The Farmer (found action film; 1977)

Film poster.

Status: Found

Date found: Feb 2022

Found by: Scorpion Releasing

The Farmer (aka Blazing Revenge or The Killer Farmer) is a 1977 film directed by David Berlatsky in his only directorial role. The film chronicles the story of Kyle Martin, a farmer who has just returned from World War II a hero and Silver Star recipient. He's upset to find that the bank intends to foreclose his dilapidated farm, and despite his previous heroism, the creditors refuse to change their minds. Martin sets out to raise money to try and save the farm.

The film had a limited screening in public theaters in 1977, though it's believed to have been screened heavily at a variety of Marine Corps base theaters around the world. It also appeared on cable TV for a short period after its theatrical release. The film, to this day, has never received a home video release of any kind and is heavily sought-after by collectors.

In 2006, Code Red DVD claimed that they were in the process of digitally remastering the film for an upcoming DVD release, but said release simply never came to fruition. Code Red even included its trailer on several other DVD releases. This trailer remains the only footage from the film that is publicly available in DVD-level quality. A collection of screenshots released by Code Red in 2007^[1], and a few production stills and advertisements have resurfaced online.

On November 3rd, 2021, Van Lukassen (after finding and ripping a bootleg VHS copy of The Farmer on eBay) uploaded the movie onto YouTube. This was taken down due to copyright infringement. However, on November 11th, LMW User TropesAreDangerous was able to retrieve the video via a YouTube downloader and upload it to the Internet Archive. As the film was sourced from a VHS tape that may date back to the late 1970s or early 1980s and suffered from many generations, making video quality not very good but watchable. Also, there are a few sections where the video and/or audio drops out for a few seconds. However, it is currently the most complete version that has surfaced online.

In January 2022, Scorpion Releasing announced they would release The Farmer onto Blu-Ray in early February. It featured HD scans of the original negatives and is region free.^[2]