Delayed Reaction: Witness

The Pitch: Can Harrison Ford pass as Amish?

After an Amish boy witnesses a murder that would expose corruption at the highest levels of the police department, a detective goes into hiding in the boy's Amish community to keep him safe.

Harrison Ford is a great example of why I need not get worked up every year when looking at Oscar snubs. In his early years, Ford had small parts in Best Picture nominees American Graffiti and The Conversation. His breakout role was in Star Wars (a Best Picture nominee). The movie that solidified him as a star was Raiders of the Lost Ark (another Best Picture nominee). He starred in the SciFi classic, Blade Runner. Then there's that supporting role in Working Girl (You guessed it: a Best Picture nominee). As direct penance for passing on Rain Man, he starred in the amnesia drama Regarding Henry. No award attention with that one; a bit too transparently Oscar-baity. The Fugitive managed to be an unlikely Best Picture nominee (and netted Tommy Lee Jones his lone Oscar). Things calmed down for the next decade, even though he made hits out of Jack Ryan movies and honorary Jack Ryan movie Air Force One. What Lies Beneath became the kind of thriller hit that would've surprised no one had it snuck in a few Oscar nominations (think: Gone Girl). Since 2010, he's collected the kind of "old man roles" that have netted contemporaries Supporting Actor Oscar nominations, be it in original movies like Extraordinary Measures and 42 or "Sylvester Stallone in Creed"-style returns like The Force Awakens and Blade Runner 2049. Ford's career is marked not only by iconic roles, but by being in films that he helped elevate to Oscar attention despite genre trappings. Despite all this, the man only has one Oscar nomination to his name. And that's for being in the crime movie, Witness.

In fact, Witness pulled in 8 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Lead Actor, Director, Original Screenplay, and Editing. I really liked Witness, but I there's not much in my mind separating it from the likes of The Client (1 Oscar nomination) or A Time To Kill (0 Oscar nominations). Really, the story is functionally the same as Kindergarten Cop. And it's not like the 80s were just a hot time for crime movies with the Oscar voters. Other than Witness, I could only find The Verdict (more of a courtroom drama), The Untouchables (no Best Picture nomination), and Mississippi Burning (more of a race drama) as other examples that got love from voters. And Witness still beat them all in nominations.

The Oscars make no sense when you really break them down. Rating someone's career only by Oscar attention is a fool's errand.

So sorry about that rant. If I get going about Oscar history inconsistency, I'm likely to go on for a while. Part of the reason I let that go on for so long is because there isn't much to say about Witness. It's a good movie. Harrison Ford movie-stars all over the movie. He has great chemistry with Kelly McGillis. Seeing Viggo Mortensen so young is vaguely unsettling. The Amish setting is well used. The movie works hard to treat the community with respect. This was undone by the fact that "Amish Paradise" was playing in my head the whole time. This is a good movie that was released in the 80s, not a good 80s movie.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend