Harrison Ford, Witness

My Favorite Scene: Witness (1985) “Don’t Mess With the Amish”

For all the memorable characters he’s created over his career, Harrison Ford has only one Oscar nomination and it’s not for Han Solo, Indiana Jones, Dr. Richard Kimble or Jack Ryan.  His only nomination came from 1985’s Witness, directed by one of the most underrated directors of the 80’s and 90’s: Peter Weir.


Harrison Ford, Witness

In the film, Ford plays a cop who must go undercover with the Amish in order to protect a young child (Lukas Haas) who witnessed a murder.  The film is one of the best of Ford’s career.  Peter Weir has a talent for taking actors who get complacent in one type of role and bringing something hidden out of them (as he did for Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society and Jim Carrey in The Truman Show).  Ford is not exactly Amish in temperment, so on a trip to town, the locals, who are accustomed to teasing the group without reaction, gets a handful from Ford.  He’s not really in a “turn the other cheek” place at this moment.  But then, Ford usually isn’t.

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3 thoughts on “My Favorite Scene: Witness (1985) “Don’t Mess With the Amish””


  1. Ford is the man. My favorite non-Lucasfilm movie of his is The Fugitive, but Witness is close. I love Peter Weir too. The Truman Show has got to be one of the most prescient movies ever made, and I never cease to be amazed by the light touch that Weir brought to what should have been one of the darkest, most paranoid movies of all time.

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    1. Peter Weir is just flat-out a director who never got any recognition and his resume is impressive. The Truman Show was funny and smart when released, but it kind of creeps me out now because it may be the most , as you well put it, prescient film of the last 25 years. Science faction.


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      1. An inversion of Orwell’s 1984. Instead of everyone being watched, everyone doing the watching. When I first saw it I flipped out. There were people saying it was overhyped and overpraised, but I thought it was brilliant. I haven’t watched it since then, though. Disturbing indeed.

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