The Farmer

A passion project for producer / star Gary Conway ("I Was a Teenage Frankenstein", 'Burkes' Law'), "The Farmer" casts him as the title character, otherwise known as Kyle Martin. Kyle is a WWII hero, just returned home, who intends to run the family farm, which is not seen as profitable by the local bank. They would rather foreclose. Then one night, a gambler named Johnny O'Neal (Michael Dante, "Winterhawk") has a car accident on the road, and Kyle saves his life. Johnny sends his gal pal Betty (gorgeous Angel Tompkins, "The Teacher") to gift Kyle with $1,500 for the good deed, but of course it's not enough for the bank. Johnny subsequently gets blinded by vindictive mobsters, and he gives Kyle a proposal: rub out the mobsters, and he can walk away with a cool $50 thousand. Kyle initially refuses, but inevitably changes his mind.

A "lost" film for many years, this only debuted on home video this year. So, was the wait to see this flick worth it? Well, this viewer wouldn't really consider it a *classic* of its genre, but it serves as good, straightforward entertainment - albeit with a nasty edge to it. One thing is for sure: the bad guys / intended victims in this saga do have it coming to them. Although the main mobster is a guy named Passini (George Memmoli ("Phantom of the Paradise"), looking relatively svelte), the worst of the bunch is a dude appropriately named Weasel. Played by the late, great Timothy Scott ("The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez"), Weasel is as despicable as they come.

Conway is just okay as a rather stoic, unemotional character, although the opening sequence sets him up well as a man of honor, who doesn't want to see a black fellow serviceman get disrespected. Still, he makes for a memorable image here, with his hat, shades, and stogie almost constantly clamped between his teeth. Tompkins and Dante are good in support; Memmoli makes the most of his one big scene. Sonny Shroyer ('The Dukes of Hazzard'), Johnny Popwell ('Deliverance'), and Eric Weston (the future director of the horror film "Evilspeak") co-star.

Granted, some of the dialogue is pretty lame, even if four credited people worked on this script, including story author George Fargo. And the music score was inconsistent - sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. At least the songs are pretty nice. And the script *does* work in an amusing surprise near the end, so it wasn't *entirely* predictable.

If you love exploitation cinema of the 70s, or a decent, no-nonsense revenge feature, you'll likely have a good time with this one.

Seven out of 10.

I was fortunate enough to see this film, and it is one of the best 70's style revenge film, but also wisely uses screen time to build up the plight of the lead character, and also has some great "revenge" sequences.You can see why Columbia pictured decided to release this. The film starts with the lead, Kiel Martin (Gary Conway) in a train, and how he gets beat up and kicked off a train for helping a black soldier buy a drink (it was no-no back then) as this shows what a decent character he is, but how he can't seem to escape violence since earning a silver star in the War.

Through a chain of events (some of them rather rushed, so I assume it was either explained in the original script or that scene was cut out for time) he is hired by a gangster (Michael Dante) to go after the gangsters who blinded him, and in return, give him the cash needed to save the farm! And thru a pulsating music score by Hugo Montenegro, he dispatches them one by one! It is more similar to ROLLING THUNDER in the nihilistic feel revenge genre, and only weak point of the film is Gary Conway, who is rather bland, and too "city" to be really convincing as the title character. Still it is a classic for it's era,and not to be missed by any fans of this genre. Just dont expect it to be in vain with todays action films ,as the unavailability of this title for 26 years has caused this film to be in so many peoples must see list,that their expectation level must be really high, so I am afraid they might be rather disappointed with what to expect of it.

Just enjoy the more "character driven, and that character reaches to the point of revenge" films of yesteryears, then you will agree, THE FARMER is right near the best of them, like ROLLING THUNDER, FIGHTING MAD and BREAKING POINT. In fact, I think Fred Williamson might have been influenced by this film, as his film MEAN JOHNNY BARROWS is very very similar in the storyline department with THE FARMER. He also hired Dante in THE BIG SCORE so he must have really liked THE FARMER.

