Does anyone know where I can find a list of deleted scenes from this movie? I know about the scene with Samuel and the video games, but I swear I remember seeing photos of Book and Rachel alone in a field, like an added love scene or something like that... I could be imagining things, though!
shareI'd like to know that too. I read that a very passionate love scene was filmed, but cut from the movie. After she runs to him while at the birdhouse they go to the field and make love.
shareThey implied it in the movie, but the cut leaves you wondering if they actually did or not.
share"In the early drafts, Rachel is the focus of the first subplot turning point. As she cares for John, she feels drawn to him. The script describes a woman struggling with an erotic attraction to John. She's confused by the physicality of the situation. As the story develops further, we see Rachel clearly falling in love with John. At the second turning point, Rachel actually confronts John, asking him to stay. Later, they make love in an explicit scene. This love scene, which was particularly strong in the early drafts, was the subject of much discussion. Earl [Wallace] wanted to show John and Rachel making love. Bill [Kelley] wanted to show just a passionate kiss. Peter [Weir, the director] agreed on the kiss but didn't want it to be passionate. The entire love scene was filmed, but only the kiss remained after editing."
http://www.dramatica.com/story/analyses/analyses/witness.html
Thank you for this input. I saw the movie in '85 and was wondering since then. Now I know they did make love, but the filmmakers left it out.
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This is really weird. I checked this 'Witness' board looking for this very information, because I saw the movie again last night on TV and was left thinking "Where's the scene of the lovemaking in the field?". I watched it in the prime-time slot, interspersed with blocks of commercials - and yep, the commercials came right where, as I recall, the sex scene that I'm certain I saw should have been.
I think I saw this film either when it came out in a cinema (in the UK or in Germany) or in 1989 on VHS in Canada. I'm thinking it was probably Germany, since I was working there the summer the film came out. In the second half of the 1980s I was in my early to mid 20s - totally wired to that kind of sex scene, believe me - and I have a clear image seared into my memory of Ford pawing and kneading at McGillis' naked breast as they ravish each other. For decades this memory has been linked to 'Witness'. My recollection is that we also see her returning to the house in the very early morning.
I've just rented the DVD in my local rental outlet. It was a long shot but the scene seems to be gone for good.
Another bit of evidence that this scene made it much further than just the original cutting room floor is that - as alluded to by noirgirl - the jump from the kissing to the beginning of the final showdown scene was so abrupt as to be ridiculous. My memory says I've seen the pawing and kneading scene plus the post-coital afterglow deceleration, and these scenes are totally needed as a bridge to the story's final day anyway. I'm left wondering what film-industry imperatives forced an edit that took the action from a kissing scene in the evening to an action climax in the mid-morning of the following day, all without even a fade-out/fade-in.
Amazing, really.
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EDIT:
Maybe I'm way off and I'm confusing it with the scene in Ryan's Daughter with Robert Mitchum and Sarah Miles.
But the editing objection still stands....
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