One’s a hardened cop, the other a lonely widow. It sounds like a heart-to-heart in a pulpy romance novel. But in Witness (1985, USA), it’s not.

Detective John Book’s sister says having kids will do him good. The unmarried Book (Harrison Ford) does not seem the type. The detective work has taken him to another place, a place of cynicism.

Cynicism

When he is covering a case, the witness’s mother, Rachel (Kelly McGillis) says Book does not have a right to make them stay involved.

Yes I do, replies Book. Your son’s a material witness to a murder (Harrison Ford says it with appealing authority). Book tells her she must stay because that is the law.

Amish Rachel says she wants nothing to do with his laws. (Rachel has nothing to do with society because she is Amish.)

Book laughs. He isn’t surprised. He is cynical. He says there are other people who want to do nothing with their laws. His partner Carter laughs.  Of course, this a reference to people who commit crimes so want nothing to do with the law.

I think Book really grieves over the state of the world, underneath. It’s taken him to a hardening of heart, but he is needy, though that would be hard to see on the surface.

The widow and the heart

Rachel has lost her husband. On the Amish farm, where Book is staying to protect the witness to the murder, Rachel becomes attracted to Book.

But a relationship with an outsider, and outside of marriage, is forbidden by the Amish community.

Still, they are two ‘lost souls’. Both need a bit if not a lot of love in a world that is flawed and causes pain. They need a heart-to-heart.

They can’t have one another, but Rachel will probably get married to a neighbor who has courted her.

Book will go back to the city, to do what he does best: to protect society from criminals.