User reviews

There was probably no greater director in the U.S. from 1969-1974 than Sam Peckinpah. He made seven films, ranging from classics (The Wild Bunch) to superior genre pics (The Getaway). And before his career began sliding, he had one more masterpiece in him: Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. This is the story of one man's alcohol-fueled journey into dissolution and redemption and a really strange film. Warren Oates plays Benny, a piano player cajoled by a pair of men into finding Alfredo's head. See, Alfredo impregnated the daughter of a vicious landowner, and now he wants him dead. But this isn't really what the film is about. It's more about Benny, and how his journey costs him everything. Warren Oates is wonderful as Benny, and there are some great darkly comic moments between him and the head. And this is one of Michael Medved's 50 worst movies of all time - what more of a recommendation do you require? Seriously, this is a great film.

El Jefe is outraged to find that his daughter has fallen pregnant to a man who has upped and gone, after learning the identity of the rascal (Alfredo Garcia), he offers one million dollars to anyone who can bring him the head of the Lothario running man. On the trail are hit men Quill & Sappensly, Bennie & his prostitute girlfriend Elita, and some other Mexican bandit types, all of them are on a collision course that will bring far more than they all bargained for.

This was the one film where director Sam Peckinpah felt he had the most control, the one where we apparently get his own cut and not some chopped up piece of work from interfering executives. Viewing it now many years after its release it stands up well as a testament to the work of a great director. On the surface it looks trashy, we have homosexual hit men, grave robbing, potential rape, murders abound, prostitution, lower than the low characters, in short the film is awash with Peckinpah traits. Yet it would be a disservice to even think this film isn't rich in thematic texture, for the journey that Bennie that our main protagonist takes is one of meaning. He is a loser, but we find him on this quest to find not only fortune, but respect and love. It's a bloody trail for sure, but it has much depth and no little Peckinpah humour to push the film to the bloody but triumphant finale. Warren Oates is rewarded by Peckinpah for years of sterling work for him by getting the lead role of Bennie, and he grasps it with both hands to turn in a wonderful performance that splits sadness and vibrancy with deft of ease.

Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia has a harsh quality about it, be it the violence, or be it the sadness of the characters, but what isn't in doubt to me is that it's harshness is cloaked in Peckinpah splendour. 9/10

Watching this unforgettable near masterpiece for the first time it's impossible to understand why it isn't regarded as one of the greatest movies of the 70s - a decade that produced an astonishing amount of classics. How Maltin can dismiss it with the throwaway comment "sub-par bloodbath" defies belief! Almost everything about this movie is perfect, but the cornerstone is Warren Oates performance, perhaps his greatest. Rarely do you see such a completely engrossing, believable portrayal of a man who has lost EVERYTHING, who knows he cannot win, but also knows that he must keep going to the very end. Once seen, never forgotten may seem like a trite comment, but in this case it says it all. You will NEVER forget this movie!

"Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia" is more interesting than beautiful. The film has great merits, but it somehow gets lost along the development of the story. The idea the plot is based on is simple but very unusual. Luckily enough, the viewer is not distressed by over-macabre scenes. The very beginning is sensational. The scene of the clash between the over-bad Emilio Fernandez (great actor even in a small role) and his proud daughter is an actual punch to the stomach of the audience. Follows a long, slow-paced and (let's say it) boring search for Alfredo Garcia or, at least, his head. When finally Bennie (Warren Oates) finds the head, the film improves remarkably.

There are some action scenes, but not so well-done as it's usual by Sam Peckinpah. That's a disappointment for us Peckinpah's fans, no reason to deny it. The director seems more interested in representing the psychology of Bennie and Elita (Isela Vega) and in telling their love story: a so-and-so job. The cast is good, but, in my opinion, Warren Oates is not fit to be the main star, great supporting actor as he is.

The cinematography is stylish and accurate. The director shows Mexico as the country of decay. Everything is bleak, dirty, scraped off, worn-out. All the automobiles are terribly damaged. Nothing is clean and in order (save the hotels for the rich Americans). The Mexicans seem to be just desperate, under-developed, cruel savages. Yet Peckinpah notoriously adored Mexico: it was his own Paradise... It is difficult to get the director's point.

