Witness

Back before social media and reality television, there were still parts of America that most of us had little or no understanding of, like the Amish communities in Pennsylvania. With that as the setting, a Philadelphia cop is a stranger in his own country in “Witness” (1985). After “Star Wars,” “Indiana Jones” and “Blade Runner,” this was Harrison Ford’s first big success starring in a non-fantasy film. It’s a sturdy reworking of the old good-cops-versus-bad-cops story, made more interesting by the Amish angle featuring romantic friction between Ford and Kelly McGillis. (Keep an eye out for a Viggo Mortensen sighting.)

The Revenant

The day I watched “The Revenant” (2015), the heat index in my town was something like 100 million bazillion degrees, so it was kind of nice watching Leonardo DiCaprio freeze his ass off for two and a half hours. That being said, the film is a fascinating, poetic meditation on survival, suffering and revenge in the Old West. It’s also kind of gross, what with animals (and/or people) being gutted every few minutes. Lots of bad stuff happens to Leonardo, almost to the point of absurdity. That, and the running time, make it a tough watch, but (sorta?) worth it.