Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia

[Ribs]

NOBODY LOSES ALL THE TIME

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia concluded a remarkable period for filmmaker Sam Peckinpah. It brought to an end a seven-year and seven-film run of masterpieces that included the taboo-breaking ultra-violence of The Wild Bunch and Straw Dogs, and the more elegiac tones of The Ballad of Cable Hogue and Junior Bonner. A love story that plays out in a brutal environment, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia sits somewhere between these moods and may just be Bloody Sam’s greatest work, as well as his most autobiographical.

Warren Oates plays Bennie, a piano player in a Mexican bar who gets himself involved in the manhunt for Alfredo Garcia, a man with a million-dollar price-tag on his head having impregnated the daughter of crime boss El Jefe (Emilio Fernández). Sensing an easy pay day, Bennie takes his girlfriend, Elita (Isela Vega) on a trip that’ll prove fatalistic for many of those involved.

During a career that was blighted by studio interference, Peckinpah would later say that Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia was the only which ended up exactly as he wanted: “I did it exactly the way I wanted to. Good or bad, like it or not, that was my film.” And it was. This is as close to ‘Pure Peckinpah’ as it gets – beautiful, violent, troubling, heartbreaking, astonishing.

LIMITED TWO-DISC EDITION CONTENTS:
Brand new 4K restoration from the original camera negative produced by Arrow Films exclusively for this release
Original 1.0 mono audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Brand new audio commentary by Stephen Prince, author of Savage Cinema: Sam Peckinpah and the Rise of Ultraviolent Movies, recorded exclusively for this release
Audio commentary by Sam Peckinpah scholars Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons and David Weddle, moderated by Nick Redman
Sam Peckinpah: Man of Iron, Paul Joyce’s feature-length 1993 documentary featuring interviews with James Coburn, Kris Kristofferson, Monte Hellman, Ali MacGraw, James Robards and others, available on home video in the UK for the first time ever
The John Player Lecture: Sam Peckinpah, audio recording of the director’s on-stage appearance at the National Film Theatre
Theatrical trailer
Bonus Blu-ray: Featuring never-before-seen interviews with Peckinpah colleagues and contemporaries including Kris Kristofferson, Monte Hellman, L.Q. Jones, Alan Sharp and more (TBC) [Limited Edition exclusive]
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Peter Strain
Extensive collector’s booklet containing new writing by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and numerous reprints including interviews and more [Limited Edition exclusive]

[Drucker]

Welp time to sell that Twilight Time copy.

[rwaits]

FINALLY!

[chiendent]

Been wanting to see this for a while so I'll definitely be picking it up. So the second disc is just a few interviews? I know Arrow does limited booklets and sometimes extras like the Cronenberg but is this something new?

[tenia]

Brand new 4K restoration from the original camera negative

About time to get rid of the actual old HD master !

[Dr Amicus]

Assuming the mighty James White is involved, this should ensure 2017 gets off to a great start. I haven't seen the film in years, a VHS rental back in the 90s, but I'm really looking forward to seeing it again.

Incidentally, Michael Medved included this in his book "The 50 Worst Films of All Time"...

[rwaits]

Incidentally, Michael Medved included this in his book "The 50 Worst Films of All Time"...

Interesting. Personally it belongs in my 50 All Time Favorites. Vintage Peckinpah and Oates.

[Dr Amicus]

Well, amongst the usual z-movie suspects (Plan 9 From Outer Space, Robot Monster etc.), also included were Ivan The Terrible and Last Year in Marienbad - so make of that what you will!

I'm hoping for a Barry Cryer voiced "Bring Me The Head..," to be included somewhere (for those I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue fans amongst you)...

[MichaelB]

Maybe someone should write a book The 50 Worst Film Critics of All Time? I reckon Medved would be in with a shout despite all the competition.

[Gregory]

The Wikipedia page for the film claims, "Some film critics (including Michael Medved) argue that Bring Me the Head of Alfredo García is one of the worst films ever made" but I'd bet that Medved is the only example, unless one also counts his brother, Harry Medved. Their books often seem to lazily conflate artistic failure with box office failure, so obviously Heaven's Gate for example is one of the worst films ever.

[domino harvey]

I just rewatched the mostly dreadful It Came From Hollywood and was not surprised to see the Medveds listed as special consultants. I don't like this movie either, but by no leaps of hyperbole would I ever claim it to be one of the fifty worst films ever made

[Big Ben]

I thought there were absolutely brilliant pieces (Oates is bloody amazing) to it but I just can't seem to make up my mind as to whether I liked this one or not. I think I'll be getting this release simply for the transfer however. I think a rewatch is necessary.

[mother sky]

Besides Ivan the Terrible and Last Year at Marienbad, the recent Criterion addition Valley of the Dolls also made the Medved list of fifty worst films. The book is a little weird; besides obvious contenders for uniquely terrible films such as Robot Monster and Myra Breckinridge, a lot of the list is taken up by older films that while mediocre and unmemorable, are hardly terrible. There is also a lot of sloppy writing and research in their books; their review of the lost gay Jesus porn Him is notorious, but if you compare what they wrote about the film with its contemporary reviews, it's likely those reviews are their only source, rather than actually going to a porn theater to watch the thing.

Many critics at its release hated Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, but its defenders include Roger Ebert and Charles Willeford. It's amusing that you can find it on a list of the absolute worst films and on a list of the great films (Ebert's).

