A young Amish boy witnesses a man being murdered. He is brought to a police station to identify one of the 2 men he saw murder that guy. Detective John Book is in charge of the investigation. The Amish looks at all the honors at the police station and he sees a newspaper clipping with a picture of a narcotics officer, James McFee. The Amish boy recognizes him as one of the killers. He shows Book and Book remembers McFee was in charge of chemicals that went missing from a crime seen four years ago. Book informs Chief Paul Schaeffer and after that McFee tries to kill Book. Turns out the Chief has something to do with the investigation as well. Book drives the Amish boy and his mother, Rachel Lapp, back to their home village. Book can’t go back home because McFee and Chief Schaeffer are trying to kill him, so he hides out with the Amish community for a little.
Blaine: Producer Edward S. Feldman thought the idea about a cop hiding out with the Amish was an original idea when he read the script. At the time the script was 184 pages. The screenwriters had to rewrite it down to 124 pages in order for a studio to say yes. Paramount Pictures agreed to finance the movie. Edward had Harrison Ford in mind for the lead character, John Book. So he sent the script to Harrison’s agent and it only took 4 days for Harrison to say “I’m in.” Harrison Ford thought it would be interesting to play a different character like John Book and he thought it was interesting to show the modern world and the Amish world. It also had a love story that was complicated and difficult. All of that interested Harrison.
Edward and his wife saw a film called “The Year of Living Dangerously” and after it was over, Edward demanded to know who the director was and he found out it was Peter Weir. Peter Weir was interested in “Witness” because he thought it would be nice to show a movie about Amish people because a lot of people don’t know that much about them. He also liked the idea of showing two places, Philadelphia and the Amish village, that are different from each other. Harrison Ford got even more interested in the project after finding out that Peter Weir was suggested to direct it because he saw “The Year of Living Dangerously” too and was impressed with Peter’s work. The thing was Peter was developing another movie for Warner Bros., so they had to find another director. They weren’t having any luck in finding someone who would want to direct “Witness” because they all thought it was just another cop movie. Six months had passed and Peter said he’ll do “Witness” after the project he was working on got canceled. Harrison Ford was still open to “Witness” and made sure his schedule was clear.
Peter Weir had done a lot of Australian movies because he is from Australia. He had never done an American film before. The first thing Peter wanted to do after signing on to the project was meet Harrison Ford. Peter wasn’t sure if it would be difficult to work with a huge star like Harrison and he wasn’t sure if they would get along because if they didn’t he would not do the movie. Good news was they got along just fine. Peter and Harrison had 8 weeks to prepare themselves and research everything they could for the movie before principal photography began. Harrison Ford did a lot of research on what life is like for a policeman and he did that by visiting the Philadelphia police department while Peter Weir researched the Amish community.
One of the challenging things for Peter was to find the right actress to play Rachel. Rachel Lapp had to be someone in her 20s, look attractive, but also be a responsible mother. Peter tested several women out, but they didn’t have what he was looking for until he met Kelly McGillis. Kelly was working at a coffee shop at the time and she really wanted to be an actress. Peter tested the women out by having them put a bonnet on their head while saying a few lines. Kelly put the bonnet on and read some lines to Peter and he was so impressed that he knew Kelly was Rachel. Peter asked Kelly if she knew anything about the Amish and she lied by saying yes because she wanted the job. Peter was going to test Kelly again in a few days and she had to research Amish people fast.
Another challenge for Peter was to find the right person to play Daniel Hochleitner. “Witness” is a love story that the two characters, John Book and Rachel Lapp, have romantic feelings for each other, but they can not be together because he’s a hard cop who is living in present times and she is old fashioned and follows God’s rules. Daniel is supposed to be the other love interest who tries to impress and get close to Rachel. He’s more suitable for Rachel because he’s Amish too. In the end John Book leaves and Rachel is left with Daniel to have a life with. It’s a little disappointing that John and Rachel can’t be together, but it makes perfect sense why they can’t be together and they both accept that. Daniel had to be someone who would be acceptable to the audience. Casting director Dianne Crittenden had bumped into an old friend of her’s, Alexander Godunov, who was a Russian ballet dancer. Alexander had never acted before, but Dianne thought he was charming and she told Peter about him. His looks are what got him the part of Daniel.
