LOS ANGELES, July 31, (AP): We’re going to cheat a little bit with this week’s Five Most list. Because any discussion of Harrison Ford’s best performances has to include the iconic roles of Han Solo and Indiana Jones. They’re just a given. So we’re revisiting five other performances that have stood out over his varied, 40-year film career. His best days may be behind him, but moments still shine through when he proves he’s still got “it”: that mix of superstar charisma and everyman relatability, heroism and irony.

n “Witness” (1985): It’s sort of baffling, but this is only film for which Ford has earned an Oscar nomination; maybe he’s just so good at what he does, he makes it look effortless. In director Peter Weir’s thriller, he plays a police detective who goes into hiding in Amish country to protect a young boy who witnessed a murder. He’s tough and he’s smart, but as he grows more comfortable in this foreign community, he also proves he can milk a cow and raise a mean barn.

n “The Fugitive” (1993): This is one of those regular-guy-in-danger roles that are Ford’s bread and butter. Based on the 1960s TV series, the film stars Ford as Dr. Richard Kimble, who was wrongly convicted of killing his wife. When the bus he’s riding in crashes on the way to prison, he makes his escape. His intensity, paranoia and fear are palpable. But Ford also functions as the straight man here compared to Tommy Lee Jones as the quick-witted lead investigator on his tail.

n “The Mosquito Coast” (1986): Working with Weir again, Ford takes on a very different role. He plays an eccentric inventor who’s so fed up with contemporary society that he packs up his wife (Helen Mirren) and kids (including River Phoenix) and moves them to the rain forests of Central America. Unhinged yet unshakable, he’s obsessed to the point of shunning reality in his pursuit of utopia. It’s to Ford’s credit that he’s so believable in playing a character who becomes supremely unlikable, even to the family that’s supposed to love him.

n “Blade Runner” (1982): Ridley Scott’s film is a sci-fi classic, and Ford anchors it with stoic, film-noir cool. He stars as Rick Deckard, a retired Los Angeles detective in the year 2019 who’s called back into duty to seek out and terminate rebel replicants. Based on a Philip K. Dick novel, “Blade Runner” is all about mood and production design — a dank, futuristic dystopia that’s since become hugely influential.

n “Working Girl” (1988): A great example of Ford’s capacity for romantic comedy. Yes, Mike Nichols’ film is all about powerful women, with Melanie Griffith coming into her own as a big-haired secretary at a major Wall Street firm who takes over for her ailing boss (Sigourney Weaver).
But the relationship she forges both professionally and personally with Ford’s character, an investment banker who thinks she’s really in charge, helps her confidence blossom. He’s steady but also passionate, amusing and bemused, an imperfect Prince Charming. That may all sound like a contradiction, but it’s that kind of versatility that makes Ford so enduring.