In the film we find a number of unexpected flaws and inaccuracies. The scene of the shoot-out in the hotel room is just clumsy. The guy at the reception of a modest Mexican motel says to Bennie and Elita that they don't take "that sort of women". But Elita has nothing of a prostitute, nor her plain dress justifies such a magical intuition by the guy... so? As a matter of fact, the choice of a looking-next-door-girl (Vega) to play a professional prostitute is a flaw of the movie. The scene of the motor-bikers is stuck to the film. It has no meaning for the remainder of the movie, save perhaps in showing that Bennie is a tough guy who can kill.

"Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia": interesting work for people who admire Sam Peckinpah.

It is my humble opinion that Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia comes as close to capturing the maddening drive of man as any movie. That is to say that it sits at the same table as the greats, perhaps across the way from Citizen Kane or Raging Bull. If you contest this it is perhaps only because the film is not as beautiful, not as magnificent, as the rest of its ballpark. I would argue that that is partially the point.

Bennie's quest is stripped to its core so that the brutality of the film is expressive of Bernie himself. There is not a violent film with more validity for its actions than this one, it is the maddening human mind which causes deaths here. Peckinpah shows us everything that is important in this man's life and then shows us what a man is capable of doing once all that is taken away. The difference between this film and other similar films is perhaps that the movie has such humble beginnings. We build ourselves inside of Bennie. When we first meet him he is casually and happily playing the piano, quietly dreaming of settling into a different kind of love. We share a quiet picnic with him, witness his wedding proposal.

Perhaps also there has never been a chaotic killing spree that has seemed this environmental. While usually the hero goes on a rampage in a way that is appropriately heroic itself, Bennie is no hero. He is a man forced into a situation by the world around him, as it seems he is always forced into situations. Since he is never the man he wants to be it seems natural that he would become the kind of man that is the amalgamation of love and hate.

All the emotion a movie in this genre could handle.

The teenage daughter of a wealthy Mexican known as El Jefe is knocked up by Alfredo Garcia. El Jefe wants Garcia dead and places a $1,000,000 bounty on his head. Dive bar piano player Bennie (Warren Oates) wants to collect on the bounty. Luckily for Bennie, his hooker girlfriend Elita (Isela Vega) knows where Alfredo's buried. So Bennie gets Elita to take him to Alfredo's grave, where he intends to cut off the corpse's head and take it to El Jefe. But things go horribly wrong along the way.

One of Sam Peckinpah's more controversial movies. Most people seem to either love it or hate it. I'm kind of in the middle. The first 3/4 of it is slow-going and you might find yourself checking your watch. When it finally picks up the pace it is undeniably interesting and hard to turn away from. It's Peckinpah so expect violence and nastiness with unsavory, dislikable characters and a somewhat nihilistic tone to it all. Excessive use of slow-mo in action scenes is also a bit much. It almost seems like the man is parodying himself. Peckinpah devotees will like it most.

At one point Warren Oates's character Bennie asks this, and it may or may not be a rhetorical question at this point in the film. By this time several people are dead, though more on the way, and he's lost the love of his life and any sense of self-worth. Then again, maybe he never had much of it anyway. But the question still stands- what was Alfredo Garcia ("Al" as his head is called by Bennie as he has him in the passenger seat of his car) really in the grand scheme of things?

He's bounty for El Jefe, a wealthy Mexican rancher who sees a scandal in his daughter becoming "involved" with the notorious Garcia, and asks not too bluntly to bring his head, period. This leads to Bennie becoming involved, who is basically a drifter barfly who plays piano and has it in him to want a lot of money really bad. Bad enough, as it turns out, to bring along Elita (Isela Vega) along for the ride to find the grave he's been buried in after a car accident. But, as it's not too surprising to see in a Sam Peckinpah film, a form of hell breaks loose...actually, when it comes down to it, a form of purgatory. The question, as one might gather watching the film, is more directed to the soul than anything; how much is life worth? It's incalculable, is Peckinpah's thesis, I think, and it's this aspect of how life can lose its value in an instant that gives his film allegorical lift.

