This is simply one of my favourite US films of all time. Unusually for Hollywood, this feels like a "small" film, and it hasn't really dated, to the great credit of everyone involved. It's a neat, tightly-told story of the flight into hiding of Samuel, a young Amish boy (Lukas Haas) who makes an expedition into the big city with his mother Rachel (Kelly McGillis), and there witnesses a brutal murder. In their flight to the safety of their Amish farming community, they pick up baggage – a Philadelphia cop, John Book (a super-charismatic 80's Harrison Ford) – along the way. A damaged Book seeks to protect them by becoming part of their community, and in turn his are the eyes through which we learn about the Amish. But inevitably the ripples his presence make in this serene community spread continually wider, until finally the trouble – and the city - comes to them.
The screen chemistry between McGillis and Ford is electric, and you don't feel as if they've been clanged together (as in most modern romances): they were simply walking towards each other from the first. In addition to being a fine romance and a bit of a thriller, it's a window on a closed world, respectfully scripted and shot. It's the least boisterous, and most contemplative piece of Hollywood that I've seen in many years: how often is an alternative vision of America presented, in such a way as to suggest that it may even offer a superior quality of life to that of "modern" America? Very rare ingredients indeed. Mind you, I'd expect no less from the director of the surprisingly thoughtful "Master and Commander". It brings to mind "small" British films like Angela Pope's "Captives", and David Leland's "The Land Girls".
The screen chemistry between McGillis and Ford is electric, and you don't feel as if they've been clanged together (as in most modern romances): they were simply walking towards each other from the first. In addition to being a fine romance and a bit of a thriller, it's a window on a closed world, respectfully scripted and shot. It's the least boisterous, and most contemplative piece of Hollywood that I've seen in many years: how often is an alternative vision of America presented, in such a way as to suggest that it may even offer a superior quality of life to that of "modern" America? Very rare ingredients indeed. Mind you, I'd expect no less from the director of the surprisingly thoughtful "Master and Commander". It brings to mind "small" British films like Angela Pope's "Captives", and David Leland's "The Land Girls".