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

Noon Wine – Liberation Hall (DVD)

Theatrical Release Date: USA, 1966
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Writer: Sam Peckinpah
Cast: Jason Robards, Olivia de Havilland, Theodore Bikel, Per Oscarsson, Robert Emhardt, Steve Sanders, Ben Johnson, Peter Robbins, L.Q. Jones, Jill Andre, Joan Tompkins

Release Date: May 30th, 2023
Approximate Running Times: 59 Minutes 1 Second (Version With Commercials), 50 Minutes 12 Seconds (Version Without Commercials)
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio (Both Versions)
Rating: NR
Sound: Dolby Digital Mono English (Both Versions)
Subtitles: N/A
Region Coding: Region 0 NTSC
Retail Price: $14.95

"Royal Earle Thompson owns a dairy farm in southern Texas during the late 1890s. His farm is fairly unproductive, due in part to Thompson's laziness and distaste for most of the required labor on a farm. Thompson lives with his wife, Ellie, and two small sons, and while Ellie is continually ill, she does her best to perform her domestic duties around the farm. One day, Olaf Helton presents himself at the farm and the taciturn Swede asks Farmer Thompson for a job and is hired on the spot. Helton proves to be an invaluable asset and after nine years pass, the dairy farm is thriving, thanks to Helton's incomparable work ethic One day, an offensive and irritating stranger named Homer T. Hatch shows up at the farm. saying he is there to "locate" Helton. Thompson takes an immediate dislike to Helton due to his grating banter and subtle insults. Hatch eventually reveals he is a bounty hunter, and Helton is an escaped mental patient. Thompson has a vision of Hatch driving a knife blade into Helton's stomach.and rushes to Helton's defense, striking Hatch with an axe blade and killing him. Nenwhile, Helton flees. After a perfunctory trial, Thompson is acquitted on the ground of self-defense/defense of another but Thompson continues to relive the killing, endlessly reviewing possible options, other paths he could have taken. Worse, though he is legally "not guilty," the community regards him as not innocent, and fears that he has become an outcast.. In a climactic scene at home, Thompson realizes that even his wife is afraid of him and that their now nearly grown sons no longer trust him. Dressed in his best, Thompson writes a note of explanation, how he never meant to kill Hatch. Poignantly, Thompson puts no blame on Helton, observing that had Hatch come hunting him instead of Helton, his friend would have done the same for him." – Synopsis provided by the Distributor

Video: 2.5/5

Here’s information about Noon Wine, “The show was recorded live, on kinescope and the original masters were thought to be lost.”

Noon Wine comes of a single layer DVD.

Disc Size: 4.1 GB

Considering the limitations of the source available for this release, this transfer can only look so good. There are tape defects (analog source?), colors fluctuate, black levels are at best adequate, and image clarity is generally crisp. Quality-wise, the two versions are comparable.

Audio: 2.5/5

Each version comes with one audio option, a Dolby Digital mono mix in English. Both audio tracks have background hisses that vary in degree throughout. That said, the dialog comes through clearly enough to follow, and everything sounds balanced. Also, considering the limitations of the source, these tracks sound good range-wise.

Summary:

Noon Wine was a television program that was part of the ABC Stage 67 anthology series. This series ran for one season, and there were 26 episodes.

Noon Wine was directed by Sam Peckinpah, a filmmaker best remembered for his revisionist westerns like The Wild Bunch, and Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid. Noon Wine was adapted by Sam Peckinpah from author Katherine Anne Porter’s short novel of the same name.

At the heart of Noon Wine is a morality tale about self-interest versus doing the right thing. The narrative revolves around a dairy farmer trapped in a loveless marriage who hires a stranger to work on his farm. This decision proves to be very beneficial to the dairy farmer, and when faced with the possibility of losing his helper, the dairy farmer commits an act of violence that puts a heavy burden on his conscience.