It's not just a question of the loss of life that brings some of the most extraordinary parts of 'Alfredo Garcia'. This was one of Peckinpah's most personal projects- the only one he had final cut on- and here and there I got the sense that it's as much a nihilistic plunge into the blackest despair in murderous revenge as it is a pulp fiction kind of take on film-making itself. Peckinpah, therefore, is appropriately mimicked through Oates (it's easier to see after watching a documentary on the director, though even without that it's pretty clear this has to be based on someone), as a desperado who at first is fine with selling himself out, as it were, but then as his trip goes darker and more violent and without a slice of hope- with the money turning to moot as the casualties pile up- the worth of a job well done, or what a job entails, comes into question. Peckinpah dealt with a lot of s*** in the movie business, and one could perhaps make parallels to the gun-toting Mexicans on his trail, or even the men who he's supposed to report to with said head, as producers or studio execs.

But without all of this in mind, even as it adds a bit of fascination to how Benny's fate unfolds, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia works on the levels that Peckinpah's work at its best does: it reveals violence and murder as the most unglamorous, frighteningly quick and graphically empty thing known to man. And while Peckinpah isn't quite as successful as in the Wild Bunch of corralling a perfect array of the devastating effects of shoot-em-ups in his brand of subversion, he comes close to that same level of ironic exhilaration with Bennie's path.

He even does his best to fit in a depressing love story between Benny and Elita, as they can't leave one another but all the same Elita just can't understand why he needs to get that head. It doesn't help matters that she almost gets raped- in a one-of-a-kind scene involving Kris Kristofferson in a role unlike any other I've seen him in- and is ready to call off their engagement...until there's the incident at Garcia's grave. From there on in, love is no longer the issue but- getting back to the 'soul' theme Peckipah's after, about loss. Lots and lots of loss.

And all the while Oates makes this a quintessential turn in his career. An actor in more TV shows than I could even attempt to watch, he took on this role, which doesn't allow much for easy sympathy or sentiment, and makes it completely compelling. Some may take issue with him, as well as with Vega in the role of Elita (and, in truth, she's not the greatest actress out there), not to mention Peckinpah's own warped view of humanity as taken in the film. But it's a fearless turn all the same, and by the end I couldn't see anyone else in the role, for that moment in time anyway, where Oates had a parallel wavelength with Peckinpah as to the vision of the picture.

All in all, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is about as grim and almost ludicrously hopeless, but it has some of the grittiest moments in American 70s film-making, where being uncompromising just goes with the territory. That it also gets the mind going on what it means to be self-destructive or to lose one's soul, or to just be a filmmaker, is a very good plus. A+

This dark, almost nihilistic film is apparently the only one of Peckinpah's not to be interfered with by a studio or someone of similar standing. The result is exactly what its director intended, a gritty and slow-burning pseudo neo-noir that takes its time getting to the squib-squirting shootouts that Peckinpah is known for. The story is centred around a head: the head of Alfredo Garcia, to be exact. After he impregnates a gang boss' young daughter, the man finds himself on the wrong end of an assassination contract. That's where our protagonist comes in; Oates' dive-bar pianist knows someone who knows where Garcia is, so he sets out to make some quick cash but gets much more than he bargained for. Most of the first half of 'Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia (1974)' is dedicated to the relationship between the hero and his girlfriend, which is given the time it needs to feel real. It's the underlying heart of the narrative. After a certain point, the picture takes a sharp turn and becomes a lot more bloody. Its final third sees its protagonist try to justify his actions in increasingly dangerous ways, taking violent risks seemingly for no real reason. In the end, though, that's the point: none of it was worth it and any reasoning is futile. It's a bleak conclusion, for sure, but it makes for a stark and distinct experience. Once it gets properly underway, the piece is rather enjoyable in a pulpy sort of sense. It's compelling to see our hero go through his downward spiral and there's this looming feeling of dread that builds as the thing approaches its conclusion. It's a dark flick, but it's often entertaining and is held together by a decent central relationship. 7/10

I believe Sam Peckinpah to be one of the most underrated directors in modern American cinema. We praise Scorcese to the sky (albeit deservedly) for ultra-violent work like Taxi Driver, yet tend to dismiss Peckinpah as a shallow director of action film and westerns.

Nothing could be further from the truth. When I watch this movie, it reminds me of what movies are all about, it is instructive, it elevates the consciousness of the form, which tends to be a factor in all great art.

`Alfredo Garcia' actually has more in common with Cocteau's `Orphee' than action vehicles; like it's predecessor, it is an adaptation of the Orpheus myth, albeit more subtle. I'm not going to get exhaustive in analysis, but will highlight some of the most obvious metaphors and references:

The first blatant clue is early in the film, after Benny (Warren Oates) gets the contract to bring back Alfredo Garcia's head, he tells his girlfriend `this is our golden fleece, baby.' Orpheus, of course, was one of the Argonauts who accompanied Jason on his quest for the Golden Fleece.

