Witness

Paramount Pictures | Release Date: February 8, 1985

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

76	METASCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

100

Roger Ebert

This is, first of all, an electrifying and poignant love story....And it is also one hell of a thriller. Read full review

100

EmpireIan Nathan

Arguably Harrison Ford’s finest performance, and one of the strongest thrillers to emerge from the heady gloss of the ‘80s, this is director Peter Weir at his most adept. Read full review

100

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

Sure-footed thriller, beautifully photographed, with Ford's best performance thus far. Read full review

James Berardinelli

Witness states its position about clashing cultures with eloquence. Read full review

Jay Scott

Witness is satisfying on so many levels it stands with "Cabaret" and "The Godfather II" as an example of how a director in love with his medium can redeem its mainstream cliches. [07 Feb 1985]

Jay Carr

Beyond its fresh twists on the cop and romance genres, Witness is, above all, an anti-consumption film. [08 Feb 1985]

Gene Siskel

Witness" is both exciting and thoughtful.... And just as important to moviegoers, Witness is a genuinely gripping thriller. [08 Feb 1985]

Dave Kehr

Peter Weir, the standard-bearer of the Australian Tradition of Quality, is on hand to smother all the contrivances in his solemn, academic style, and the result is a moderately effective, highly affected thriller. Read full review

Vincent Canby

It's not really awful, but it's not much fun. It's pretty to look at and it contains a number of good performances, but there is something exhausting about its neat balancing of opposing manners and values. Read full review

Richard Schickel

Witness, which is one of the most originally conceived and gracefully made suspense dramas of recent years, to work into edgy juxtaposition the representatives of two subcultures that are ordinarily mutually exclusive. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

Witness is at times a gentle, affecting story of star-crossed lovers limited within the fascinating Amish community. Too often, however, this fragile romance is crushed by a thoroughly absurd shoot-em-up, like ketchup poured over a delicate Pennsylvania Dutch dinner. Read full review

Sheila Benson

Although it, too, is gorgeous to look at, this skeletal thriller is as direct and spare as its Mennonites. [08 Feb 1985]

David Sterritt

Along with some creaky plot mechanics in the last third of the story, this reduces the film to ordinary dimensions - a sharp but no longer resonant show. Read full review

Judy Stone

The new movie eloquently dramatizes the unusual cultural conflicts between contemporary, violent urban life and an archaic rural community with pacifist convictions. [08 Feb 1985]