5 Favorite Harrison Ford Performances

La (AP) - We are likely to cheat a bit with this particular week's Five Most list. Because any discussion of Harrison Ford's best performances needs to range from the legendary roles of Han Solo and Indiana Johnson. They are only a given. So we are returning to five other performances which have separated itself over his varied, 40-year film career. His best days might be behind him, but moments still stand out when he proves he's still got "it": that mixture of celebrity charisma and everyman relatability, gallantry and irony. With Ford co-starring in "Cowboys & Aliens" now, here is a think back at a number of his finest work: "Witness" (1985): It's kind of baffling, but this really is only film that Ford has gained an Oscar nomination maybe he's just so great at what he is doing, he causes it to be look easy. In director Peter Weir's thriller, he plays a police detective who adopts hiding in Amish country to safeguard a youthful boy who observed a murder. He's tough and he's wise, but because he develops much more comfortable within this foreign community, he also proves he is able to milk a cow and raise an average barn. And as you may know in the "Indiana Johnson" movies, Ford can put on a hat - any type of hat - making it look sexy. He also discloses a tender and understated side within the smoldering chemistry he likes with Kelly McGillis because the boy's mother. "The Fugitive" (1993): This is just one of individuals regular-guy-in-danger roles which are Ford's bread and butter. Based about the sixties TV series, the film stars Ford as Dr. Richard Kimble, who had been wrongly charged of killing his wife. Once the bus he's traveling in crashes in route to prison, he makes his escape. His intensity, paranoia and fear are palpable. But Ford also functions because the straight guy here in comparison to Tommy Lee Johnson because the quick-witted lead investigator on his tail. Both performances give the film a depth at night usual summer time chase thriller. But that contrast also creates this classic exchange once their pathways mix: "I did not kill my spouse.Inch ''I don't care." "The Bug Coast" (1986): Dealing with Weir again, Ford assumes an extremely different role. He plays an eccentric inventor who's so frustrated with modern society he packs up his wife (Helen Mirren) and youngsters (including River Phoenix) and moves these phones the rainforests of Guatemala. Unhinged yet unshakable, he's obsessed to the stage of shunning reality in the quest for paradise. It's to Ford's credit that he's so credible in playing a character who becomes very unlikable, even going to the household that's designed to love him. On the other hand, the script was modified by Paul Schrader, a specialist within the mind from the tormented guy. "Edge Runner" (1982): Ridley Scott's film is really a sci-fi classic, and Ford holds it down with stoic, film-noir awesome. He stars as Ron Deckard, a upon the market La detective around 2019 who's known as back to duty to look for and terminate digital rebel replicants. With different Philip K. Dick novel, "Edge Runner" is about mood and production design - a dank, advanced dystopia that's since become greatly influential. But Ford brings a much-needed feeling of complex humanity for this dark spectacle. "Working Girl" (1988): An excellent illustration of Ford's capacity for romantic comedy. Yes, Mike Nichols' film is about effective women, with Melanie Griffith entering her very own like a large-haired secretary in a major Wall Street firm who gets control on her ailing boss (Sigourney Weaver). However the relationship she forges both appropriately and personally with Ford's character, a good investment banker who thinks she's really in control, helps her confidence blossom. He's steady but additionally passionate, amusing and bemused, an imperfect Prince Charming. That could all seem just like a contradiction, but it is that type of flexibility which makes Ford so long lasting. Copyright 2011 Connected Press. All privileges reserved. These components might not be released, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.