Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Percy vs. Goliath’ on VOD, Starring Christopher Walken as a Humble Farmer Facing Down a Corporate Behemoth

Now available on demand, Percy vs. Goliath is a BOATS (Based On A True Story, my friend!) drama about a humble Canadian farmer who never did nothin’ to nobody, but ended up battling a corporate giant alllllll the wayyyyy to the Supreme Court. Christopher Walken plays real-life guy Percy Schmeiser, who refused to be a schmoe in the face of agrochem behemoth Monsanto — and so we’re guaranteed to be on his side, right? Of course. It’s the movie-drama equivalent of shooting fish in a barrel.

PERCY VS. GOLIATH: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: BRUNO, SASKATCHEWAN, 1998. Thunder rumbles, and Percy (Walken) hustles out of church, not because he’s a heathen afraid of being lightning-struck, but because there’s some important farming stuff that needs to be done before the storm hits. “God will understand, I reckon,” he says to his wife, Louise (Roberta Maxwell), when she lightly teases him about skipping the sermon.

But God has a damned sense of humor, doesn’t he? Because it seems as if His mighty storm winds blew some unwanted seed into Percy’s canola crop without him realizing — seeds carrying genetic modifications that Monsanto developed to resist weedkiller chemicals. “Growing without a license” is the official charge the corporation makes against Percy, and they want him to pay up, to the tune of several thousand dollars. In reply, he says a lot of angry stuff, but I’ll quickly summarize: F that. How’d they figure out their seed was on Percy’s land? They trespassed of course — but what’s a nobody like Percy going to do, hire a small town lawyer named Weaver (Zach Braff) and take on their jackbooted evil army of litigators, literally betting the farm on his integrity? Damn straight.

It won’t be easy, of course. If it was, this wouldn’t be much of a movie. It ends up being a landmark case in which Percy represents the rights of farmers around the world, even though he’s just sticking to his guns and insisting that he farms the land like people have done for generations, dating all the way back to the beginning of recorded time. No, really! Monsanto publicly smears Percy as a thief, and the Schmeisers’ standing in Bruno suffers. Rebecca Salcau (Christina Ricci), a rep from activist org People for Environmental Protection, offers him help in drumming up public support and monetary donations to keep him afloat, but he rightfully questions whether he’s just a pawn for her agenda. She books him a lengthy speaking tour — WARNING: MONTAGE PENDING — which makes him internationally famous. As he appeals his case, the stakes get higher and higher and Weaver stresses out and the farm falters in his absence and Louise worries but falls back on their truth: “Percy will do the right thing,” she insists.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Notably, the title Percy vs. Goliath riffs on the 2009 documentary about Schmeiser, David vs. Monsanto. is the latest of a long line of legal dramas in which the small guy faces a corporate giant, from The Rainmaker to Dark Waters to RIVETING Greg Kinnear windshield-wiper drama Flash of Genius. It has a few peripheral similarities to agro-biz satire The Informant, and the small-towns-being-attacked-by-big-companies feel of fracking drama Promised Land (which, interestingly, took the perspective of the pro-fracking folks).

Performance Worth Watching: Walken appeared in a couple of highly questionable jalopies lately — The War with Grandpa and Wild Mountain Thyme, your intrepid critic reports in solemn tones — but Percy vs. Goliath finds him in fine form. He lets the grizzled stubbornness of a lifelong get-your-hands-dirty farmer lurk at the periphery of the Percy character, and leans heavily into the type of earnestness we don’t often get from Walken and his trademark winking, lilting cadence. It’s a strong performance that defies type and ultimately keeps the movie afloat.

Memorable Dialogue: Walken goes full metal forthright with this line reading: “I’m a farmer. I’m just a farmer.”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: I’m happy to report that a formula BOATS plot doesn’t sink Percy vs. Goliath, which is a smooth-drinking little drama that never indulges phony grandiosity or too much schmaltz (well, not until the heavy-handed final shot, at least). Director Clark Johnson (S.W.A.T.) makes sure the movie keeps a level head tonally, and nicely balances a number of dramatic elements — the media attention the case stirs up, the stress put on the Schmeiser family, their tense relationships with other farmers, Percy’s business concerns, the big-picture viewpoint of the activist org, etc. — without losing focus on the unerringly principled guy in the title.

So as Percy is a no-B.S., sincere, likably crusty kind of guy, the film follows suit, honing in on Walken’s performance; Ricci, Maxwell and Braff are all good and solid in their supporting roles as well. Johnson employs a bit of lovely golden-fields-of-grain cinematography for the occasional humbly poetic interlude, and finds a little bit of warmth and truth among the cliches. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel for this simple story; if there are any nits to pick here, it’s that it fudges some of the (admittedly potentially dull) details of the legal case, gives short shrift to Luke Kirby’s (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) role as Percy’s non-farmer son and gets wishy-washy with the science and ethics of genetically modified crops, a subject that courts controversial debate. It’s not the most exciting movie, but it’s one that’s highly watchable and with a nice dramatic flow. It’s pure of intent and modest in ambition, and well worth your time.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Watch Percy vs. Goliath for good late-period Walken, who finds the nuance in a character that could have been caricature.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

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