Witness Blu Ray Review (Paramount)

Witness is a 1985 thriller directed by Peter Weir (Master and Commander, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Dead Poets Society, Fearless, The Truman Show, and The Last Wave). It was written by William Kelley (Gunsmoke, Kung Fu, How the West were Won, and Fantasy Island) and Earl W. Wallace (If These Walls Could Talk, Curse of the Black Widow, Gunsmoke, and She’s in the Army Now). The budget was $12 million and it grossed $68+ million at the box office worldwide!!!! 8 year old Samuel (played by: Lukas Haas from Brick, Inception, The Revenant, Mars Attacks, and Lady in White) and his mother Rachel (played by: Kelly McGillis from Top Gun, The Accused, We Are What We Are, Stake Land, The Innkeepers, At First Sight, and The Babe) are traveling to Baltimore after his father died. The young boy witnesses a gruesome murder in Philadelphia while trying to go on their trip. Police detective John Book (played by: Harrison Ford from the Star Wars franchise, the Indiana Jones franchise, Jack Ryan franchise, The Fugitive, Blade Runner, and Air Force One) is assigned to investigate the murder, the victim was an undercover cop. Book ends up in trouble when the killers (played by: Josef Sommer from Dirty Harry, Angus MacInnes from Hellbound: Hellraiser II, and Danny Glover from the Lethal Weapon franchise) find out about his involvement. He decides to hide out in the Amish community with his witness and his worried mother. He starts to adapt to the lifestyle of the Amish. Book ends up getting closer than he thought to the witness’s mother Rachel which is forbidden by the Amish community. That’s not his only problem, the dangerous killers have tracked him & his witness down. Can he protect the Amish from what he brought into their isolated home???? Witness is the first feature that I remember seeing back in the day that had something to do with the Amish. Witness is considered a thriller but do not expect it to be a non stop suspense driven film because it’s mainly only that during the beginning and the end here. It’s more of a drama, a little romance, and basically about a man who changes his life after a traumatic experience with some corrupt cops thrown in. This is one of Harrison Ford’s greatest performances in his entire career. John Book is a fantastic lead role for the iconic actor. Kelly McGillis is fantastic as the widow that’s curious about the outsider in her community and she starts to break away for her strict rules for the Amish life. She looks amazing in Witness and if you are a fan of her then you can’t miss her in this one. The chemistry between Ford and McGillis is very natural and the tension keeps building up between them until it explodes. Witness has more than a few familiar faces here which includes Josef Sommer, Lukas Haas, Danny Glover, Angus MacInnes, Jan Rubes (D2: The Mighty Ducks), Alexander Godunov (Die Hard), Patti LuPone (OZ), and Viggo Mortensen (Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III). This is a nice time capsule into the 90’s, it brings back to those times. Director Peter Weir honestly can work on any genre and it always ends up at a high quality, this one is no different. Everything about this production is very impressive. Witness still has some pretty good replay value after all these years. It’s a solid mix of suspense, drama, and romance. It has a little bit of everything for everyone here. RECOMMENDED!!!! Let’s discuss this high definition presentation from Paramount Pictures! This 1080p (1.78:1) transfer is a nice improvement compared to the last time that I seen this 80’s feature during the early DVD days. Just putting it out there that it has a brand new 4K and Arrow Video release so that’s definitely the best option for this thriller but if you don’t want to spend a lot then this budget M.O.D (Professional BD-R) release direct from the studio might be a better choice for you. It has a few different audio options which includes English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1, German: Dolby Digital 2.0, Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, French: Dolby Digital 2.0, Italian: Dolby Digital 2.0, Japanese: Dolby Digital 2.0, and Portuguese: Dolby Digital 2.0.tracks for the disc. All of the dialogue is crystal clear, the suspense is elevated, and the music has a nice boost to it. It has English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Cantonese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Russian, Slovak, Swedish, Turkish, and English SDH subtitles. Paramount has been testing the waters for their back catalog titles with smaller M.O.D (BD-R) versions for a more affordable HD option for collectors. Unfortunately, there’s no extras included on this home video release so hold on to your old DVD or whatever other version that you previously had. It’s available everywhere right now including on Movie Zyng.com, CHECK IT OUT!!!!