Eyewitness
                                                                                                           
Director: Peter Yates
Year: 1981
Rating: 7.0
A nearly forgotten thriller with an astonishingly good cast, a few very early in their film careers. I can't help but notice that nearly all the reviews I have read are fairly negative, but I enjoyed the slow patient build of the film, the off-beat performances and the director trying to juggle many subplots in the air. Not really successfully and in truth farfetched and convoluted, but I respected the attempt. The cast though made it worth my time. William Hurt in only his second film after Altered States is boyish, charming and an inch from being totally psycho. Body Heat and The Big Chill were to quickly follow making him a star. Sigourney Weaver already was a star from her previous film; a little thing called Alien. After the two leads, we get Christopher Plummer, James Woods, Kenneth McMillan, Steven Hill and still not a star, the great Morgan Freeman. All getting some solid screen time.



First, you have to believe Hurt as an ex-Vietnam vet who loves being a night time janitor. Soft spoken, bespectled and clean shaven. His best friend from Vietnam is Woods who was just fired from the job and goes on a racist rant about Asians because he was fired by Mr. Long, a South Vietnamese big shot during the war. When Long is found with his throat cut, the two cops (Hill, Freeman) think Hurt and Woods either did it or know something.



They don't which is the irony because everyone thinks so. Mainly because Hurt leads news reporter Weaver to think he does. Because he is obsessed with her. Has been for months from watching her on TV and sees this as his chance to romance her. In a really creepy way. By telling her the truth about how he feels. Most women would run for the hills, but she wants a story. He offers to buff her floors, gently, lovingly, make them gleam. How could a woman resist.



She is involved though with another man played by Plummer. An Israeli agent trying to raise funds to free Jews in Russia. It feels very much like a pointless thread as does Woods being in hock to the Mafia, Wood's sister's relationship with Hurt, Hurt's father (MacMillan) being an angry drunk, Hurt having a dog like Kato trained to attack him when he gets home, Freeman having to adopt. Way too much though it sort of comes together. A really well shot ending when the killers come for Hurt. Because they think he knows something.