A film that was originally scripted and set to be directed by Sam Peckinpah, that had Robert Towne rewrite it and stars Robert Mitchem, Charles Bronson and Yul Brenner, deserves a lot better treatment than just an average release on Blu Ray. For you see you have here the film on Blu ray, a first. You also get nothing else on the disc and nothing else in attendance with it (so I have not seen a booklet sadly). This means in lain terms that I will review the film and then finish this piece, if you care about the extras (and you probably do), time to stop here, least you complain about me. The story, of Poncho Villa is tinged with legend, legacy and nationalism. Mostly, like all stories of heroes, it is epihistory at play. That is ‘put upon’ history or history feed by others looking for it to serve them. Peckingpahs original script took Villa into the cynical, hard bitten and Brenner (the star) disliked it. Then, Peckingpah was not the name he is today and was simply sent packing and instead Buzz Kulik, took the helm.

The film he directs focuses on Lee Arnold (Robert Mitchem), an American, who is a journeyman. He flies a bi plane and looks at the world, not into it. When he has to unexpectedly land his biplane in Mexico, It brings him into the middle of a civil war. On one side, an army with blood on its hands and after they rough up a family, who took in Arnold, it looks like ritual execution is the only option. They are set to be hung. When a blast of fire, cuts them down and sets in motion Poncho Villa (Yul Brenner) rising again to glory, with a glint in his eye, he sees the future and it is set on revolution. Which brings us into the world of average direction, a servicable but rather tepid script and a 2 hour jaunt through cinema. The Italian Western and Sam Peckingpah had already began the shift in Westrtn genre cinema, here nothing new nor excting surfaces. Instead is a film that delivers on promised biographical story, with abstracts and irratic tempos. I dont think that the viewer will mind totally. I didnt really. Just I think at the end, you might believe that the sum total of all things is here. This is where a really good extra documentary or commentary would have fleshed out the back office issues and the directorial problems….