Review of Deadly Harvest

'Deadly Harvest' sounds like the title of some 'Children of The Corn' type of film, with cannibals being mowed down by wheat threshers, or something else suitably gruesome. But no, it's actually a Canadian version of one of those Hollywood 70's "be forewarned" sci-fi epics (ala 'Soylent Green' or "No Blade of Grass'); this one telling the tale of a massive, global food shortage at the end of the seventies resulting in a hunger panic that reaches the good folk who live out on the farms. The film's lead farmer is played by Clint Walker who occupies the space of one acre all by himself. And his acting, as always, is about as tinny and wooden-handled as a plow, too. He plods through this film like an inoffensive sasquatch, with a landslide of oily hair that makes it appear he bathes in a bog. Kim Cattrall, a Canadian actress all of 20 years old here, gets little to do as Walker's daughter. Her face bulges with baby fat so she's almost unrecognizable as the 'Sex and The City' woman of today. Nehemiah Persoff is collecting a paycheck on this one and probably dispensed with the craft services since he provided his own ham in every scene he's in. Otherwise, it's nondescript actors doing nondescript work with nondescript dialogue. Really, this little movie held some promise with its intriguing concept, but let itself down by executing said concept so poorly. The perfect example of this is the climactic battle between Persoff's gang and Walker's that is nothing more than another wild west shootout. Walker's comment at the end that things are about to get much worse does add a chilling coda, although it is the next stage of the disaster that Walker alludes to, with city folk ravaging the countryside, that we really want to see. Oh, and the music score by somebody named John Mills-Cockell is a cheap synthesizer drag. This film could have been a dark comic masterpiece if, instead of a food shortage caused by failing crops and overpopulation, it was about obese Americans so hungry that they've eaten all the food the world can produce and, even with extinction at hand, can't stop eating. Ah well, food for thought.........