The Mechanic (1972)
Action, Thriller • 1h 39m
Overview
Arthur Bishop is a veteran hit man who, owing to his penchant for making his targets' deaths seem like accidents, thinks himself an artist. It's made him very rich, but as he hits middle age, he's so depressed and lonely that he takes on one of his victim's sons, Steve McKenna, as his apprentice. Arthur puts him through a rigorous training period and brings him on several hits. As Steven improves, Arthur worries that he'll discover who killed his father.
Director: Michael Winner
Cast: Charles Bronson, Jan-Michael Vincent, Keenan Wynn, Jill Ireland, Linda Ridgeway, Frank De Kova, James Davidson, Lindsay Crosby, Steve Cory, Tak Kubota, Patrick O'Moore, Martin Gordon, Celeste Yarnall, Athena Lorde, Alison Rose, Howard Morton, Enzo Fiermonte, Gerald Peters, Steve Vinovich, Robert Jaffe, Kevin O'Neal, Kenneth Wolger, Trina Mitchum, Amando De Vincenzo
Director: Michael Winner
Vinegar Syndrome 4K Blu-ray has poor encoding
Director: Michael Winner
Vinegar Syndrome 4K Blu-ray has poor encoding
Director: Michael Winner
Director: Michael Winner
Director: Orson Welles
MoC 4K Blu-ray and Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray are similar
Director: Orson Welles
MoC 4K Blu-ray and Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray are similar
Director: Sidney Lumet
2026 Criterion 4K Blu-ray
2011 Criterion Blu-ray is the best. Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has heavily filtered audio
Director: Sidney Lumet
2026 Criterion 4K Blu-ray
2011 Criterion Blu-ray is the best. Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has heavily filtered audio
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Kino Lorber 4k resto
The audio on the Kino Lorber Blu-ray comes from a better source than the various DVDs and the previous HD version on streaming. This audio is relatively untampered with, and is likely the best available source as no laserdisc was ever issued.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Kino Lorber 4k resto
The audio on the Kino Lorber Blu-ray comes from a better source than the various DVDs and the previous HD version on streaming. This audio is relatively untampered with, and is likely the best available source as no laserdisc was ever issued.
Director: Ridley Scott
UK Universal 4K Blu-ray is missing Kino Lorber extras
Director: Ridley Scott
UK Universal 4K Blu-ray is missing Kino Lorber extras
Kino Lorber Blu-ray or Germany Blu-ray but no comparison available
Germany Blu-ray lacks English subtitles. Kino Lorber Blu-ray has English subtitles but is OOP
Kino Lorber Blu-ray or Germany Blu-ray but no comparison available
Germany Blu-ray lacks English subtitles. Kino Lorber Blu-ray has English subtitles but is OOP
Director: John Ford
Director: John Ford
Director: John Woo
Director: John Woo
Director: Howard Deutch
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray vs Kino Lorber Blu-ray, but the compression on the 4K is bad.
Director: Howard Deutch
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray vs Kino Lorber Blu-ray, but the compression on the 4K is bad.
Director: Bryan Gordon
Director: Bryan Gordon
Director: John Waters
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has poor encoding see caps but still a huge improvement over the 2014 Universal Blu-ray
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray Both the 2.0 and 5.1 tracks are improvements over the 2014 Universal Blu-ray
Theatrical cut is on the 4K disc, but the restored Director's Cut is only on the Blu-Ray disc. Director's Cut utilizes the same 4K transfer as the theatrical cut for 86 minutes, but the 6 minutes of restored footage could only be salvaged from a standard definition source and are thus needed to be upscaled.
Director: John Waters
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has poor encoding see caps but still a huge improvement over the 2014 Universal Blu-ray
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray Both the 2.0 and 5.1 tracks are improvements over the 2014 Universal Blu-ray
Theatrical cut is on the 4K disc, but the restored Director's Cut is only on the Blu-Ray disc. Director's Cut utilizes the same 4K transfer as the theatrical cut for 86 minutes, but the 6 minutes of restored footage could only be salvaged from a standard definition source and are thus needed to be upscaled.
More Action on Blu-ray
Director: Akira Kurosawa
BFI 4K Blu-ray has excellent master and grade, no DNR and tasteful HDR
Restored original mono mix: Toho Japan 4K Blu-ray
Unrestored original mono: 2014 BFI Blu-ray
BFI 4K Blu-ray has OG Perspecta (in 5.1 container) and a stereo downmix of it; no original mono.
