The Farmer 4K 1977 Ultra HD 2160p

Kyle Martin returns from WW2 as a silver star hero, but realizes running a one man farm is not profitable, and the bank wants to foreclose. Then a gambler Johnny has a car accident near his farm, in which Kyle saves his life, and Johnny offers him $1,500, which still isn't enough to save the farm. Then when Johnny past-posts on a horse race for over $50,000, he angers local mobster Passini as he and his three henchmen kill Johnny's bodyguard and then blind Johnny's eyes with acid to "make a example out of him". Johnny asks his girl Betty to ask Kyle to kill Prassini and his men one by one for $50,000, the money he needs to save his farm, which sets the path for revenge.

User Review
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.

Info Video

Codec: HEVC / H.265 (80.0 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Info Audio

#English: FLAC 2.0
#English: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Commentary with film historian Eric Zaldivar)

Info Subtitles