Noon Wine has a solid cast that features many faces that will be recognizable to anyone familiar with the films of Sam Peckinpah. And though the cast is all very good, It is the three leads who shine the brightest: Jason Robards (The Ballad of Cable Hogue) in the role of a dairy farmer named Royal Earle Thompson, Olivia de Havilland (The Heiress) in the role of Ellie, the dairy farmer's wife, and Per Oscarsson (Hunger) in the role of Olaf Helton, the stranger looking for a job.

Though there is only so much that can be done when working on a product made for television, the result is something that far exceeds its meager resources. The premise is well executed, and the narrative does a great job building momentum towards a bleak finale, which serves as a perfect coda. Also, Sam Peckinpah’s direction does a superb job of letting the characters take center stage. Ultimately, Noon Wine is an extraordinary piece of filmmaking that is filled with cinematic flourishes that are synonymous with the films of Sam Peckinpah.

Liberation Hall rescued Noon Wine, a rarely seen work from Sam Peckinpah, out of obscurity. That said, don’t let the technical limitations of this release discourage you from checking out Noon Wine.

Written by Michael Den Boer

Major Dundee (2-Disc Limited Edition) – Arrow Video (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: USA, 1965
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Writers: Harry Julian Fink, Oscar Saul, Sam Peckinpah
Cast: Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, Jim Hutton, James Coburn, Michael Anderson Jr., Senta Berger, Mario Adorf, Brock Peters, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson

Release Date: June 28th, 2021 (UK), June 29th, 2021 (USA)
Approximate Running Times: 135 Minutes 50 Seconds (Extended Cut), 122 Minutes 18 Seconds (Theatrical Cut)
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC (Both Versions)
Rating: 18 (UK), NR (USA)
Sound: DTS-HD 5.1 English, LPCM Mono English (Extended Cut), DTS-HD Mono English (Theatrical Cut)
Subtitles: English SDH (Both Versions)
Region Coding: Region A,B
Retail Price: £34.99 (UK), $59.95 (USA)

"Major Amos Dundee, a vainglorious Union Cavalry officer, who mounts an expedition to hunt down Apache war chief Sierra Charriba. Building his own army of criminals, ex-slaves and Confederate POWs - among them one Captain Ben Tyreen (Richard Harris), whose intense former friendship with Dundee is tainted with a sense of betrayal on both sides - Dundee heads into Mexico, his eye fixed firmly on a last shot at greatness." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.25/5 (Extended Cut), 4/5 (Theatrical Cut)

Here’s the information provided about the extended cut's transfer, "4K scan by Sony Pictures".

Major Dundee extended cut comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 49.8 GB

Feature: 32.8 GB

Here’s the information provided about the theatrical cut's transfer, "from a 2K scan".

Major Dundee theatrical cut comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 40.6 GB

Feature: 32.6 GB

The sources used for both versions are in great shape, colors and flesh tones look correct, image clarity, contrast and black levels look strong throughout, there are no compression related issues and grain remains intact. It should-be noted that the image does not look as strong when there’s an optical. Also, though both transfers seem to come from the same source that Twilight Time used for their Blu-ray, the result is a stronger encode from Arrow Video.

Audio: 4.5/5

The extended cut comes with two audio options, LPCM mono mix in English with original score by Daniele Amfitheatrof and a DTS-HD 5.1 mix in English with new score by Christopher Caliendo. The theatrical cut comes with one audio option, a DTS-HD mono mix in English. All three audio mixes sound great, dialog comes through clearly, everything sounds balanced and ambient sounds are well-represented. With the DTS-HD 5.1 offering up a solid track that does a good job expanding the original mono source. Both versions comes with removable English SDH subtitles.

Extras:

Extras on the disc that contains the theatrical cut include UK theatrical trailer (3 minutes 17 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), UK theatrical trailer uncropped (3 minutes 18 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), US theatrical trailer (3 minutes 28 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), German theatrical trailer (3 minutes 28 seconds, LPCM mono German with English subtitles), deleted and extended scenes: compiled scenes with audio commentary by film historian and critic Glenn Erickson (6 minutes 40 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Major Dundee and Teresa’s Swimming scene (40 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Knife Fight (3 minutes 38 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles) and Silent Extended Outtakes (4 minutes 20 seconds) and a vintage featurette about Major Dundee’s stunts titled Riding for a Fall (7 minutes 23 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles).

