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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.

i also saw "the farmer" when it came out at my marine corp base theatre and was in the process of shipping out on a Med float, needless to say all us "jar heads" went nuts from the first frame to the last. one great scene where the bad guy's looking out the 4th story window and say's, "i love parades" and the farmer's response is, "well then join it..." it's just cool. gary conway really is convincing as the reluctant former war hero as is the rest of the cast. this film came out at the time other lower budgeted revenge flicks where made, ie: the great, "rolling thunder", "walking tall II" etc. i hope they can bring this little gem out on DVD like anchor bay or blue underground DVD companies with cool extras and remember, the farmer doesn't get mad, he gets even...uhhhhhh rahhhhhhh and semper fi...

So it was not until later that I realized what an testosterone packed, ultra-violent film it was, (I just assumed "all" American movies had taken the lead from Sam Peckinpah, since I'd been overseas...Wrong!:0) yet "The Farmer" was well done and you cared about his mission and survival. I'd shave all the hair off my left one to have this movie on DVD!!! It is an overlooked gem of it's genre' and "rules" on the viceral level (i.e., you want to see the Farmer take out the bad guys, similar to the buzz engendered in the original Bronson's "Death Wish", but much less repellent). It even has some historical accuracy in reference to the treatment of returning war veterans (I remember respecting that touch at the time). Not to be missed by action fans...

I noticed that some reviews complained about the quality of the print on YouTube for "The Farmer". Well, I found it on the Tubi app and it's near perfect in quality...crisp, and looking like new.

The story begins just after WWII...though you cannot tell this by hairstyles (especially of the women), cars (most are 1950s vintage), some of the fashions (particular shoes) and a 1970s style train that you see about ten minutes into the story. Trust me...it IS supposed to be 1945 or 1946 at the latest. I think I noticed this stuff because I am an ex-history teacher and I often notice what the average person might not. My aunt thinks I'm a nut about this...and she's probably right. Regardless, either they didn't have the money to get it right or they just didn't care.

Aboard a train, a returning soldier, Kyle (Gary Conway of "Land of the Giants" fame), intervenes when a nasty group of bigots are harassing a black man (with 70s hair). For his troubles, Kyle's tossed off the train and must walk a long way to his farm. However, when he arrives he learns from his hired hand that the place is in foreclosure and is a mess. Kyle tries to re-negotiate the loan with the bank with no success. He just can't seem to catch a break.

Soon after this, there's a car wreck near Kyle's farm. He and his hired hand save the guy in the car just before it explodes...and the guy turns out to be a gambler. Soon after this, the gambler is kidnapped by local mobsters and deliberately blinded with acid! He tries to hire Kyle to kill them, as he himself doing it would be problematic (but NOT unheard of...see "Master of the Flying Guillotine" if you don't believe me). But Kyle isn't THAT desperate for money. However, later, after his hired hand is murdered and a woman Kyle cares about is violently raped, he decides he could use the $50,000 bounty the gambler has put on the hoods.

What follows is quite violent by 1970s movie standards. In addition to the rape and acid attack, there are a lot of murders (such as by using a garrote, putting a gun to a man's mouth and pulling the trigger and a lot of other bloody methods) and a bit of nudity. It clearly is NOT a family movie and you might want to consider this before you show it to your kids or Father O'Malley if he stops by for a visit.

So despite the violence and terrible attention to 1940s details, is it any good? Well, the story actually isn't bad...and I loved the way the movie ended. The acting also isn't bad considering most of the actors are relatively smalltime. But it's also unpleasant and something you may find too much so. It all just depends on you and your tastes. I think it's a movie crying out for a bigger budget remake. I was shocked that despite its problems and cheapness it's STILL a very good movie.

By the way, the ballistics in the film are nutty. You cannot blow a man across a road about 10 feet with a shotgun blast. Heck, a tank would have a hard time doing that! In fact, if hit by a shotgun blast, you'd probably just fall down...not go flying.

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.