Harrison Ford is one of the most successful and iconic movie stars in film history. Not only have his films grossed billions of dollars worldwide, but he has played several of the most culturally ubiquitous characters, including Han Solo from the Star Wars franchise and the titular protagonist of the Indiana Jones franchise. Moreover, his combination of good looks, cool personality, and physical prowess has made him arguably the quintessential Hollywood action star.
However, one area where Ford has had shockingly little success is the Academy Awards. In an ongoing career that has spanned nearly six decades, Ford has received only one Oscar nomination. This nomination was for his leading role as police detective John Book in Australian director Peter Weir‘s 1985 thriller Witness, in which he must protect an Amish widow (Kelly McGillis) and her young son (Lukas Haas) after the latter accidentally witnesses a murder.
But, as it turns out, Academy voters were not the only people who thought that there was something special about Witness (which was also nominated for Best Picture). The film was also a personal favorite of one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers ever: Akira Kurosawa, who included it in a list of his 100 favorite films, which was published after his death. But what was it about this lesser-known Harrison Ford flick that made it earn such effusive praise from both Hollywood’s most prestigious awards organization and one of the world’s greatest directors?
Why Is ‘Witness’ Harrison Ford’s Only Oscar Nomination?
Paramount Pictures
In theory, the reason John Book is Ford’s only Oscar-nominated role is because it’s the best performance of his nearly six-decade-long career. However, while Ford’s performance in Witness is undoubtedly powerful and multi-layered, to call it his “best” performance seems like a bit of a stretch. In fact, in many respects, the character of John Book (a name whose phonetic resemblance to the name “James Bond” is probably not coincidental) is very similar in personality and mannerisms to several of Ford’s other, more famous characters, including Han Solo, Indiana Jones, and Rick Deckard from Blade Runner. Like Book, all three of these men are stoic tough guys who are nevertheless shown to also be deeply loyal and altruistic.
Some might point to the fact that Witness centers on Book’s relationship with Rachel and Samuel as the primary reason for his Oscar nomination, as it allows Ford to display a more tender and vulnerable side than audiences were used to. However, Ford also shows a softer side in several of the roles mentioned above, such as in the romantic scenes from the original Blade Runner (1982) or his father-son-like bond with a different young boy in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984).
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However, the main difference between those films and Witness is their genre. Blade Runner and Star Wars are both science fiction, while Indiana Jones is a combination of action, adventure, and fantasy. In other words, they are all examples of “genre” fiction. Historically, the Academy has been reluctant to recognize performances in genre films. Indeed, very few actors in genre movies have been nominated for an Oscar, and even fewer have won. This is likely due to the widespread reputation of genre films as “pulpy” and “low-brow” entertainment, more concerned with flashy special effects, set design, and action scenes, rather than being serious works of art.
Witness, on the other hand, lacks the bombastic special effects and elaborate sets and costumes that define the sci-fi/fantasy worlds of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Blade Runner. Furthermore, while it does have a couple of intense action sequences, the film spends far more time getting the audience invested in the characters and their relationships with one another, especially once Book arrives in the Amish community. This lack of overshadowing elements allows Ford’s performance to take center stage (no pun intended), making it easier for Academy voters to appreciate his acting chops.
Why Did Akira Kurosawa Love ‘Witness’?
Release Date
February 8, 1985
Runtime
112 Minutes
Writers
William Kelley, Pamela Wallace, Earl W. Wallace
The exact reasons why Kurosawa loved Witness so much are sadly unavailable to the public, at least for the time being. Nevertheless, there are a couple of ways in which Witness is reminiscent of Kurosawa’s own films, and these similarities could at least partially explain why Kurosawa was so personally affected by it. For instance, Witness’s premise of a child finding himself unwittingly caught up in a dangerous criminal plot mirrors Kurosawa’s acclaimed crime thriller High and Low (1963), which revolves around a child’s abduction by a desperate criminal.
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Moreover, in its second half, when Book arrives in the Amish community with Rachel and Samuel, the film starts to resemble Kurosawa’s epic masterpiece Seven Samurai (1954). Both films are about isolated but tight-knit communities that find themselves under threat by malicious outsiders. In Seven Samurai, the outside threat is the bandits who want to pillage the villagers’ harvest. In Witness, the Amish are threatened by the perpetrators of the murder that Samuel witnessed.
Indeed, the climactic sequence near the end of Witness, in which Book plays cat-and-mouse with the killers on his Amish caretakers’ farm, plays like a shorter and smaller-scale version of the long and multi-stage battle between the villagers (led by the eponymous samurai septet) and the bandits in Seven Samurai. Most importantly, both films spend a great deal of time endearing the audience to the communities being protected, making their populations feel like real people with agency rather than weak and passive victims.
In a more general sense, Witness embodies the spirit of Kurosawa’s filmography, effectively balancing thrilling action with more cerebral and humanistic themes of sacrifice, community, and justice. Although we can only speculate on what Kurosawa thought as he watched Witness, it’s not difficult to imagine that he saw a great deal of himself and his artistic sensibility reflected in it. If he did, then it’s no wonder it became one of his personal favorite films. Witness is available for streaming on PlutoTV.
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