Coventry This baby fully represents my personal favorite kind of cult cinema! Released in the early 70's, obscure and almost completely untraceable, opening to the tunes of a moody and excessively outdated crooner's song whilst picturesque images of the peaceful countryside accompany the opening credits and – last but not least – introducing hard-laboring but conservative and slightly unworldly farmers as the lead characters. There's a proper name for this kind of movies and it's called "Hicksploitation". But "Sunday in the Country" is definitely more than just that! Obviously cashing in on the tremendous success of Sam Peckinpah's "Straw Dogs", this Canadian produced gem shamelessly glorifies urban violence and entirely revolves on the "protect what's yours" principle. It's also a revenge/vigilante thriller, but not the ordinary type. Usually the protagonists in revenge-thrillers themselves, or their dearest relatives, are subjected to torture and humiliation before extracting their well-deserved vengeance, but the lead character in "Sunday in the Country", farmer Adam Smith (another fabulous and expedient role of Ernest Borgnine), never really becomes directly affected by criminal violence and simply does what he does because he thinks the law isn't harsh enough. Smith is a seemingly noble widower, looking after his farm and granddaughter without ever missing a Sunday morning church service. On this particular Sunday, three relentless bank robbers (two of which resembling sophisticated bankers themselves instead of violent criminals) are at large in the countryside and have already butchered a young local couple before seeking refugee in Smith's secluded farming estate. But he's prepared for their arrival and grabs the opportunity to extract some good old-fashioned Biblical punishment on them rather than to notify the police. It may superficially look like a senselessly violent and sadistic exploitation flick, but "Sunday in the Country" is actually far more competent and inventive than it first seems. The plot juxtaposes two entirely different types of psychopaths and leaves it up to the viewer to decide who's the most dangerous. On the one side there's Leroy the outrageously spastic and most likely Atheist criminal and, opposed to him, the obsessively Catholic and stoically controlled trigger-happy farmer with his own brand of justice. It's a nice little psychological undertone to a seemingly bland and rough exploit movie. The violence & bloodshed is quite uncompromising, Ernest Borgnine and Michael J. Pollard are amazing (the rest of the cast can be ignored, though) and the atmosphere is undeniably 70's. A must-see for hillbilly-connoisseurs.

The_Void Sunday in the Country is another one of those downbeat seventies thrillers, although it doesn't seem to take influence from the likes of The Last House on the Left despite its sadistic nature and torture-themed plot. The film takes in ideas of justice and whether or not a normal man can be justified in taking the law into his own hands as we follow three bank robbers who wind up at a country home where a man has plans not to let the police deal with them and instead decides to lock them in his basement and deal out justice himself, much to the dismay of his granddaughter who doesn't take kindly to his sadistic intent. The film builds tension by way of constantly putting the idea of whether or not the man will kill the robbers himself. This might not sound too interesting, but director John Trent does a good job of ensuring that the vigilante themes work well. Ernest Borgnine doesn't exactly show off his full talent in the lead role, but still brings credence and believability to a man who wants justice on his own terms. The rest of the cast aren't too good, but nobody performs below the standard of a B-movie picture like this. The country atmosphere is well shown, and even though the locations aren't stunning, they bode well with the feel of the movie. Overall, I can't say that this is a great film; but it's certainly a good one and comes recommended to fans of seventies cult cinema.

katyzone The movie moves through its plot in subtle ways- no big explosions or car chases, not even any prolonged suspense- you know exactly what is going to happen as it happens, yet I found myself glued to this movie.The atmosphere was really gritty and things... just happen. Almost like being a cab rolling through unfamiliar territory with a cabbie who is speaking about unpleasent things, the movie takes you on and on but you just can't get off.Ernest plays a charactor that is rare in a sincere form- an American with backbone combined with wisdom willing to take action.Unfortunately, his daughter is (forboding of what is coming down the pipeline?) jelly spined and totally with out active morals. She is content to sit back and judge everyone, breakdown emotionally, and then ignore the situation completely by running off with yet another man/support system. She couldn't be blamed, that is until her father sought to teach her an important life lesson, and... she still didn't get it. Yes, Ernest's charactor goes too far and his daughter practices inconclusive thinking. So the charactors are way too extreme- it turns into a situation that just wouldn't happen with real people. This can be explained that the movie was made in the seventies, when a lot of movies tried to "preach at us" (as opposed to today's movies which now "show us a lesson"). They seem to try to make Ernest's charactor into some kind of bizarre villian, when to me he comes off as an okay guy living in a bizarre world thrown into a situation he never made in the first place.Everyone says the acting is poor- I don't think so, maybe just a little over played, but I think it is fine for this genre.I give this movie a 10 because I have watched 15 movies this week that have come out recently and this one is better than all of them, and:It's watchable.You want to see how everything comes out.No where in the movie does someone say "your other left".It doesn't try to explain much, just lays it out there.

steven_thyng Ernest Borgnine shines in this movie, gracefully acts the part of a simple but sincere back country grandfather with values acquired over a life time of experience. This movie should convince anyone that he is underrated as an actor. Michael J. Pollard, also underrated, portrays a degenerate criminal type very convincingly. The two play roles which bring out the character of the other, and neither actor overplays his part. A movie which should appeal to fans of Charles Bronson's Death Wish movies. Wish it would appear on tv once in awhile.