WITLESS

WITNESS (1985)
dir: Peter Weir

WITLESS
MAD #257, September 1985
w: Stan Hart
a: Angelo Torres

Rachel (Kelly McGillis) and her son Samuel (Lukas Haas) are two Amish who must leave their community to visit a relative in Baltimore. While at a train stopover in Philadelphia, Samuel witnesses a murder in the bathroom. They are detained by officer John Book (Harrison Ford) who needs Samuel to identify the killer, and sees a picture of Lieutenant McFee (Danny Glover) at the station and recognizes him as the killer.

McFee is a narcotics cop involved in drug dealing and shoots Book in a parking garage. He drives Rachel and Samuel back to their farm, and since he didn't get medical help after being shot, passes out on the way back home and wakes up at the farm. He has to stat there because he'll be found at the hospital and therefore put Samuel in danger.

As John Book is being nursed back to health, he starts to fit in with the Amish. They don't quite like how he's been flirting with Rachel but shows he's one of them when he joins them in raising a barn. He gives more info to Sgt. Carter (Brent Jennings) who's later killed by Chief Schaffer (Joseph Sommer) who warns Book he's going to find him. Book goes to town regularly to use the payphone and is picked on by townies. Unlike other Amish, he surprises them by fighting back.

Schaffer, McFee, and another cop, Ferguson (Angus MacInnes) find the community where Book has been hiding and come after him. McFee is shot and Ferguson drowns in a corn silo. Schaffer is about to kill book when Samuel rings a bell summoning all the Amish in the area, who surround him and force him to give up. John Book is cleared of danger and wrongdoing and returns to his city ways.