Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10423 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-10-02
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, French, German
• Subtitled in: Croatian, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
• Dubbed in: Czech, Italian, Polish, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 108 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
When Samuel (Lukas Haas), a young Amish boy travelling with his mother Rachel (Kelly McGillis), witnesses the murder of a police officer in a public restroom, he and his mother become the temporary wards of John Book (Harrison Ford), a detective who's been assigned to solve the crime. After suspect line-ups and mug-shot books yield nothing, Samuel, in the most memorable scene of the film, recognizes the murderer as a narcotics agent whose picture he sees in the precinct. Once Book realizes that the police chief is in on it, too, he whisks Samuel and Rachel back home to Amish country, where he himself goes into hiding as a plain Amish man. Witness' juxtaposition of the life of the Amish and the violence of inner-city police corruption work surprisingly well for the story, and Kelly McGillis as the falling in love widow gives an almost perfect performance. Directed by Peter Weir, the film is extremely successful in drawing the viewer into its world and, accordingly, is immensely entertaining. The only thing that mars its polish is the one-dimensional, almost cartoonish handling of the upper-echelon police corruption--a subtler, more realistic treatment of this aspect of the story would have rendered the film near perfect. --James McGrath, Amazon.com

Special Features
1.78 Anamorphic Wide Screen
DVD 9
Czech\French\German\Italian\Polish\Spanish
English
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English\Dolby Digital Surround Czech French German Italian\Dolby Digital Mono Polish Spanish
Dolby Digital 5.1
Dolby Digital Surround
Dolby Digital Mono
Theatrical Trailer
Interview With Peter Weir
Croatian\Danish\Dutch\English\Finnish\French\German\Hungarian\Italian\Norwegian\Portuguese\Spanish\Swedish\Turkish

Synopsis
After an Amish boy witnesses police corruption in a Philadelphia train station, a hardened cop takes him and his widowed mother back to their quiet Amish community. There, hiding from his crooked superiors, he is witness to a simpler and seductively innocent world. Academy Award Nominations: 8, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor--Harrison Ford. Academy Awards: Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing.

Customer Reviews

Slow, un-moving and positively boring in parts!!!
I'd never seen this film before, I purchsed this as part of a triple pack together with Clear and present danger and K-19: The Widowmaker, I watched all of these trailers and decided that 2 were well worth buying (I was correct after viewing them), but this film looked like it was ok and that was about it.

There simply is not enough going on in this film to engage you for the entire 1 hour 45 minutes running time, several times I had to fast forward over some scenes as all that was going on was music playing with very little going on.

The acting from everyone was poor, Harrison Ford gave the best performance, but that's really not saying much, this film could and should have been alot better than it is, the worst thing is that the bad guys simply were not particularly bad, menacing or believable, there's only one of them that I recognise, indeed only 3 members of the entire cast for that matter, after these performances it's not hard to see why!!

From Star Wars to The Fugitive to Air Force One I've always enjoyed Harrison Ford, he's a good solid actor, but he should have avoided this one like the plague, I rarely buy films from the 80's or before, this kind of film is the very reason why.

Timeless classic
Slow moving, but fabulous film, giving wonderful insight into Amish community life. The plot revolves around protecting a young Amish boy who witnessed the murder of an undercover cop by another cop.
A few 'f' words here and one instance of nudity, but mild by today's standards. Generally a thrilling warm movie that should be appreciated by all the family.

Meditative, beautiful - near perfect
Like many other Peter Weir films (see Truman Show and Mosquito Coast, for example), Witness juxtaposes two very different worlds, highlighting both the value and the shortcomings of each. In this slow, meditative film, Book's immersion into the Amish world is beautifully handled, mirroring the viewer's own immersion. The love story, for once, rings true and is extremely touching. There are numerous memorable scenes - the throat-cutting scene in the public toilet near the beginning, Samuel recognising the perpetrator as the narcotics officer in the police station, the barn-building scene, and the death-by-corn scene near the end. A beautiful, near-perfect film.