In the immediate wake of WW2, a decorated soldier returns to his small rural farm, now in a state of disrepair and facing imminent foreclosure. After saving the life of a smalltime racketeer in a road accident, and latterly taking up with his pert young lady-friend, a string of increasingly brutal intimidations perpetrated by local gangsters pushes him to his breaking point. Throwing his humble virtuosity over his shoulder, he proceeds to wage bloody war against the town's iniquitous mob kingpin and his degenerate scumbag lackeys.

Following its limited and somewhat controversial 1977 release, THE FARMER remained virtually unseen and largely forgotten for decades. With the advent of social media, occasional mention of the film led to increased interest, and THE FARMER became widely noted as a lost, or at least uncommonly unattainable picture. After a few ensuing screenings and an unauthorized Youtube upload of poor quality, the film finally received a proper Blu-ray release, and it was well worth the wait.

As one of many vigilante justice/vengeance pictures made after the unexpected runaway success of DEATH WISH(1974), THE FARMER is certainly among the cheapest and most graphic of the lot. GARY CONWAY, possibly most noted as a beefcake actor in 60s B films, provides an appropriately staid performance as the archetypal decent man, driven by villains to decidedly not-so-decent, but ultimately condign acts of violence. Lovely ANGEL TOMPKINS is equally suitable as his brassy but principled love interest, and their support players perform accordingly. The late-40s period styling(cars, apparel, interior furnishings, etcetera), is surprisingly well appointed for a low budget film, the exception being a brief scene shot during an actual street parade, wisely presented as a consecution of rapid jump-cuts to minimize the observable 1977 fashions of the crowd.

The first few expository minutes are a bit patchy, and an iterant folk ballad is overused, but THE FARMER is a film easily forgiven of its various shortcomings. It's a tense, excessively violent, and occasionally poignant film imbued with a cynical postwar noir mien, variably redolent of pulp paperbacks by writers such as Jim Thompson and David Goodis. Now that it's readily available, I suspect the film will medialize an enthusiastic viewership, and hopefully receive some long-withheld acknowledgements.

7/10...better late than never.

Shortly before returning overseas as a Marine, I saw this film at the base theater.I can count on my fingers the films which stand out as being the most memorable over the years to me.The Farmer was not only action packed but also embodied all of the noble traits and causes an honorable warrior could possess and champion.This was a great vicarious fantasy and it is a shame that there seems to be no way to get this film re-released.The film was also strong in that it addressed a number of social and moral issues.Without a doubt, The Farmer still evokes a visceral reaction when remembered. This was a very well thought out plot and at the same time very easy to follow. Of course when revenge is a prime motivating force...we can all identify with this silver star winner and his resolve.Semper-Fi and lets try to get this great film re-released.

If action packed violent movies is your thing then this movie is the one for you, unfortunately it was never released in video or dvd or even beta format. Yes the originals are still locked up in Columbia pics movie vaults. I saw this movie in the theatres in 1977 when I was 17 years old, and loved it. Kyle Martin played by Gary Conway is a retired war veteran turned Farmer, who finds out that money is short to pay the mortage on the farm. He turns to the mafia boss,Michael Dante, I believe, who pays Conway money to rid himself of a few rival enemies. Which Conway does just that with plenty of bullets blood and gore. The fact that this movie just missed an X rating from all the graphic violence is not odd, but that of the one liners that Conway spits out each time he offs a bad guy. One seen Conway is under a car waiting for a bad guy and when he walks up to get in has his feet blown completly off by a sawed-off shot gun. Conway comments "you won't be going any where soon" as he wastes him yet again at point blank range sending the body flying across the parking garage. Every thing is rare about this movie, from the movie posters to the LP sound track. It probably won't ever be released in video due to the graphic violent content contained therein. America is just not ready for such action as this one dishes out. David Berlatsky directs and Gary Conway helped produced. It make me wonder where they thought this film would eventually go to as obscure as it is. Still is and always will be one of my favorite action in its genre of all time. Write me if you know of where a copy may exist! ;^)