject is sensitively\nhandled and doesn\u2019t exploit or make fun of the Amish community. A great deal of\nthe credit for its success should go to Australian director Peter Weir. Having\nearlier come off the arthouse classic Picnic at Hanging Rock<\/em> and the\naward-winning political thriller The Year of Living Dangerously<\/em>, his\ntake on the screenplay is virtually perfect. According to reports, Weir found\nthe script overwritten and chopped out pages of conversation to focus on the\nperformers and their contemplative reactions to events, rather than using blunt\ntechniques. This method works wonders and helps the movie stand out among its\ncontemporaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As mentioned, the 4K image quality is remarkable. The film\nhas never looked this clean before. The lighting is painterly at times and the\npresentation presents a lot of natural light through windows and candles being\nused, all to accurately convey the simple Amish lifestyle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Additionally, the extras included are amazing. There\u2019s an\nexcellent visual essay feature that goes into Weir\u2019s use of performance to\nconvey meaning and emotion. Critic Staci Layne Wilson does an excellent job of\nshowing examples of silence being used to maximum effect and praising the film\nand its performances as stronger than the movies that ended up taking home\nAcademy Awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s an excellent new interview with Australian\ncinematographer John Seale who shares his memories of working on the project.\nThis was both he and Weir\u2019s first American film and he details his nervousness\nat the beginning of the shoot. He notes how the director allayed his fears by\ntelling him that it was still an Australian movie, just that the cast and crew\njust happened to have funny accents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Additionally, there is also an archived interview with Weir\nhimself who talks about his filmmaking process. This and the hour-long\nfive-part archival documentary (that appeared on the 2004 DVD) are wonderful.\nThe doc includes Weir telling an interesting history of his involvement in the\nmovie. As he explains, he was readying production on The Mosquito Coast<\/em>\nwhen financing fell through and Weir decided to take director-for-hire work.\nAfter signing on, he had only 8 weeks to rework the script, cast supporting\nroles and scout locations (a director\u2019s strike was looming in Hollywood at the\ntime and the producer\u2019s needed him to start shooting as soon as possible).There\nare plenty of wonderful tales from all involved, including supporting cast\nmembers like Viggo Mortensen (this picture marked his first onscreen role).\nIt\u2019s full of incredible tidbits and memories about the shoot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new film historian commentary track adds even more\ndetails about the movie and its long journey to the screen. Apparently, the\nconcept started as a TV movie script in the early 1970s and was later rewritten\nas TV episodes for established television shows before being written up as a\nfeature. The first version had a reversed scenario, focusing on an Amish man\nleaving Lancaster to live in a Philadelphia tenement, encountering unusual\nneighbors and crime in the city. He details how scared the studio was by Weir\u2019s\nattempts to eliminate exposition (particularly during the denouement with Book\nand Rachel). That is, at least until they saw the finished film. Curiously, the\nfilm didn\u2019t have a title for the longest time and the unknown studio employee\nwho suggested Witness <\/em>earned themselves $400 dollars. He also describes\nthe unusual release pattern (it opened in the normally quiet month of February)\nas well as the response to the film critically and commercially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Additionally, there\u2019s an archived interview with Harrison\nFord from 1985 in which he shares his enthusiasm for the project while enduring\nunnecessary questions about upcoming higher-profile pictures and the box office\nfailure of Blade Runner<\/em>. There is also an interesting deleted scene that\nwas included in the TV broadcast version, EPK featurettes and plenty of\npublicity materials. And the \u201cLimited Editions\u201d come with a 60-page booklet\nwith more writing and essays on the film, as well as a fold-out double-sided\nposter with newly commissioned and original art for the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Witness<\/em> is a wonderful film that hasn\u2019t lost its\nvitality over the years and Arrow Video\u2019s 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray releases of\nthe film are exceptional. You really can\u2019t go wrong with this title or either\n\u201cLimited Edition\u201d disc. It is every bit as strong as it was when I first viewed\nit. This title is among the best of the decade and is worth anyone\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Arrow Video \u201cLimited Edition\u201d Blu-ray is currently available for purchase. A 4K Ultra HD “Limited Edition” will be available next week. As a child, I was taken to the movies every week by my parents. Often, I went in cold, not knowing anything about what I was about to see. One of the films […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":27349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[117,300,1263,1264,1832,1836,3067,3473,6251,8908,11567,12782,15705,15904,16008,22825,23782,24390,24391],"class_list":["post-27344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-117","tag-4k-ultra-hd","tag-amish","tag-amish-community","tag-arrow","tag-arrow-video","tag-blu-ray","tag-brent-jennings","tag-drama","tag-harrison-ford","tag-kelly-mcgillis","tag-lukas-haas","tag-paramount","tag-pennsylvania","tag-peter-weir","tag-thriller","tag-viggo-mortensen","tag-witness","tag-witness-blu-ray-review"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27344\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}