When Orpheus was killed, his head was torn off, yet it continued to sing. In the same way, it is Alfredo's head luring Benny to the sweet tune of $10K, enough to start a new life, enough to find happiness. (Note also, when Benny asks

But Benny is in fact himself Orpheus, Alfredo Garcia simply his double. To wit, Alfredo had been sleeping with Benny's woman; her love is split between the two of them. More obvious is the scene when the two hit men come into Benny's piano bar, showing him the picture of Alfredo and asking if he's knows his whereabouts. Benny's reply is `You got me.' (Note also the thematic foreshadowing in this scene when Benny ask the Gig Young character for his name and he replies `Fred C. Dobbs', the name of Humphrey Bogart's doomed character in `Treasure of Sierra Madre.')

Our introduction to Benny is as a jaded singer in a low rent piano bar in Mexico. However, like Orpheus, he is able to inspire even the pathetic patronage to sing with relish.

Orpheus was said to be able to tame even the wild beasts with his sweet lyre, and later in the film, when Benny finds himself in great jeopardy, having fallen under the power of two random psycho's in the badlands (great Kris Kristopherson cameo by the way,) he uses the guitar to overcome his captor, first lulling him with song, then bashing him with the instrument.

Like the doomed Orpheus and Euridice, before Benny can marry his true love, she is randomly killed. In the old myth, Euridice is slain by an actual snake, in this film, she it is human snakes, i.e. devious, treacherous men.

(As Benny returns, cracking up over the death of his lover, he beings talking to Alfredo's severed head, now rotting in the heat. Could this be a statement on the rotten reality of the materialistic American dream?) Regardless, the head is clearly `singing' to him, although now it may be a bitter song of regret.

I don't want to spoil the ending (which is far more true romance than Tarantino's screenplay and the subsequent film of the same name, if one is familiar with the Tristan & Isolde paradigm,) but suffice it to say, at `the gates of the underworld,' home free, Benny, like Orpheus cannot resist `looking back' at his departed lover, and bring about his ruin.

The opening to this film is indisputably one of the greatest in cinematic history. As a parting note, I will elucidate this claim, as most people tend not to get it:

Set in Mexico, the film is a modern western and to bring this home, Peckinpah must bridge time.

It opens with old time Mexican music and an antique-looking black and white photo, which shifts into color and becomes the opening shot, a pastoral scene by a pond.

We see a pregnant girl in a very simple, homespun white gown dangling, her feet in the water. A maid in the garb of a timeless Mexican peasant, complete with shawl, comes up and consoles her. Two well dressed cowboys, complete with spurs and Colt .45's in their gun belts, approach to fetch her. In the background, a few more cowboys on horses ride past, one holding a rifle. In the background is an old style adobe building. Everything is right out of the 19th century.

This timeframe is reinforced when the girl is led to her father's office, the first view of which is of old-style oil paintings, on of a conquistador. This is actually a great hall with the architecture and furnishings of the 19th century. Her father, the quintessential Mexican Don from innumerable westerns is surrounded but surrounded by women in black, various functionaries, a priest and some nuns, all the antique garb of the era.

It only towards the end of the scene, if you looks very closely, will you notice that one man, a gringo, is wearing a dark banker's suit and has on a modern looking tie.

And very quickly after this, we cut to a motorcycle and then a line of cars driving out of the courtyard of the great house! And the next major cut is to a jet plane landing.

The film opens in the old west and after the set up, phases us abruptly into modern times when it is actually set. I'm not sure how this can be described as anything other than genius.

It is moments like this, along with great depth of character, emotion and theme, dramatic and symbolic unity, that makes this film an artistic achievement.

In my limited sphere of understanding, Peckinpah is as much in the ranks with Kurosawa and Pasolini, as with John Ford, Sam Fuller and other great Western and Action directors.

Great art, great entertainment and a quintessential action flick; this is a tremendous film that bears multiple viewings.

