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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Crime > Murder > Revenge > Masculinity > Rape > Violence > Torture > Mexico > Sweden > Justice > Courtro > Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia (1974/Peckinpah/United Artists/MGM/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/Easy Money: Life Deluxe (2013 aka Easy Money 3/Flatiron/Cinedigm DVD)/A Fever In The Blood

Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia (1974/Peckinpah/United Artists/MGM/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/Easy Money: Life Deluxe (2013 aka Easy Money 3/Flatiron/Cinedigm DVD)/A Fever In The Blood (1961/Warner Archive DVD)/Vendetta (2013/Inception DVD)/Violent Road (1958/Warner Archive DVD)


Picture: B/C/C+/C/C+ Sound: B-/C+/C+/C+/C Extras: B/C-/D/C+/D Films: B/C/C/C+/C



PLEASE NOTE: The Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia Blu-ray is a limited edition from our friends at Twilight Time and only 3.000 copies will be made, while A Fever In The Blood and Violent Road are now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive series. All can be ordered from the links below.



The following films involve various degrees of manhood and masculinity gone haywire, so we brought them together for your consideration....



Sam Peckinpah's Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia (1974) is an ever-underrated thriller with plenty of dark overtones, dark happenings and masculinity at its more self-destructive end. The title character has made the daughter of a powerful man pregnant and he wants him dead, so he offers $1 Million U.S. for him to be killed (beheaded) and Bennie (a great lead performance by the late, great Warren Oates) takes up the offer, dragging his girlfriend with him, but he is not the only one seeing dollar signs and bloodshed. A couple of gay killers (Gig Young & Robert Webber) want the cash too and they make up a series of money-hungry parties who are interested in this business development.


The film pulls no punches in its view of many wastelands of people, poverty, hopelessness, dashed dreams, adulthood gone sour and what greed can do. The supporting cast is fine and Kris Kristofferson turns up in an early performance before becoming a big star as an unsavory biker whose partner and he do whatever they want and are a sick pair unto themselves. Peckinpah may have lost control of his abilities to show and say what he wanted to cinematically on Straw Dogs (see the Blu-ray elsewhere on this site), but he was back in power to show his dark side of manhood here and the film remains one of his best.


Extras include another nicely illustrated booklet on the film including informative text and essay by Julie Kirgo, while the Blu-ray discs adds two feature length audio commentary tracks with film scholar Nick Redmond (one with Gordon T. Dawson, the other with Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons & David Weddie), 6 TV Spots, an Original Theatrical Trailer, Isolated Music Score of the great music for the film by Jerry Fielding and three featurettes: Passion & Poetry: Sam's Favorite Film, A Writer's Journey: Garner Simmons with Sam Peckinpah in Mexico and Promoting Alfredo Garcia.



Jens Jonsson's Easy Money: Life Deluxe (2013 aka Easy Money 3) is the end of a trilogy that began with the impressive Easy Money (2010) which Martin Scorsese backed with the Weinsteins upon its U.S. release a few years ago. We covered it at this link:


http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12107/Easy+Money+(2010/Weinstein+Company/Anchor+


By this film, Joel Kinnaman's JW has become a secondary character (and that's more of him than the books apparently had at this point) so he shows up a few times in between the multiple storylines of the other characters, some of whom were n the first film. This makes for some good storytelling, but (the second film notwithstanding) is a bit of a comedown since their stories are not as intriguing despite the efforts and talents of some fine Swedish actors. Some shots and scenes do work though and are worth sitting through the whole 127 minutes to check out, but make sure you see the first two films in order before this one to get the best impact.


Extras include a Behind The Scenes featurette and Deleted Scenes.



Vincent Sherman's A Fever In The Blood (1961) pits judge Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Dom Ameche and Jack Kelly against each other when a brutal murder takes place and the suspect may be totally innocent. Thanks to the press, who wants blood, some feel the suspect is just disposable and what to use him as a bloody stepping stone to more power, save the judge with a conscious. A young Angie Dickinson shows up as his love interest and the film has its moments, but the results are mixed when all is said and done, even with a somewhat abrupt ending. Still, it is worth a look because it has its moments and also stars Herbert Marshall, Ray Danton and then-newcomer Carroll O'Connor in a nice turn.


There are no extras.



Stephen Reynolds' Vendetta (2013) is the beginning of another action trilogy, but this time, one set in England as an older married couple (Emma Samms, Tony Denham) are brutally assaulted, molested, tortured and killed by a particularly deadly group of drug dealing youths out of control. They have killed the same way before (including setting the victims on fire), but in this case, they chose the wrong couple as their son (Danny Dyer) is an elite of the British military out for revenge no matter what and does not care one bit about what he does or the consequences.


However, it gets worse as the killers are still way too confident they can kill who they want and get away with it, a new police detective out for himself makes this situation even worse and soon, the federal authorities will have to get involved. This has some great moments, but to make it a trilogy, the last reel or so of the film is compromised and that hurts what was building up to be an amazing actioner that deals with the dark side of Britain today as much as anything. This can get very brutal, but it all (in a rare case) stays within the context of the narrative. Dyer handles the fight scenes exceptionally well and could be a big star down the line. This one is definitely worth going out of your way for, despite its flaws and limits.


Extras include a feature length audio commentary track, a Deleted Scene and an Original Theatrical Trailer.



Howard W. Koch's Violent Road (1958) is an earlier, lesser-known remake of Clouzot's Wages Of Fear (reviewed elsewhere on this site) before William Friedkin's Sorcerer (1978, which just hit Blu-ray) with Brian Keith, Dick Foran and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. taking the leads as part of the team transporting deadly explosives over rough terrain where there are usually no real roads, plenty of chances for rock slides & boulders and where any mistake can be deadly. Instead of a dark thriller like the Friedkin remake or political parable of greed gone deadly, this one is a melodrama with some suspense saved only by its cast, good acting and decent outdoor sequences. Not very memorable, it is a curio worth a look, but if the makers were trying to avoid left-of-center ideology, you'd think they'd offer more action and less boredom.


There are no extras.



The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Alfredo can show the age of the materials used at times, but this is far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film with great shot after great shot including nice locales, impressive compositions and it just looks as good as anyone could hope for. Director of Photography Alex Phillips Jr. (Sunburn, Fade To Black (1980), The Great Scout & Cathouse Thursday) is an underrated cameraman who could create thick density in his shots and yet keep a sense of naturalism. This is some of his best work.


Tying for second place are the black and white anamorphically enhanced 1.66 X 1 image (miscredited as 1.78 X 1 on the back of the case) black & white image on Fever looking pretty good despite some flaws and limits and the anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 black and white image on Road which also comes from a solid print, both showing how great monochrome filming can be. That leaves the anamorphically enhanced, HD-shot color 2.35 X 1 images on Money and Vendetta having some good shots, but also one too many soft shots throughout that brings them down a bit.


The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix on Alfredo should not sound as good as it does, but it sounds really good for its age and the isolated stereo score by Jerry Fielding even more so. That leaves the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes on Money and Vendetta sounding good if not great, but the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Fever has more clarity than expected and is able to compete with the newer films since they have their soundfield limits and more than a few dialogue-based moments. I bet they'd sound better in lossless mixes. This leaves the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Road not sounding as good, sometimes seemingly down a generation and the disappointment here, save that blaring truck horn which somehow sounds loud and clear.



You can order the Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia limited edition Blu-rays, buy them while supplies last at this link:


www.screenarchives.com


and to order either of the Warner Archive DVDs, go to this link for them and many more great web-exclusive releases at:


http://www.warnerarchive.com/



- Nicholas Sheffo


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