BEST SERVED COLD Trailer Exclusive: New Doc Explores Little Seen THE FARMER And The Vetsploitation Genre

Plenty of films go lost or neglected. But how many films are kept unreleased specifically to taunt fans who are dying to see it, thereby creating an unprecedented mystique and anticipation? 

 

That’s the story of the little-seen 1977 Columbia Pictures film, THE FARMER, a lost-then-buried revenge film  whose history is chronicled in the coming feature-length cinema documentary BEST SERVED COLD, by writer director Eric Zaldivar. 

 

THE FARMER somehow 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. 

 

And because THE FARMER’s hero is a returning combat veteran, the documentary also pivots its narrative to  discuss the 1970s trend of those types of films: Everything from the slow-burn violence of WELCOME HOME  SOLDIER BOYS (1972) and ROLLING THUNDER (1977) to the Oscar-winning drama of COMING HOME (1978). 

 

BEST SERVED COLD features interviews with almost all surviving cast and crew of THE FARMER, from  producer/star Gary Conway down to bit players like Stratton Leopold (incidentally, Leopold later went on to  become an A-list film producer, of such films as MISSION IMPOSSIBLE III). 

 

Zaldivar’s documentary also interviews filmmakers associated with the “returning veterans” subgenre,  including screenwriter Paul Schrader (ROLLING THUNDER), author David Morrell (creator of the John Rambo  character), actor Steve Railsback (THE VISITORS) and actor Elliott Street (WELCOME HOME SOLDIER BOYS). 

 

BEST SERVED COLD draws not only upon talking-head interviews but also unseen outtakes, unpublished  production photos, candid on-set audio recordings and 8mm footage shot by local onlookers. 

 

The documentary is now wrapping production, heading into post and hoping for a late-2024 completion. It  will mark a first-time feature-length directing credit for Eric Zaldivar, who has previously helmed shorts and  been hired as a screenwriter. 

 

Zaldivar is coproducing the documentary with Mike Malloy and John Joseph Dunn. Malloy is a cinema  documentarian, known for writing-directing EUROCRIME! (2012) and for hours of supplemental content on  Blu-Rays for such companies as StudioCanal and MGM. Dunn has recently joined the producing team of  various narratives and documentaries, including EPing the horror drama FANG (2022, dir. Richard Burgin) and  the upcoming MONSTER GIRLS cinema doc (dir. Jessie Sietz).