Eyewitness (1981 film)
| Eyewitness | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Peter Yates |
| Written by | Steve Tesich |
| Produced by | Peter Yates |
| Starring | William Hurt Sigourney Weaver Christopher Plummer James Woods |
| Cinematography | Matthew F. Leonetti |
| Edited by | Cynthia Scheider |
| Music by | Stanley Silverman |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
|
Running time | 103 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $8.5 million[1] or $6.4 million[2] |
| Box office | $4.5 million (US/ Canada)[3] |
Eyewitness (released in the UK as The Janitor) is a 1981 American neo-noir[4] thriller film produced and directed by Peter Yates and written by Steve Tesich. It stars William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Christopher Plummer, and James Woods. The story involves a television news reporter and a janitor who team to solve a murder.[5]
Plot
New York City janitor Daryll Deever is an avid fan of television news reporter Toni Sokolow. A wealthy Vietnamese man suspected of criminal connections is murdered in Daryll's office building, and Toni suspects Deever knows something about it.
She keeps after him for information, a pursuit Daryll allows because he is romantically interested in Toni, and a "cat and mouse" game ensues. This convinces the real killers that Daryll does know vital information about the murder, so he and Toni end up with their lives in danger over this false assumption.
Cast
- William Hurt as Daryll Deever
- Sigourney Weaver as Antonia "Toni" Sokolow
- Christopher Plummer as Joseph
- James Woods as Alan “Aldo” Mercer
- Irene Worth as Mrs. Sokolow
- Kenneth McMillan as Mr. Deever
- Pamela Reed as Linda Mercer
- Albert Paulsen as Mr. Sokolow
- Steven Hill as Lt. Jacobs
- Morgan Freeman as Lt. Black
- Alice Drummond as Mrs. Eunice Deever
- Chao-Li Chi as Mr. Long
- Keone Young as Mr. Long's son
Production
The news equipment and promotional posters actually belonged to a real television station in New York City, then-Metromedia owned independent WNEW-TV. Two then-station employees, news anchor John Roland and sportscaster Bill Mazer, made cameo appearances in the film. Sigourney Weaver, whose father Sylvester "Pat" Weaver had been a top network television executive, also worked for the station in order to gain experience. Both WNEW-TV (now Fox-owned-and-operated WNYW) and the film were under the corporate umbrella of 21st Century Fox until March 20, 2019 when Fox closed on its sale of its entertainment assets, including the film, to The Walt Disney Company.
Producer-director Peter Yates and screenwriter Steve Tesich had collaborated two years earlier on the film Breaking Away.
Hum To Mohabbat Karega, a 2000 Bollywood thriller-comedy film starring Karishma Kapoor and Bobby Deol, was inspired by Eyewitness.
References
- ^ Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History, Scarecrow Press, 1989 p259
- ^ YATES AND TESICH: 'BANKABLE' TEAM Taylor, Clarke. Los Angeles Times 25 May 1980: s43.
- ^ Solomon p 235. Figures are rentals not gross.
- ^ Silver, Alain; Ward, Elizabeth; eds. (1992). Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style (3rd ed.). Woodstock, New York: The Overlook Press. ISBN 0-87951-479-5
- ^ Lanken, Dane (1981-03-09). "'Eyewitness' well-flavored". The Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 2011-04-24.
External links
- Eyewitness at IMDb
- Eyewitness at the TCM Movie Database
- Eyewitness at AllMovie
- Eyewitness at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
- Eyewitness at Rotten Tomatoes
- Eyewitness at Box Office Mojo
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