Witness was made at the very peak of Harrison Ford's popularity. He had just starred in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, the previous year and Star Wars: Episode VI-Return of the Jedi, the year before that. With Witness, he was obviously looking for a change of pace from the big, loud, in your face action genre.

Ford plays a Philadelphia police detective, John Book, investigating the murder of a fellow cop. The only witness is a young Amish boy, Samuel, who identifies the killer as yet another policeman. After being shot by the suspect, Book takes Samuel and his mother, Rachel, back to their rural farm. Too hurt to return to the city, Book ends up staying on the farm to heal.

Although the movie is book ended by a few action scenes, Witness, at it's heart, is a love story. Rachel's husband recently died and a neighboring Amish man, Daniel, has an eye for her. She, though, is fascinating and very much taken by Book. Their love is forbidden as Book is seen by the Amish as someone outside their order. Rachel and Book's feelings for each other are obvious but subtle. Each moves cautiously around the other like someone building a house of cards, afraid that if they make a sudden move it will all fall apart. They stare constantly at each other. Even when they do not speak you can tell they are pining for each other. The symbolism of Rachel removing her bonnet, near the end, speaks far more than any dialogue could.

As wonderful as the romance plays out, it unfortunately provides the movie's biggest plot hole. After Book heals up he calls his partner, who suggests that they go to the FBI or contact a reporter who would publish the story. Either piece of action would have saved the mother and her boy. Book decides instead to do nothing. Well actually, he does do something. He milks a cow, goes to a barn raising and builds a bird house. People are out there trying to find and kill him, Rachel and Samuel and he's acting like a school kid spending the summer on a farm.

Although it makes little sense for him to stick around, the movie's best moments do come from Ford interacting with the Amish people. My favorite such scene is when a tourist wants to take his picture, thinking he is Amish, and Ford says to her, "Listen, lady, you take my picture and I'm going to rip off your brassiere and strangle you with it."

Besides Ford, Witness has a very memorable cast. McGillis was the "it" girl of the moment. The following year she would score big again in Top Gun, opposite Tom Cruise. Danny Glover was having a great year. The Color Purple came out in 1985 as well. Making his film debut was Mortensen, although his part calls for little more than to just look at Ford. Godunov only made a few films. His other notable part was in Die Hard. However, he made headlines for his personal life. He was a ballet dancer who was fired by one time friend Mikhail Barysnikov. He escaped Communist Russia by asking for political asylum in the U.S. when his troupe was on tour. His wife was not so lucky and was left in Russia. Godunov died in 1995 at 46.

With that kind of a cast, it is amazing that Haas, in fact, steals the entire picture. At nine years of age he conveys the most sincere performance. From casually showing Book the farm, to witnessing the murder, it is Haas who truly draws you into this world of clashing cultures. Weir lingers on his actors faces. He lets their expressions control the scenes and not the dialogue. With Haas, and his big dark eyes, he had the perfect child actor for the role.

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