New Releases for June 3 2025

BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA (1974) (SHOUT SELECT)

From Sam Peckinpah, the legendary director of Ride the High Country, The Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs, The Getaway and Convoy, comes this audacious crime drama starring the great Warren Oates (Barquero, Two-Lane Blacktop). 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. Some people will do anything for a million dollars! Co-starring Gig Young (They Shoot Horses, Don't They?), Robert Webber (Wild Geese II), Kris Kristofferson (Semi-Tough) and the seductively beautiful Isela Vega (The Black Widow), Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is a gritty classic that vibrates with explosive action and nail-biting tension. (4K ULTRA HD)

SCARE FILM ARCHIVES V.2: DANGER STORIES (1950-1982)

Prepare to learn everything you’ve ever wanted to know about sentient flames, rebellious bicycles, and workplace dismemberment. THE SCARE FILM ARCHIVES VOLUME 2: DANGER STORIES collects the best-of-the-best educational safety-scare films from the twentieth century. Lovingly curated from Something Weird’s vaults and beyond, these surrealist visions have been preserved from original 16mm prints that were inflicted upon children in classrooms across America. (BLU-RAY)

MISHIMA: A LIFE IN FOUR CHAPTERS (1985) (CRITERION)

Paul Schrader’s visually stunning, collagelike portrait of the acclaimed Japanese author and playwright Yukio Mishima (played by Ken Ogata) investigates the inner turmoil and contradictions of a man who attempted the impossible task of finding harmony among self, art, and society. Taking place on the last day of Mishima’s life, when he famously committed public seppuku, the film is punctuated by extended flashbacks to the writer’s past as well as gloriously stylized evocations of his fictional works. With its rich cinematography by John Bailey, exquisite sets and costumes by Eiko Ishioka, and unforgettable, highly influential score by Philip Glass, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters is a tribute to its subject and a bold, investigative work of art in its own right. (BLU-RAY + 4K)

MONOPOLY OF VIOLENCE / A GERMAN YOUTH (2020/2015) 

As anger and resentment grow in the face of social inequalities, many citizen-led protests are being repressed with an ever-increasing violence. In THE MONOPOLY OF VIOLENCE, David Dufresne gathers a panel of citizens to question, exchange and confront their views on the social order and the legitimacy of the use of force by the State. / In the 1960s, the young democracy of West Germany was embarrassed by its Nazi past, yet confirmed in its role as imperialist and capitalist society. The postwar generation, in direct conflict with their fathers, was trying to find its place. The student movement exploded in 1966. As the situation deteriorated, it radicalized those involved in a gradual escalation of violence and reprisals. A GERMAN YOUTH chronicles this radicalization, which gave birth to the Red Army Faction (RAF), a German revolutionary terrorist group founded notably by Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof. The film aims to question viewers on the significance of this revolutionary movement during its time, as well as its resonance for today’s society. (BLU-RAY)

ACTION: THE OCTOBER CRISIS OF 1970 (1973)

A gripping account of the crisis that shocked Canada

In October 1970, the long-brewing tension between French and English Canada explodes onto the world stage after a group of Québécois nationalists violently kidnap two prominent political figures, holding them ransom and issuing a now-famous manifesto. With a nation on the brink, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau responds by invoking the controversial War Measure Act, suspending civil liberties in Québec, jailing hundreds without trial, and unleashing the Canadian Armed Forces on the streets of Montréal. As tensions mount, local and federal leaders are forced to reckon in real time with shocking acts of political violence and unprecedented abuses of government power.

A masterclass in urgent historical filmmaking by National Film Board veteran Robin Spry (One Man), ACTION: THE OCTOBER CRISIS OF 1970 is a bracing portrait, expertly synthesizing a dizzying, watershed moment through archival material, news reports, and first-hand, on-the-ground footage. In league with the great political documentaries of the ‘60s and ‘70s – and complemented here by its companion film, REACTION: A PORTRAIT OF SOCIETY IN CRISIS – ACTION remains a riveting account of the upheaval that shook Canada to its very core. (BLU-RAY)