Eyewitness (1981)

	Directed by: Peter Yates	COUNTRY USA GENRE Thriller/Drama NORWEGIAN TITLE Vitnet som snakket for mye RUNNING TIME 102 minutes
	Produced by: Peter Yates
	Written by: Steve Tesich

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Daryll Deever	William Hurt	½
Antonia Sokolow	Sigourney Weaver	½
Joseph	Christopher Plummer	½
Aldo Mercer	James Woods	½
Mrs. Sokolow	Irene Worth	½
Mr. Deever	Kenneth McMillan
Linda Mercer	Pamela Reed
Mr. Sokolow	Albert Paulsen
Lt. Jacobs	Steven Hill
Lt. Black	Morgan Freeman

Review

Peter Yates' Eyewitness is a crucible of cinematic and narrative approaches – some of which work surprisingly well, and some of which are largely counterproductive. What they have in common is that the director wants them to correlate in a rather unorthodox and ambitious fashion.

The film is essentially constructed like a thriller, and in this respect, it's familiarly positioned in late 70s/early 80s tradition. The customary political message is in place as well, even if it here is far more alternative and potentially complex from an ethical point of view than what is the case with the standard power struggles of 1970s political thrillers. This makes a character such as Joseph (Christopher Plummer) highly interesting, even if he is ultimately finds himself in a somewhat insipid unknotting.

The storyline turns out to be one of the film's weaker points. A little more humane and subtle handling of the clandestine movement uncovered could have given the mystery as a whole more potency. Instead, Eyewitness works best as a character drama and an unconventional romance, in which the absolutely bouncing William Hurt is able to open up the always rigid Sigourney Weaver. Hurt is a delight in his youthful, working-man persona, and Weaver is at her most delicate opposite him. If Yates had dared to give the two steamier environments and material to work with, it could have given the film a far more edgy quality.

Eyewitness has other effective character relations as well, all of which keep the film afloat amid otherwise muddled plot devices. Steven Hill and a young Morgan Freeman bring a little humane warmth to the typical stakeout officers, Pamela Reed makes her scenes with Hurt into one of the best non-romances I have seen, and James Woods is remarkably layered as Hurt's unconfident buddy, Aldo. All in all, a flawed film full of interesting and valuable bits and sequences.