A feature length cinema documentary on how THE FARMER (1977) became the most-requested cult film of the new millennium, and it's a crazy tale that involves an actor incarcerated for manslaughter, serious on-set injuries, banana-man costumes- as well as surprising links to Clint Eastwood and Martin Scorsese. The film also broadens its scope to explore the overlooked, eclectic and often ultra-violent sub-genre THE FARMER belongs to - The Returning Veteran film. A film type that hit its stride in the 1970's with hard hitting character studies such as WELCOME HOME, SOLDIERS BOYS (1971), THE NO MERCY MAN (1973) and ROLLING THUNDER (1977).
This documentary combines many movie clips with remarks from First Blood novelist David Morrell and author of The Writer's Journey Christopher Vogler. The former provides some good background and anecdotes about the movie; Vogler takes more of a symbolic and interpretive view of Rambo. He traces the path followed by our hero through all three movies and connects it to mythology and other basic story-telling notions. "Journey" manages to end the documentaries in a reasonably rich and useful way.
"In Jan Carew’s explosive drama, Sammy Davis Jr gives a memorable performance as a proud but disillusioned revolutionary who aims to destroy the remnants of white colonial rule in a new African nation. The political themes explored remain incredibly prescient." - BFI