Leon the Pig Farmer (1992) User Reviews

Quirky doesn't entail funny. Don't expect much.

[Spleen · 6/10 · 15 August 1999]

A young Jew, who was confused enough about what kind of person he was already, discovers that he is in fact the result of artificial insemination, and that his biological father is a Yorkshire pig farmer. So of course he has to agonise about things, and so do one or two other people. Now that I come to think of it, so does everybody.

It's a comedy and I didn't get any of the jokes. -Oh, I UNDERSTOOD the jokes, well enough - it's not as if they rely on the more obscure aspects of Jewish theology or culture. (Maybe some of them did. These would have been the jokes I didn't understand; indeed, didn't even notice.) I admit that there was this one guy in the cinema who chuckled every so often and he seemed to disprove my theory that one must actually be a Jew in order to find this film amusing. He didn't LOOK Jewish.

That's about the kind of joke you can expect.

If you don't find any of it funny enough to actually laugh at, and to be frank I don't see how you could, there's still something endearing about the oddness of it all. I never worked out if I was meant to be laughing at the central character's angst or angsting along with him. I did neither: but I found myself liking him all the same.

A sad funny story that could happen to you!

[DukeEman · 7/10 · 27 February 2003]

Poor Leon discovers a past that goes against everything that is Jewish. It takes a while for the story to kick start but once you get going, you fall into the flamboyance of the humour, enjoying the belly laughs, and maybe the dish as well.

Filofaxes, Ford Fiestas and Floppy Disks

[JamesHitchcock · 5/10 · 13 February 2016]

Watching this film recently, for the first time since I originally saw it in the cinema, it came as something of a shock to realise that it is now nearly a quarter of a century since it first appeared. It looks very dated today, but what dates it is not the clothes and hairstyles on display. Those don't seem to have changed much since 1992, certainly not as much as they would have changed during the quarter-century between 1967 and 1992. What dates it is its technology. It takes us back to a world of Filofaxes, of Ford Fiestas, of floppy disks and of mobile phones the size of a housebrick.

The title character, Leon Geller, is a Jewish estate agent from North London who discovers that due to a mistake in an artificial insemination clinic his real father is actually Brian Chadwick, a Gentile pig farmer from Yorkshire. Leon travels north to meet his new-found family and while staying on the farm manages (thanks to another artificial insemination cock-up) to cross-breed a pig with a sheep. Cue much debate about whether the resulting creature would be kosher and whether it could be used to produce Jewish bacon.

Watching the film again, I still couldn't really see what the point of it is. I wondered if you need to be Jewish- I am not- to appreciate it. Are the characters of Leon's parents Sidney and Judith (neurotic, forever complaining and always badgering their son to get married) and of Leon himself (neurotic, angst-ridden, guilt-ridden) meant as sharp social commentary or merely as ironic stereotypes? Are Jews really all haunted by some vague sense of existential guilt? (Leon blames all his neuroses on his Jewish background). Do you need to be well-versed in Jewish theology to make any sense of all that bickering between the Orthodox and Reform Rabbis? Or to care whether the dietary laws would permit you to eat meat from a sheep-pig hybrid in the scientifically improbable event of such a creature ever being produced? (We never get to see what this unlikely beast looks like- doubtless the budget was too limited for the necessary special effects).

Few of the characters are anything other than one-dimensional, although Mark Frankel does enough to suggest that there may be more than one dimension to Leon. (Frankel's tragic death in a road accident in 1996 was a sad loss to the British acting profession). Overall, however, "Leon the Pig Farmer" is little more than a thin, and sometimes baffling, little comedy. 5/10

My life, already

[drella-2 · 27 August 1999]

When even Woody Allen seems to have given up making overtly Jewish movies, Leon is a novelty. OK, some of the comedy borders on stereotype, but, I can tell you from experience, it's still true. The confusions of identity, culture, heritage etc are a ready source of sardonic wit. And it's not just a film for Jewish people either - anybody with experience of cultures centred around insane families will appreciate it. In my circle, Indians, Italians and the Irish seem to have a particular affinity. On a sadder note, the film features mark Frankel, whose untimely death was potentially a major loss to the Brit industry.

Ham-fisted!

[paul2001sw-1 · 3/10 · 10 February 2007]

You can leave the Church of England altogether; Catholics lapse, but remain in some senses Catholic; and you're always a Jew. On this basis, there may be thought be to some good ground for comedy in a film about a Jewish man, who, while in the midst of a general life-crisis, discovers that on top of all his other problems, his true father is a Yorkshire pig-farmer! Unfortunately, this is an almost embarrassingly amateurish movie. It has no idea of how to handle a storyline, while both realism and belly-laughs are eschewed in favour of a half-hearted stylisation that never even manages to convey a mood, let alone find a comic vein. Moreover, in a huge number of scenes, the natural object of our attention is off-camera: in some cases, that's because the object cannot be filmed, but whether the other cases are explained by directorial preference or incompetence I wouldn't like to say. A clumsy and anaemic film, you won't miss much if you don't see it.

Jewish guilt

[lee_eisenberg · 9/10 · 11 October 2005]

Jewish guilt is not a topic that I see portrayed much in movies, but "Leon the Pig Farmer" does a good job with it. Leon Geller (Mark Frankel) is a Jewish estate agent in London who one day discovers that he was the product of artificial insemination; his real father is a pig farmer. Going off to meet his "other" family, Leon has more than a few surprises! They did an interesting job here. True, non-Jews might not get all the jokes, but it's funny nonetheless. And I guess that we sometimes forget that there ARE Jews in England. Anyway, you might see if you can find this movie. You'll probably like it.

Oh, and by the way, that one character was played by Burt Kwouk (Kato from the "Pink Panther" movies).

Decent

[mark_knights · 8/10 · 16 July 2000]

Very enjoyable, funny, quirky and a little odd. All in all an entertaining way to waste an hour and a half or so. It's starting to look a little dated however, this does not detract from what is a very entertaining film. There are a lot of films brit flicks that are more highly rated and nowhere near as good.

Leon the Pig Farmer

[chriskerfoot · 5 May 2002]

Very Simply this is my candidate for "Worst film ever made". It even makes Magnolia vaguely palatable. Stay clear if you see this on a video store shelf. There are many better ways to lose 90 minutes of your life than watch this.

Low Budget, off-beat British comedy, with social commentary.

[purplecoca · 8/10 · 23 May 2008]

This comedy is fast-paced and sometimes very well acted, and there's a warm human under-current to it all. Vadim Jean borrows , and expands upon, a device from Richard Lester's "The Knack-and How to Get it" by having passersby comment on the action, which is one of this films delights. Not a great movie, but a great example of British and Jewish comedy, and a type of film that could be made not that long ago, for about $300,000. It is low budget, off-beat British comedy with social commentary. The pig story revolves around Leon Geller, who has a endless capacity for guilt, finds that he is the product of a mix-up at the sperm bank. His real father turns out to be a pig farmer (Brian Glover). Leon decides to examine his roots as further complications arise, including his own artificial-insemination accident while trying to cross breed a pig and a sheep, forever smashing his hope of producing kosher bacon.