Witness
Posted by martinteller on March 27, 2010
Here’s a movie I never had the slightest interest in, but I am still trying to tackle everything on the TSPDT 1000 list, and anyway it’s good to step outside your comfort zone once in a while. It’s pretty much what I expected to be. Like all of Weir’s post-70′s output, he has the skill to do everything right but lacks the heart to do anything great. He even says in the interview on the DVD that he just wanted an “assignment”. Everything about this movie is crafted well (except the horribly dated Maurice Jarre score) but nothing stands out. It gets the jobs done and that’s about it. Since I’ve got noir on the brain lately, it actually occurred to me that in the right hands, this might have made a good noir film, combining certain elements from On Dangerous Ground and Kiss of Death. But as it is, it’s just purely functional and formulaic. Kudos for not treating the Amish like a freak show, I guess, although I still think they’re silly. Rating: 7
