Harrison Ford’s Best Movie Performance Isn't What You Think

Witness Gives Harrison Ford His Greatest Romance

Part of what makes that connection so magnetic is how Weir frames Ford as an actor. Ford himself nails that brand of sensitive masculinity that would define his movies in the nineties, but what Weir does so well here is that he understands Ford's sex appeal. This isn't to say that Ford wasn't shot attractively in his previous films - Han Solo and Indiana Jones are total babes - but rather that Weir lets Ford hold the frame with a quiet, bristling intensity.

Book isn't a dashing rogue like Solo or Jones, and has an inner conflict that forces him to quell his desires, which then spill out in brief, euphemistic moments of passion - whether that's him guzzling down Rachel's lemonade to the point that it spills down his bare chest, or where he lets loose and dances with her to Sam Cooke. You can argue forever over which film Ford looked best in, but Witness is one of only few to frame him with that appeal in mind.

That quiet, brooding intensity also explodes in grim, spontaneous moments of violence. Witness is not an action-heavy offering from Weir. When there is a violent exchange, it's brief, dark, and to the bone. Shots will be exchanged, and someone may collapse, but it's not elaborate or overly-choreographed. This is most pronounced in the finale, where Book turns the Amish landscape against his pursuers. This sequence is where we also get Witness' most gratuitous death, when Book drowns one of his cop pursuers in a grain silo, but even then it's unglamorous and uncomfortable, and signed off with another kill where he takes a shotgun and blows McFee away without any opportunity to surrender.

Each burst of violence is complemented by Book's surroundings. In Philadelphia, it takes place in a quiet, dank car park, exemplifying the cold, unforgiving aspect of a concrete liminal space; in the village, it's on a serene farm, and contrasts with the tranquil Amish way of life. The confrontations of Witness are desperate scrambles for survival - exchanges Ford sells with a trademark vulnerability that would continue to blossom in the following decade.