Jan Rubes, who plays Eli Lapp, the old Amish man and is a member of Rachel’s family, was an opera singer from Toronto and he had never been in a movie before as well. “Witness” was Viggo Mortensen’s first movie and even though he was a beginner and hadn’t had much experience in acting still there was something about him that Peter liked. Viggo had a small part in “Witness” and he was only around for two days of shooting.
They rented a property near where the Amish community lives and the Amish people wanted the film crew banned from that place. They didn’t know what kind of movie they were making and they would watch them from a distance not having any support for the film. One of the main goals was for people not to think “Witness” was another movie starring Harrison Ford…..it was something new that gives a lesson on the Amish community.
Kelly McGillis had fun creating the character, Rachel Lapp, and as she was developing her she learned a lot of interesting things. Kelly moved in with an Amish widow and her seven kids before principal photography began so she could get the accent right. They lived on a farm and milked cows. Kelly studied everything about this widow. Kelly also was like a real mother to Lukas Haas, who plays her son in the film, while making “Witness”. Peter was really good to Lukas and knew how to explain things to him perfectly for how he should be acting in a scene. Peter would be a little hard on Lukas when it came to the scene where he witnesses the murder because he had to be terrified.
Harrison Ford had a few ideas for some scenes like when he is having dinner with the Amish family. Harrison wanted to reenact a coffee commercial he loved for that scene and he also chose the song he dances to with Rachel. Kelly didn’t like that dance scene because the weather was very hot and it was shot during the day. It was made to look like night in the movie, but it was really shot during the day. Kelly couldn’t understand why they couldn’t shoot that scene at night with a barn door opened, but back then she didn’t know anything about scheduling movies.
There’s a scene where these teenagers are picking on the Amish and Book gets rough on one of them by punching his stomach and breaking his nose. Book was supposed to be doing something worse in that scene, but Peter wanted it to be something smaller. So Book would only punch the kid two times and then kick him. The day they shot that scene, there were Amish people watching from a distance laughing. I love Harrison’s performance in that scene. What Book is feeling is anger and he’s upset and he needs to take it out on something and these teenagers are perfect. The reason why Book is upset is because he has just found out that his partner, Carter, was killed and he knows that Schaeffer is responsible. Schaeffer is nothing more than a dirty cop who’ll do anything to cover his ass and all of that pisses off Book.
John Seale was the cinematographer and like Peter he had never done an American film before. He was about to shoot three commercials before Peter called him up asking if he would do the cinematography for “Witness” and he informed him that Harrison Ford would star in it. John canceled the three commercials and decided to do “Witness” instead. John always prepares himself for the work he is going to be doing by going to all the locations they are going to be shooting at, making notes with a compass of where the sun will be at a certain time and where the light might fall through. He also looks through the script and thinks about how each scene will look. Peter and John went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art where they had a Vermeer exhibition. Peter told John that he wanted the movie to look like that 17th century Dutch Masters.
Peter decided that John Book and Rachel Lapp wouldn’t say anything to each other at the end. There was 2 pages of dialog in the script for that scene where they would express their feelings to each other in words and say to each other why they can not be together. Peter thought it would be better if they just stared at each other and express what they are feeling through the looks on their faces. It’s like they are communicating telepathically. The studio was worried that people wouldn’t understand what they are thinking, but Peter felt they would know. “Witness” was a great film for everyone to make because it was so unique and people’s careers had changed. Like I said Kelly McGillis was working at a Coffee shop at the time, but she achieved a career in acting thanks to “Witness”. “Witness" also proved that Harrison Ford can do drama films as well.