[domino harvey]

Now Myra Breckinridge is a great film-- maybe they didn't like John Huston's assertion that no bad films were made between 1935 and 1945, as it refutes parts of their book!

[MichaelB]

Reefer Madness was made between 1935 and 1945. Just sayin'.

[colinr0380]

Here's the Alex Cox Moviedrome introduction from 1994 (when it was the second feature in a double bill with Major Dundee!)

[Orlac]

Well, amongst the usual z-movie suspects (Plan 9 From Outer Space, Robot Monster etc.), also included were Ivan The Terrible and Last Year in Marienbad - so make of that what you will!

I'm hoping for a Barry Cryer voiced "Bring Me The Head..," to be included somewhere (for those I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue fans amongst you)...

There is not a single mention of Ed Wood in The 50 Worst Films of All Time - which lists The Omen, Sergei Eisenstein's Ivan The Terrible and Alain Resnais's Last Year at Marienbad among the worst! It was the reader's poll which lead to the Medved's acting in 1980's The Golden Turkey Awards like they'd always known about him, listing him as Worst Director, with Plan 9 getting Worst Film, with Exorcist II as the runner-up.

[andyli]

Curiously, about three years ago when Twilight Time first issued their edition, they said something about the transfer.

A note about the transfer: for those of you familiar with the foreign territory releases on blu-ray, this transfer is the same. There appears to be only one surviving HD master, culled from the best available sources. The transfer is detailed, colorful, and sharp, but its one blemish is the recurring incidences of white speckling, also known as "minus density" (trademark, RAH!) Apart from that, it looks very good. It must be remembered that ALFREDO GARCIA was a low-budget, indie road movie, shot entirely on location in Mexico, and it remains unclear what the state of the original elements actually is, and whether any of them have survived in reasonable shape.

Those words led me to believe that TT's edition would be the best BMtHoAG will ever look. Now Arrow has done an exclusive 4K resto on the OCN. I wonder what miracles happened in between?!

[tenia]

Maybe the original elements weren't located at the time, but have now been found ?

[antnield]

Final specs:

LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

- Brand new 4K restoration from the original camera negative produced by Arrow Films exclusively for this release
- Original 1.0 mono audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Brand new audio commentary by Stephen Prince, author of Savage Cinema: Sam Peckinpah and the Rise of Ultraviolent Movies, recorded exclusively for this release
- Audio commentary by Sam Peckinpah scholars Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons and David Weddle, moderated by Nick Redman
- Sam Peckinpah: Man of Iron, Paul Joyce’s feature-length 1993 documentary featuring interviews with James Coburn, Kris Kristofferson, Monte Hellman, Ali MacGraw, James Robards and others, available on home video in the UK for the first time ever
- The John Player Lecture: Sam Peckinpah, audio recording of the director’s on-stage appearance at the National Film Theatre
- Four songs by Kris Kristofferson, filmed during the making of Man of Iron
- Theatrical trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Peter Strain
- Extensive collector’s booklet containing new writing by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and numerous reprints including interviews and more [Limited Edition exclusive]

LIMITED-EDITION BONUS BLU-RAY

Sam Peckinpah: Man of Iron – The Director’s Cut

A brand-new, extended version of Paul Joyce’s documentary, containing more than TEN HOURS of previously unseen interview footage, featuring actors RG Armstrong, James Coburn, LQ Jones, Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw and Jason Robards, director Monte Hellman, producers Michael Deeley and Daniel Melnick, writers Alan Sharp and Jim Silke, writer-producer Gordon Dawson, assistant Katherine Haber, editor Garth Craven, satirist Mort Sahl, property master Bob Visciglia, bar owner Tom Runyon and cousin Bob Peckinpah, plus newly-shot interviews with Joyce, Haber and actor David Warner.

[colinr0380]

Wow that's excellent! The feature length version of the Man Of Iron documentary is the one that was released on Criterion's Straw Dogs DVD. So we're getting eight more hours of interviews from it!

[MichaelB]

Wow that's excellent! The feature length version of the Man Of Iron documentary is the one that was released on Criterion's Straw Dogs DVD. So we're getting eight more hours of interviews from it!

I'd say nearer nine, once you consider that the 90 minutes comprising Man of Iron also includes film clips, archive Peckinpah interviews, readings and other stuff. And I found that one interview (with Jason Robards) wasn't even used in the original cut, but it runs 26 minutes on Arrow's disc.

[tenia]

TEN HOURS

Wait, what ?

[colinr0380]

That's even better, as the version of Man of Iron on the Criterion disc had to have all of the film clips removed from it, leaving it running at 82 minutes, so even the original documentary sounds as if it will be more complete on this release.

[MichaelB]

TEN HOURS

Wait, what ?

At least ten hours: the final running time will become apparent once everything's been fully authored.

Virtually everything was from a standard-definition source (Paul Joyce had his original 16mm rushes transferred to Betacam, and the surplus 16mm footage was then junked after the doc had been cut), which is why it was feasible to include it all on a single disc.

(By "all", I mean everything interesting: the interviews were lightly trimmed to remove clapperboards, sound-sync tests, reel changes, muffed first-take answers, and so on. Although L.Q. Jones turned all the technical stuff into a running gag, so I left that in his interview so people who like that sort of thing shouldn't feel that they're missing out.)