The unrestored track on BFI's earlier release appears to be an almost entirely unmanipulated transfer of the original mix. It suffers from a distracting low-frequency hum. The 4K restoration comes with a restored track, which appears to be the same transfer, but which appears to be cleaned up with a moderate amount of noise reduction and some EQ, nicely opening up the high-end, and which is likely to be preferable to most listeners. All earlier releases sound poor.
Perspecta isn't a discrete surround format, instead only relying on manipulating volume and panning of the mono track across L/C/R channels, based on embedded control tones. As such, even the Perspecta track is technically just the mono mix, though the omission of the proper mono on BFI's 4K is still unfortunate.
Director: Akira Kurosawa
BFI 4K Blu-ray has excellent master and grade, no DNR and tasteful HDR
Restored original mono mix: Toho Japan 4K Blu-ray
Unrestored original mono: 2014 BFI Blu-ray
BFI 4K Blu-ray has OG Perspecta (in 5.1 container) and a stereo downmix of it; no original mono.
The unrestored track on BFI's earlier release appears to be an almost entirely unmanipulated transfer of the original mix. It suffers from a distracting low-frequency hum. The 4K restoration comes with a restored track, which appears to be the same transfer, but which appears to be cleaned up with a moderate amount of noise reduction and some EQ, nicely opening up the high-end, and which is likely to be preferable to most listeners. All earlier releases sound poor.
Perspecta isn't a discrete surround format, instead only relying on manipulating volume and panning of the mono track across L/C/R channels, based on embedded control tones. As such, even the Perspecta track is technically just the mono mix, though the omission of the proper mono on BFI's 4K is still unfortunate.
Director: Paul W. S. Anderson
Arrow includes the original theatrical sound mix in all its glory. All previous releases other than the 1996 AC-3 LaserDisc were tamed relative to the original theatrical DTS track.
The disc is authored by Duplitech, but doesn't exhibit any compression issues, though the image is pretty soft, that's likely just down to the stock used.
Old New Line Video LaserDiscs include an exclusive commentary track.
Director: Paul W. S. Anderson
Arrow includes the original theatrical sound mix in all its glory. All previous releases other than the 1996 AC-3 LaserDisc were tamed relative to the original theatrical DTS track.
The disc is authored by Duplitech, but doesn't exhibit any compression issues, though the image is pretty soft, that's likely just down to the stock used.
Old New Line Video LaserDiscs include an exclusive commentary track.
Director: John McTiernan
Director: John McTiernan
Director: John Woo
Director: John Woo
Director: John Woo
International Cut: US Magnolia Pictures Blu-ray
Original Hong Kong Cut (2 parts): US Magnolia Pictures Blu-ray or Hong Kong Blu-rays?
International Cut: US Magnolia Pictures Blu-ray
Original Hong Kong Cut (2 parts): US Magnolia Pictures Blu-ray or Hong Kong Blu-rays?
Director: John Woo
International Cut: US Magnolia Pictures Blu-ray
Original Hong Kong Cut (2 parts): US Magnolia Pictures Blu-ray or Hong Kong Blu-rays?
International Cut: US Magnolia Pictures Blu-ray
Original Hong Kong Cut (2 parts): US Magnolia Pictures Blu-ray or Hong Kong Blu-rays?
Director: John Woo
International Cut: US Magnolia Pictures Blu-ray
Original Hong Kong Cut (2 parts): US Magnolia Pictures Blu-ray or Hong Kong Blu-rays?
International Cut: US Magnolia Pictures Blu-ray
Original Hong Kong Cut (2 parts): US Magnolia Pictures Blu-ray or Hong Kong Blu-rays?
Director: John Woo
International Cut: US Magnolia Pictures Blu-ray
Original Hong Kong Cut (2 parts): US Magnolia Pictures Blu-ray or Hong Kong Blu-rays?
International Cut: US Magnolia Pictures Blu-ray
Original Hong Kong Cut (2 parts): US Magnolia Pictures Blu-ray or Hong Kong Blu-rays?
Director: Moritz Mohr
Italy Plaion has Dolby Vision, but the metadata is static: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=22742198&postcount=92
Director: Moritz Mohr
Italy Plaion has Dolby Vision, but the metadata is static: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=22742198&postcount=92
Director: Tommy Wirkola
Director: Tommy Wirkola
Director: John Woo
Director: John Woo
Edit History
4/27/2026
Format
Added
UHD Blu-ray
Added
UHD Blu-ray
Blu-ray.com
Added
https://www.blu-ray.com/The-Mechanic/94682/#Releases
Added
https://www.blu-ray.com/The-Mechanic/94682/#Releases
