Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia – Shout! Factory (UHD)

Theatrical Release Date: USA/Mexico, 1974
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Writers: Gordon T. Dawson, Sam Peckinpah, Frank Kowalski
Cast: Warren Oates, Isela Vega, Robert Webber, Gig Young, Helmut Dantine, Emilio Fernández, Kris Kristofferson

Release Date: June 3rd, 2025
Approximate Running Time: 112 Minutes 51 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / HDR10 Dolby Vision
Rating: R
Sound: DTS-HD Mono English
Subtitles: English SDH, English
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $36.98

"When a Mexican land baron puts a million dollars on the head of the man who seduced and impregnated his daughter, two money-hungry hired killers recruit a small-town bartender (Oates) to help them do their dirty work. But their tequila-fueled trek across the desolate Mexican frontier grows more intense, gruesome, and bloody with every savage murder they leave in their wake." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "4K Scan from the Original Camera Negative."

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia comes on a 100 GB triple layer 4K UHD.

Disc Size: 77.1 GB

Feature: 68.3 GB

Although the 4K master that Arrow Video and Kino Lorber used for their releases looked solid, this new transfer may be the best Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia has looked on home media. Flesh tones and colors look correct; image clarity, contrast, black levels, and compression are solid; and the image always looks organic.

Audio: 5/5

This release comes with one audio option, a DTS-HD mono mix in English. The audio sounds excellent; dialogue always comes through clearly, and everything sounds balanced and robust when it should. Included are English SDH and English subtitles when anyone speaks Spanish. Audio and subtitles can only be changed via the setup menu and not during playback.

Extras:

Extras for this release include an extensive image gallery (stills/posters), 6 TV spots (3 minutes 8 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), a theatrical trailer (1 minute 58 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), an interview with writer/film historian Julie Kirgo titled A Killer's Rhapsody: Revisiting Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia (28 minutes 8 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival audio commentary with screenwriter/producer Gordon Dawson, moderated by film historian Nick Redman, and an archival audio commentary with film historians Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons, David Weddle, and Nick Redman.

Summary:

Sam Peckinpah directed Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. Notable films he directed are Major Dundee, The Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs, The Getaway, and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.

A wealthy Mexican rancher discovers that his unmarried daughter is pregnant and he offers a reward of one million dollars to anyone who brings him the head of Alfredo Garcia, the man responsible for taking his daughter's virtue. Two hitmen approach an American bartender working in a Mexican border town and hire him when tracking down Alfredo Garcia becomes too difficult.

When discussing the all-time great director, critics far too often liberally apply the term auteur. While there is a valid debate about the criteria that define what makes a director an auteur, understanding the true essence of an auteur largely depends on whether the director possesses a singular vision that is uniquely their own. That said, Sam Peckinpah was a director who epitomized the essence of having a singular vision.

The narrative opens with a rare moment of tranquility; from there, things shift into a darker territory that becomes bleaker as things build to an exemplary cathartic finale. The well-constructed narrative is perfectly paced, giving key moments time to resonate. Bennie, the protagonist, needs redemption, and he is a rare example of a character who is not solely driven by their greed. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia defines its characters well, and greed motivates the majority of them, while this film’s moral center is Bennie's fiancée, Elita.

Casting Warren Oates (Dillinger) in the role of Bennie, a bartender turned hitman, is an inspired choice. While he’s a more-than-capable actor who has a strong screen presence, he’s not your usual leading man type. The most surprising performance is Isela Vega (Drum) in the role of Elita. Her character is the light in a world engulfed by darkness. Notable cast members include Kris Kristofferson (Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid) in the role of a rapist biker and Robert Webber (Hired Killer) and Gig Young (The Shuttered Room) in the roles of two hitmen who hired Bennie to do their dirty work.

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia excels with its visuals, which fill the screen with striking moments that heighten the mood. The visuals give the cast room to create freely while taking full advantage of the scenic landscapes featured throughout. Some notable moments are a tender scene between Bennie and Elita as they sit beneath a tree, the scene where two bikers hold Bennie at gunpoint while they sexually assault Elita, and when Bennie finds Alfredo Garcia’s grave and retrieves his head.

Sam Peckinpah's films often centered around loners who are forced to compromise their moral code to survive a nihilistic world that is at constant odds with them. Throughout Sam Peckinpah's career, he often found himself at odds with those financing his films, and with Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, he's able to create an unfiltered film that fully embodies the elements that are synonymous with his cinema. That said, the most surprising aspect of Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is how it manages to create some moments of beauty for such an unrelenting exploration of the darker side of humanity.

Shout Factory gives Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia an excellent release that comes with a solid audio/video presentation and a wealth of insightful extras. Highly recommended.

Note about the 4K screenshots: It is not possible to make Dolby Vision or HDR10 screenshots that faithfully match the experience of watching a film in motion on a TV. Instead of not having any screenshots, all of the 4K screenshots are m2ts taken with a MPC-HC player and lossless PNGs.

 

Written by Michael Den Boer