证人1985

Vis-à-vis the holy grail for every Hollywood plodding actor, the Oscar glory, quondam megastar Harrison Ford appears to be an anomaly in terms of ambition, compared with his next-generation male box office draws like Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt (all currently thrice-nominated for their acting chops without a win, although their odds seem to recede in recent years due to multiple reasons), he contentedly and consistently prefers receipts-proof studio productions than potential Oscar baits, so it is an interesting case that his as yet sole Oscar nomination is derived from Antipodean director Peter Weir’s first Hollywood foray, WITNESS, which grafts a boilerplate thriller template onto the rarely presented Amish minority dwelling in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and becomes a dark horse hit and unlikely Oscar contender with 8 nominations and two wins, does Ford ride on the coattail of its runaway success or is he really Oscar-worthy?

Before we even lay our eyes on Ford’s Philadelphia detective John Book, Weir masterfully opens the film with a pastoral, solemn Amish funeral to introduce widow Rachel Lapp (McGillis, in her breakthrough role) and her 8-year-old son Samuel (Lukas Haas, for this reviewer’s money, the cutest, most telegenic kid ever to melt your heart), then, right during his maiden trip to a big city, in the Philadelphia train station, Samuel inadvertently witness a murder in the men’s room, profuse blood is splattered in front of his innocent eyes, and he only avoids being caught by a hair’s breadth, what an extraordinary kid he is! Possessing such presence of mind, he should be plugging for Amish upbringing afterwards.

Ergo, here enters John Book, our diligent detective, whose life soon is imperiled by Samuel’s chance discovery of the assassin, which links the rotten core to his direct superior Chief Paul Schaeffer (Sommer, looks out of sorts in his anemic complexion), after surviving an ambush and driving Rachel and Samuel back to their home turf, a wounded John stays to recuperate, and begins to participate in Amish activities, inevitably mutual attraction sizzles between him and Rachel (ignited by a sensual, perspiring humming and dancing to the tunes of WONDERFUL WORLD), there are plenty time before Schaeffer and his lackeys can pinpoint his whereabout (a plot device seems only probable at that time), during which John impressively shows his carpentry skill (an in-joke because Ford was a carpenter before plunging into showbiz) in the annual barn-raising day, whacks a whippersnapper who taunts the pacifist Amish people, and finally unleashes his hitherto suppressed desire with a reciprocal Rachel, Weir is truly au fait with the stoked passion between a man and a woman, who are hampered by their different persuasions and uncertain futurity, and not only projected from a habitual male gaze angle.

A final showdown is respectfully left no Amish being hurt, after Book using ingenuity to dispatch two villains (a maniac Danny Glover included), the danger is defused by a testament to the truism “there is safety in numbers”, which lends the story a surprisingly realistic spin out of its well-worn genre tropes. Ford is as good as one can expect, conjuring up bonhomie, bona-fides and sex appeal with sufficient exigency and commitment, and so is Kelly McGillis, stalwartly sticks with her guns in fidelity to Rachel’s true feelings. A minor gripe is that Lukas Haas’ Samuel has been mostly left on the sideline when romance and cultural adaptation is put to the fore, a lost opportunity to mine into the psyche of a young kid relative to the concept of “innocence lost”, when Haas manifests a rare affecting brilliance onscreen. That said, WITNESS thrives as a consequential conglomerate of enclave infotainment and genre exercise, a shot in Weir’s arm and a boon to Harrison Ford’s awards-eluding acting facility.

referential entries: Weir’s THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY (1982, 6.4/10), THE TRUMAN SHOW (1998, 8.3/10), PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (1975, 8.9/10).

十年前在《环球银幕》上看这片子介绍的时候无论如何想不到十年后会在千里之外的一家网吧影院里独自静静地观赏它。

印第安纳·琼斯先生和他那顶名扬天下的旧毡帽，不知倾倒了世间多少佳人心，我却一直惦记着哈里森·福特这部据说是将案情与诗情融为一体的小电影（相对于所谓“大制作”）。

门诺派是新教的一个派别，信奉16世纪荷兰宗教改革家门诺·西蒙斯的教义，反对建立国教，拒绝参军作战，禁止使用武器或任何暴力。门诺派信徒长期居住在农村从事农业和手工业，穿戴十分朴素，生活方式简朴而传统。当导演把整日打打杀杀忙于除暴安良的费城警察布克投放到门诺人恍若隔世的居留地时，故事的走向可想而知，——主流文化与小众信仰的冲突在所难免，喧嚣城市与宁静村落的落差显而易见，当然还要照例撒上爱情的鸡精。