Extras on the disc that contains the extended cut include Animated Galleries: Major Dundee on the Set, Major Dundee Colour Stills, Major Dundee Portrait Stills and Promoting Major Dundee, 2005 re-release trailer (2 minutes 26 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with filmmaker Mike Siegel who discusses his beginnings and his ongoing historical project about director Sam Peckinpah titled Mike Siegel: About the Passion & Poetry Project (43 minutes 35 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), a featurette with nine actors who talk about working with legendary director Sam Peckinpah, featuring Kris Kristofferson, Ernest Borgnine, James Coburn, David Warner, Ali MacGraw, L.Q. Jones, Bo Hopkins, R.G. Armstrong, Isela Vega titled Passion & Poetry: Peckinpah Anecdotes (25 minutes 43 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), a documentary about the making of Major Dundee by Mike Siegel, featuring James Coburn, Senta Berger, Mario Adorf, L.Q. Jones, R.G. Armstrong, Gordon Dawson titled Passion & Poetry: The Dundee Odyssey (75 minutes 25 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English/German with removable English subtitles for German language), a visual essay by David Cairns titled Moby Dick on Horseback (29 minutes 6 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles) and three audio commentary tracks, the first audio commentary is with Nick Redman, David Weddle, Garner Simmons and Paul Seydor, the second audio commentary is with film critics Glenn Erickson and Alan K. Rode and the third audio commentary is with Glenn Erickson.

Rounding out the extras is a fold out poster and a sixty-page booklet with cast & crew information, an essay titled A Tale of Ambition, Obsession, and Desperation: Sam Peckinpah’s Major Dundee written by Jeremy Carr, an essay titled Major Dundee written by Farran Smith Nehme, an essay titled War Without End written by Roderick Heath, an essay titled Sam Peckinpah: Romantic Existentialist written by Neil Snowdon and information about the transfers. 

Summary:

In the early 1960’s Sam Peckinpah quickly established himself as one of better American directors making westerns. Where most of his contemporaries made westerns that by that time felt dated due to their looking backward instead of forward. Sam Peckinpah was a visionary filmmaker who would give the western genre and action cinema a much-needed kick in the ass with his explicit depiction of violence and his revisionist take on the American western.

By the time Sam Peckinpah directed Major Dundee, he had only directed two feature films, The Deadly Companions and Ride the HIgh Country. And though he showed a lot of growth from his first film, two his second film. The amount of creative growth from Ride the High Country to Major Dundee was ten fold.     

Major Dundee is an epic film about a larger than life protagonist who’s driven by his obsessions. Cast in the role of Major Dundee is Charlton Heston, an actor who’s portrayed many larger than life characters. Most notably Moses in The Ten Commandments and the protagonist in Ben Hur.  Charlton Heston delivers a solid performance that has just the right amount of gravitas. That said, the rest of the cast has many recognizable faces and they are all very good in their respective roles.

Though there had been western set in the Civil War before Major Dundee. The result is a film that stands apart from all Civil War themed American westerns that came before Major Dundee. And nowhere is this clearer, then when it comes to elements that are undeniably Sam Peckinpah.

From a production standpoint, though they're not many areas where Major Dundee does not excel. There are a few areas where Major Dundee comes up short. Most notably a haphazard narrative that starts off very strong, only to lose momentum after Major Dundee achieves his first goal. That said, most of these shortcomings can-be attributed to the film being altered by the producer for its theatrical release. And fortunately this release offers a more rounded out extended cut that corrects some of the theatrical cut’s shortcomings.

To say, they don’t make films like Major Dundee anymore, would be an understatement. It’s from a bygone era of filmmaker when director’s had a significant role in the creative process.

Arrow Video gives Major Dundee an excellent release that comes with two versions of the film and a wealth of insightful extras, highly recommended.

Extended Cut Screenshots.

 Theatrical Cut Screenshots.

Written by Michael Den Boer