Starring: Christopher Walken, Zach Braff, Roberta Maxwell, Christina Ricci, Martin Donovan, Luke Kirby, Adam Beach
Distributor: Rialto Films
Runtime: 99 mins. Reviewed in Jun 2021
Reviewer: Peter W Sheehan
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This dramatic film is directed from a screenplay written by Garfield Lindsay Miller and Hilary Pryor. It is based on a true story and follows a 70-year-old Saskatchewan canola farmer, who took on a giant biotech company for interfering with his crops. The film is set in Winnipeg, in the Manitoba Provence of Canada, in the 1990s. It has some fictional scenes, but stays close to real events.
Percy Schmeiser (Christopher Walken), who died in 2020 from Parkinson’s Disease at age 89, was told that genetically modified canola was in his crops and he challenged the agricultural corporation, Monsanto Canada Inc., for claiming he was personally responsible for its presence. He came to realise that other farmers were being treated unfairly, and he moved to protect his rights. He joined forces with a conscientious young lawyer, Jackson Weaver (Zach Braff), his loyal and devoted wife, Louise (Roberta Maxwell), and a spirited environmental activist, Rebecca Salcau (Christina Ricci). The legal defence team for Monsanto was led by Rick Aarons (Martin Donovan). Percy took his case against Monsanto all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, and extensive legal argument prolonged the timing of the fight. The acting of those in the movie is uniformly impressive. It is a story of moral complexity, and the film’s direction captures it well.
Farming to Percy was a “training in a foundation for everything we care about”, and Percy claimed that Monsanto failed to protect him. The company sued Percy for using its patented, genetically modified Monsanto seeds, without a licence to do so. Percy argued that the genetic material belonging to Monsanto and found on his farm, had blown there in the wind, or fell off a neighbouring farmer’s truck – both of which were possible – and the fault lay with the company’s failure to control their agricultural practices. Percy vehemently proclaimed that stolen Monsanto seeds were never planted by him, or merged by him knowingly into his crop. In its final judgment, The Supreme Court of Canada was split in its decision. It upheld the intellectual property rights of Monsanto, but ruled that Percy and his family owed the company no damages. The Monsanto company changed hands in 2018, but the legal battle of ‘David v Goliath’, now over, was a moral victory for Percy Schmeiser, his family, his supporters, and farmers everywhere.
The film is an inspirational story of one human being, helped by others, who chose to confront a powerful and influential major food corporation that built its practices on corporate greed. The themes of the film include pesticide control, environmental degradation, food safety and quality, and health impairment, but they importantly embrace the moral issues surrounding the nature of corporate responsibility. It raises complex questions – for instance, as to ‘what are ethically appropriate rules for farming distribution that guarantee food security and financial viability?’
The film is a cautionary tale with clout, that has a strong, factually-based story behind it. Christopher Walken brings a formidable, steady presence to the role of Percy Schmeiser that anchors the film firmly to reality in a way which keeps the seriousness of the ethical and moral issues alive. Walken drives the action and the film builds Percy’s character step by step by slowly cementing what Percy does, and how he thinks. The quiet growth of Percy’s resolve over the course of the movie – even through personal doubt – movingly achieves real force.
This is a fascinating and absorbing film about a six-year fight of an independent farmer, who knew his rights, and was brave enough to pursue them. Schmeiser’s courage inspired new laws to protect future farmers. In 2000, for his battle, Percy Schmeiser won the Mahatma Gandhi Award for civil service. And the song ‘Monsanto Jones’ ironically rings out, as the final credits roll.
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