ADDITION: (July 2018) Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray: Criterion have transferred the western "The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez" to HD via a "New 2K digital restoration". This film was restored in 2016 by the Academy Film Archive. The project supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts with special thanks to the Getty Foundation. The image looks extremely textured with heavy earthy tones which seems totally in-line with the filmmakers intentions. It is on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate. I don't see the image softness as digitization but hope to compare to another edition (even a DVD) one day. There is little depth and interiors lean to a greenish hue. It looks very consistent in-motion and the grain is appealing and gives a film-like appearance. 

The film is presented with a (24-bit) linear PCM mono track. The film has the typical western effects - horses, gunfire, a train etc. that sounds flat but carrying depth. There is a western score by W. Michael Lewis with Edward James Olmos is also credited with 'music composed and adapted by' and the 'theme' El corrido de Gregorio Cortez performed by Américo Paredes. There are optional English subtitles on the Region 'A'-locked Blu-ray although it is also adhering to how the film was originally released without subtitles for the Spanish spoken by its Mexican American characters, so that English-specking viewers would experience the Spanish dialogue with the same limited or nonexistent understanding that the film's English-speaking characters do. In keeping with that intention on the part of the filmmakers, the Spanish has not been subtitles in English for this release.

Criterion include in the supplements a new, 28-minute, interview with actor and producer Edward James Olmos from April 2018 where he discusses the importance of playing a hero of Latin ancestry, making The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez outside the mainstream, and how the film revolutionize grassroots movie promotion and distribution. There is also a new 19-minute interview with Chon A. Noriega, author of Shot in America: Television, the State, and the Rise of Chicano Cinema. He discusses the ballad on which the film is based, the renaissance of Chicano cinema in the 1980s, and how the film reinvents the western. Lastly is a cast-and-crew panel from 2016 including Olmos; director Robert M. Young; producer Moctesuma Esparza; cinematographer Reynaldo Villalobos; and actors Bruce McGill, Tom Bower, Rosanna DeSoto, and Pepe Serna. It runs juts over 23-minutes. Criterion's package has a liner notes booklet with an essay by film scholar Charles Ramírez Berg and sports a wonderful new cover by Juan R. Fuentes.

This is an exceptionally strong western about a miscarriage of justice with a non-linear timeline revealing plot-points. It's well-acted and the rough-hewn appearance adds to a vérité feeling. I enjoyed it more and more as The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez progressed. The Criterion Blu-ray has our highest recommendation. It should extend appeal far beyond the western genre fans. Don't miss it. 

Gary Tooze