Witness has been praised for being the first movie to accurately portray an Amish barn-raising or seriously document the Amish way of life. Everybody should see this movie for the value of learning about the Amish lifestyle. You will see many things that you likely have not seen before, such as a brace and bit being used or the peg construction. It is a fascinating film and is priceless as an educational tool.

Now the story: An Amish woman, Rachel (Kelly McGillis), and her young son, Samuel (Lucas Haas), are traveling to her sister's house when the boy witnesses a murder in the men's room of a Philadelphia train station. The crime involves corrupt cops, and the only way Detective John Book (Harrison Ford) can protect the child is to return with him to the Amish community.

Book is shot before leaving the city and barely survives to reach the Amish community. The only way to protect the boy is for the Amish to take in Book and keep him hidden until he is well enough to go home.

As Book begins to heal, he learns that his big city life has not prepared him for this. He is very much out of his element -- almost as much as he would be if he landed on another planet. He and Rachel are strongly attracted to each other, but a relationship requires one of them to give up their world and live in the radically different culture of the other.

Rachel quickly finds herself in trouble with the community. There is talk of having her shunned -- the worst of punishments among the Amish -- even though she has done nothing wrong ... yet. She must battle between what her heart feels and what the Amish strict code of behavior will allow.

I often disagree with Leonard Maltin on movie reviews and this is certainly one of those times. He felt this film is "marred by jarring shifts in tone." How can you juxtapose a pacifist culture with a group that carry guns in their profession and not encounter tone shifts? Even in the best of cases, where the cops are sterling examples of morality; that, alone, would be quite a shift. But when you are talking about cops that have crossed the line and become cold-blooded murderers, you certainly will have some extreme shifts in tone. That is one of the things that make this film so great. You do get to see these cultures placed side-by-side and you can see the effect that each has on the people around it. You will likely even feel those effects yourself to some degree.

Obviously I wasn't the only one who was not bothered by the tone shifts. This film won Oscars for three of the writers. They must have agreed with my take on the juxtaposition and its worth in the film.

The acting was all outstanding. Every character played their role to the limits. I can't believe they got Danny Glover to play the bad guy here. What's more unbelievable is that he pulled it off. After getting so used to seeing him in the Lethal Weapon series as Roger -- the good, decent family man and guy that everybody loves -- I expected it would be difficult to believe he was the bad cop, but he fit right into the part.

Witness is a far-above-average movie in all respects. It offers something for almost everyone: action, drama, humor, suspense, romance and cultural enlightenment. It gives you more than your money's worth and is exceptional entertainment value. This is one of the movies that should be in every serious movie buff's collection. Someday it will be a classic ... jarring tone shifts and all.