7.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
A young Amish boy, visiting Philadelphia with his widowed mother, witnesses a murder. When the detective on the case discovers a police cover up, he realizes his, the boy's and the mother's lives are in jeopardy. He hides out in Amish country, living amongst the community and having to abide by their peaceful customs. Things get more complicated when he falls in love with the young widow. But, soon the idyllic life is shattered when the villains discover his whereabouts.
Starring: Harrison Ford, Kelly McGillis, Josef Sommer, Lukas Haas, Jan RubesThriller | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Romance | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: LPCM 2.0
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 5.0 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
It may not exactly rise to the level of "where were you on November 22, 1963?" or "where were you on September 11, 2001?", but "where were you circa 2:20 p.m. EST on October 4, 2023?" might be met with not just a shock of recognition but also with a bit of a sigh by some Amish folk in particular, since according to several (maybe just slightly comical) news reports, at least a few Amish men have evidently been formally "shunned" by their communities when their possession of cellphones was discovered when the National Emergency Alert Test was conducted by FEMA a couple of weeks ago (as this review is being written), and their phones buzzed or chirped or somehow otherwise revealed their existence. Kind of interestingly in that regard, cellphones weren't really a "thing" yet when Witness was made in 1985, and so undercover cop Detective Sergeant John Book (Harrison Ford), who has been holed up in an Amish community, actually has to journey to find a real vestige of a bygone age, a pay phone (!), in order to contact his precinct, which actually turns out to be a bad idea in any case. Witness is an extremely well remembered film for any number of reasons, but its rather fascinating portrait of a "fish out of water", in this case an urban policeman having to get by in an Amish community, gives this story a distinctive focus and some absolutely wonderful moments of interplay between stars Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis and Lukas Hass as Amish mother and son Rachel and Samuel Lapp, who find themselves unwillingly bound up in the investigation of the brutal killing of another undercover cop. Witness has frequently been called a "neo-noir", and if there are certainly hints of that genre suffusing the piece, I'd argue that while there are substantial differences, it's really more of a Hitchcockian enterprise in that it focuses on a quasi-romantic relationship which is unfolding in the context of some very perilous situations, kind of like North by Northwest.
Witness is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Arrow offers the same insert booklet for both its standalone 1080 and 4K UHD releases, which offers the following information on the transfer:
Witness is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio with 5.1 and 2.0 stereo audio. The film is presented in UHD in 4K (2160p) in HDR10 and Dolby Vision, while the film is presetned on Blu-ray in high definition (1080p). All feature masters were supplied by Paramount.I was a little surprised to see that neither of the previous releases of this film on Blu-ray by Paramount have been covered by the site as of the writing of this review, and so I'm unfortunately unable to compare this with any other presentations (similarly, I can't authoritatively state which supplements may have been ported over to this release from prior releases). The bulk of this transfer looks very good indeed, especially in some of the sun drenched outdoor material once John gets to Amish country. There are some rather wide variances in suffusion, however, and some of the opening material in particular can look a little on the wan side, something that can recur intermittently later in the film, especially in some interior scenes. There are some lower light moments that look pretty rough (see screenshot 19) and rather interestingly, while there's a nicely healthy grain field in the presentation, certain isolated scenes like some featuring the three bad cops can appear just slightly filtered, though grain is discernible at least in the 4K UHD version of these scenes. Detail levels are typically excellent. There's no appreciable age related wear and tear that I noted.
Witness features three audio options (aside from the commentary track), DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, and two LPCM 2.0 choices, one labeled as a Home Video Mix and the other as the Theatrical Dolby Stereo version, which may be somewhat funny now that it's being offered in LPCM. I frankly didn't notice much if any differences between the two stereo options, but the 5.1 track definitely opens up both the rather nice use of ambient environmental sounds in the Amish countryside material in particular, as well as Maurice Jarre's score. That said, this isn't the "showiest" surround track ever produced, and a lot of the material tends to be anchored toward the front end of the soundstage. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.
It had been years since I had last seen Witness, and I have no problem confessing that I had a rather large lump in my throat as the film came to a close this time. This is an immensely involving story that has so much unstated human emotion running through it that the actual thriller elements may almost seem like hangers on at times. Arrow provides a release with generally solid technical merits and some really outstanding supplements. Highly recommended.
1985
1985
Limited Edition
1985
Standard Edition
1985
Standard Edition
1985
1936
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Warner Archive Collection
1932
1994
1954
Warner Archive Collection
1950
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Warner Archive Collection
1947
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Limited Edition
1980
1981
Limited Edition
2002
4K Restoration
1973
Includes They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! and The Organization on standard BD
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Limited Edition to 3000
1987