可当本片质朴的色彩与简练的构图到来之时，八十年代影像的那种淡定净纯，还是瞬间浸润了我的眼睛和心。

门诺男人们的黑外套、草编礼帽和女人们的深色长裙在今天看来，完全是时下盛行的极简主义做派，又朴素又高贵。新寡的年轻女子凯莉就坐在这涌动的人群中间，简爱般沉静、典雅。等亡夫的葬礼结束后，她将和儿子赛缪儿去外地的亲戚家散心。

上一时刻刚从家人那里得到一匹可爱玩具小马的赛缪儿，这一时刻就在火车站的洗手间内目睹了一起血腥的杀人案，并成为这起案件的唯一目击证人。

我期待的男一号，福特饰演的警察布克，终于出场了。

即使屏住呼吸，来自二十年前的福特还是让我的心小小地哆嗦了一下，无比年轻的面孔在眼前晃动着，直叫人不敢相认。

在遭到一场突袭之后，布克发现不单是赛缪儿刚刚指认出的黑人警察，原来他刚刚见过的上司也牵涉此案，总之黑幕重重。现在唯一能做的就是把这对母子连夜送回到门诺人的居留地，不再打搅他们的生活。

但不幸同时也万幸的是，因为失血太多，他自己也不得不暂避此地。

影片最动人的部分由此展开了。

凯莉用长老说的偏方为布克敷伤口，布克醒来后第一眼看到的竟是一圈紧挨着的男人们的脸，——门诺派长老们在他床边围成一圈，为他的脱险而长舒一口气。睡眼惺忪的布克却用那种掉进熊洞般的错愕眼神望着他们。

布克把车藏进了草料棚，每天凌晨四点半钟起来挤牛奶，饭前祷告，和其他的门诺农夫别无二致，如果不是因为还有把枪。

赛缪儿翻检抽屉，无意中发现了这把填满子弹的枪。当布克赶紧过去取出子弹时，不幸的是，刚好被凯莉撞见了。多亏布克反应快，乖乖把枪交给她保管，凯莉却像提溜一只死耗子似的把它提溜走。

暴力追杀的那一面被刻意轻描淡写，大量的篇幅倾注在布克与门诺人共处的生活上。

他身着不合身的凯莉亡夫的衣裤与门诺人一起劳作，终于有机会显摆自己深藏不露的木工活计，同时也要抵御来自凯莉仰慕者的嫉妒和族人的风言风语。

和凯莉之间的几场感情戏，从互相留意、草棚共舞，到旷野拥吻，处理得有条不紊。

和门诺男人们集体盖谷仓的那段，如同一场现代舞，是本片的华彩段落。

我最喜欢的是布克再次拿起枪的那一刻：

在厨房里忙碌的凯莉不假思索地打开橱柜，手伸进一堆日用家什里翻了翻，摸到了那把枪，交给目瞪口呆的布克。

还有子弹，布克说。凯莉递给他一个盐罐。

他揭开盖儿，心存疑虑地抓了一把出来，猛吹几下，露出了粘着盐粒儿的子弹。

哈哈哈，看到这里，我都快笑喷了。

二人生存环境与思维方式的差别就这样不动声色地呈现了。想必布克哭笑不得之后，对凯莉的爱意应该更浓郁了吧：在这个美丽的女人眼中，枪和子弹与面包、黄油、调味料没有什么不同，这里的人们只懂得自然和友善。

仅仅凭凯莉藏枪地点的精妙，我都觉得布克该留下来。

可惜他没留。这也是我对本片的爱情刻画甚不满意的由头之一。

经过一场谷仓大战，追杀布克的黑人警察和白人上司得到了应有的惩罚。布克既未沉湎于和凯莉的爱情，也未迷恋于赛缪儿的那张天使般的小脸，更未感召于门诺派居留地草丛里的那些鲜嫩的小玫瑰花苞，甚至没有给凯莉一个吻，就走向了那辆来时的车。导演既然用镜头那样深情地触摸了门诺人的家常生活，捕捉了男女主人公之间最有意味的情感细节，最终却让女的如此内敛，男的这般木讷，南辕北辙。

不知道二十年前筹拍此片的彼得·菲尔是何初衷，就今天的我看来，本片最动人的意蕴不在于种种生存方式的对比与选择（对比是手段，不是目的），而在于对世间纯美生活的向往和憧憬。布克的门诺族之旅，不啻为一个梦境。