Excerpt from GayBoi Digest, Issue 457, 10/25:
[Revisiting Buck: A Retrospective with Cane Kelly, pg.65-68]
“One of the most influential pieces of American Adult Entertainment has to be ‘Farmer Buck.’ It just is. This one bit of media started a whole genre of alien and mind control content. Sure, you got some good ones in the mix since then. Hell, I’d take the piss and say even my ‘Hypno-way Camp’ is pretty okay, but…” Veteran director shrugs, shaking his head like he still cannot believe the profound impact a two-hour flick could have. “‘Farmer Buck’ hits different.”
I can see Kelly itching for a smoke. “Even for its time, it had a solid premise, good production, and a great crew, all anchored by a stellar performance from Mr. Buckley.”
“I don’t just mean…you know, just because he knew how to use his package or how to find his angles. I genuinely mean that he could play Shakespeare with the level of artistry he put in the role.” He rubs his chin in thought. “It’s one of those rare finds where you don’t skip the loose bit of story in between scenes. You just enjoy how wholesome and likable Farmer Buck is, contrasting with how devilish the goo acts and uses his body.”
“But don’t you think that the ending was…controversial?” I asked pensively.
Kelly gives me a pensive look of equal measure, as if he had been waiting for this question. He leans forward, propping his elbows on his knees. “Oh, because a lot of people didn’t like that Farmer Buck took back control of his body and f***ed the slime into submission?” When I nodded, he rolls his eyes, exasperated not at me but on the nearly half-century debate.
“I personally enjoy it. I think having that heroic win at the end speaks deeply to my need to see the world as better as it is.” He crosses his arm, looks at the clock behind me. I don’t think he was glaring at the time…but maybe reflecting on time, as strange as it sounds. “I think, as queer people, we may feel this need to relish in villainy because we’re othered by society, that the alien goo was our…dark savior…our darkest impulses wanting to wreck havoc and get even with heterosexual ‘Wholesomeville,’ but people tend to forget that Farmer Buck gets with the pastor at the end and that they even get hitched. So, maybe we can stop being too edgy and see ourselves in Buck’s shoes. We’re not the villains, we’re the heroes.”
[Context: after Al gets excommunicated by his government, he had to do a couple of really…odd jobs. He didn’t know him partly ‘producing’ the film woth insights form Tony would lead to all this. Oops]
