Deadly Harvest

A well-acted drama about people surviving a food shortage due to climate fluctuations. Considering the present unnatural weather we've recently been getting, this strikes a most sombre note. The electronic music soundtrack is striking as well. Clint Walker especially shines in this, and because he put his heart into his character, I will be forever endeared to him as an actor. I'm puzzled by the negative criticism some have given this movie. Perhaps, they were expecting Terminator 3 or something with less substance and more special effects. If that's what you're looking for, it's not here. You'll find something much more worthwhile in this movie. The ultimate question this movie asks is, "How would you conduct yourself in a time of crisis?" Which really points to: How do you conduct yourself in everyday life with the people you interact with? There are two kinds of characters in this movie: Those who show other human beings kindness and those who view our fellow man as opportunities for exploitation. There are really no times that one can say are entirely free of desperation. This is a movie with a message. I like it.

If this film has a mesdsage it's a somewhat mted one in that if they really want to farmers rule. In the end food is what's the most important thing, more than any other commodity that we place value on.

A famine has come on the earth as a result of our slovenly industrial practices and we see it from two points of view. Clint Walker who is head of your typical American farm family trying to survive and Nehemiah Persoff head of a blakc market food ring in a nearby midwestern city.

Deadly Harvest is a cheaply made film which has faded shades of that other post apocalyptic film On The Beach ithout the power, poetry, and stars of the latter.

The message as I said before is a mted one.and muted. Taken to its logical conclusion Archer,Daniels,Midland and companies like that will rule the planet.

"To most of us, it came as a surprise. Not many understood. Too few cared enough to stop it. Then, it no longer mattered how many understood or cared. It was too late.

The beginning of the end came in the late '70s. The climate changes... the energy crisis, the shortages, the high costs of growing and transporting grain, the lack of government support for research programs. The disappearance of arable land beneath the monoliths of reinforced concrete and steel as the urban centers continued their unchecked sprawl into the countryside. The industrial pollution that poisoned the earth, the water, and the air. And the continuing growth of population out of all bounds of reason. More and more people, less and less food.

By the end of the '70s, the fabric of society was breaking down in most parts of he world... And then, the bubble burst."

So begins a cautionary tale from the sages in Hollywood, who even thirty years ago were desperately trying to warn us unwashed masses about the dangers of climate change facing us. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

So what is "The World's Scourge" as described in the movie's tagline? GLOBAL COOLING!

Draw your own conclusions.

P.S. - This would make a great double feature with "An Inconvenient Truth".

Welcome to the taupe movie. Everything in the film is taupe.....the actors' skin and hair, their clothes, the ground, the sky.... My God! How bleak can it get?! The movie details the plight of North America when global weather patterns shift causing crops to freeze and harvests to be lost. The government realizes that there is no food left and before long, it's every man for himself. Walker (one time Greek God who now looks rather haggard and is desperately trying to give this poor film some heart) plays a farmer who becomes a target of vigilantes because he has things like chickens, vegetables and a cow. Brown is a desperate city dweller whose daughter is in dire need of proper nutrition and whose money now does him no good at all. Persoff is a heartless entrepreneur who's been hoarding food all along in order to be a player during the shortage. All the elements converge during a wedding ceremony when some men try to steal the bounty of food that's been offered as a present. Then a string of violent events continues until the fade out. The idea of the film is somewhat ambitious (though not entirely original.) The execution of it (mostly due to the severely low budget and the amateurism of the acting) is agonizing. The opening of the film is horrendous. Anonymous businessmen talk (and talk) about the situation with camera setups and sound that's probably worse than most underground pornography of the time. The rough lighting and photography continue throughout the film which, as stated earlier, exists in a bleak pallet of tan, taupe and brown with occasional splashes of navy blue. Some really lame actors attempt to portray despair and emotion in the face of the situation, but mostly they come off as laughable. Whelan, as Brown's elderly father and Greenhalgh as Walker's wife are chief offenders here. Cattrall has an early role here as Walker's daughter. The part has little to it, but she performs adequately for the most part. The thing is, the film wants to be serious and foreboding, but it's so melodramatic and trite and done with such little style that it doesn't stand much of a chance. If one were to remove the shots of cars/trucks driving down desolate roads, the film would likely run 40 minutes!

Comin at you from the 70's when global climate change meant cold weather and food shortages...I liked the soundtrack and some of the scenes are memorable- Clint driving into the city with the world going haywire. the opening of the movie. and the end credits are especially good. This movie is barebones don't expect to be blown away by special effects because there are none. and that's a good thing in my book. It's one of those movies that you might remember watching as a kid and thinking it was pretty awesome and then watching it again now maybe it's not so awesome. but then again, maybe it is? If you like Clint Walker i recommend it he is laid back for most of the movie, well really all of the movie, but its good.