Straddling the boundary between grindhouse scuzz and Oscar-bait style earnestness, this film has an authentic and uncompromisingly gritty feel to it which makes me respect all the glowing reviews and cultish acclaim it gathers. What I couldn't do is enjoy it, because it came across as a slow meandering chore to get through. The plot was there, the atmosphere was there, but nothing was grabbing me. I felt like I should be transfixed, but found my concentration was lapsing so badly I had to rewind a few scenes 3 or 4 times before I took them in - and that was before the half hour mark.

There's a scene in Abigail's Party where Lawrence admires the complete Shakespeare collection sitting in his bookcase before saying "Of course, it's not the kind of thing you can actually read...". That's how I feel about this film. It's probably a classic, but I can't actually watch it.

First, I'm sure everyone commenting on this film has seen the documentary on Peckinpah, and the comments made by the film critics regarding this film. If I may quote one of the critics, and I'm sure you all agree "It's the one film of Peckinpah's that everyone tries to imitate". Even Tarantino does to some degree. I have issues with Quentin Tarantino from a cinematic and artistic point of view, but that is another review. Warren Oates' performance was flawless, as he actually assumes the identity Of Sam Peckinpah as a gesture of appreciation for gracing him with his first starring vehicle.

Warren Oates was taking Sam's journey for him, as Sam looked from behind the lens. This movie was Peckinpah at his best and his worst at the same time. The old Peckinpah themes are there; Mexico is the final frontier, where one can continue to be what he once was in a changing world, but eventually Mexico begins to change as well. As I said in my review of "Junior Bonner" (be sure to check it out, and get back to me)progress is the main antagonist in the lives of Peckinpah's characters.

Junior Bonner and Bennie (Oates' Character) have a common foe, the twentieth century, which is why we find Bennie in Mexico. The chance to improve his situation, and establish a solid relationship with his hooker girlfriend (played with tough sincerity by Isela Vega) arrives at a time in Bennie's life when he least expects it, but it's not as easy as it is set out to be. All he has to do is bring this head to "El Hefe", and at the last minute BAM!! Bennie grows a conscience. Along the way he loses his woman, and then just goes nuts, thus revealing "The Diseased Soul of Sam Peckinpah".

My favorite scene is actually the picnic, where Elita and Bennie discuss their future. Elita begs Bennie to ask her to marry her, he does and she begins to weep. The simple fact that he says it is a tender moment, and shows how the slightest thing can arouse a woman's emotions. Jerry Fielding's musical score, which successfully created the mood and atmosphere for "Straw Dogs" (my all time favorite Peckinpah film) is present, but very muted. Still, this may be the best scene of the film.

Sam Peckinpah finally had complete control to dictate the direction of this film; Free from the money men, and left to his own devices in Mexico where he felt at home. A lot of people say that Pat Garret and Billy the Kid was the last Peckinpah masterpiece, but I think Alfredo Garcia was the last one. It throws you off at the beginning with the horses, then all of a sudden a Corvette screeches by; This is the paradox that really signifies that "The West" is over, bringing Sam Peckinpah and his love for the west full circle.

The critics literally hated this film, but 30 years later because of it we have a Martin Scorcese, a Robert Rodriguez, and a Quentin Tarantino (yeah) to name a few, as well as achieving underground cult status. I'm proud to call "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" one of my favorite films.

Sam Peckinpah, the master of ultra violent stories about mercenaries and outlaws, sends Warren Oates on a journey into the heart of darkness.

The result is nothing short of a masterpiece: What an amazing film full of unexpected turns, totally messed-up characters and fantastic performances.

Was way ahead of its time and should be re-discovered by as many film fans as possible. 9 stars out of 10.

In case you're interested in more underrated masterpieces, here's some of my favorites:

imdb.com/list/ls070242495/

BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA is another great hard-boiled action masterpiece from Sam Peckinpah(THE WILD BUNCH). Like most of his films, this one has cult status while it ought to be hailed as the classic it is. It features generous helpings of Peckinpah's famous slow motion gun fights and has great lines like "you guys are definitely on my sh*t list!" I don't know how that sounds to you, but for me it was irresistible.

Warren Oats(BADLANDS) stars as the piano player hired to retrieve the head (of Alfredo Garcia), unaware that he'll have competition. He knows he's working for the bad guys, but doesn't care because he needs the money. He sets out with his girlfriend and things don't exactly go as planned.

The film also features a cameo by Kris Kristofferson(A STAR IS BORN) is a biker. It is one of the many great scenes in this movie. Another has Oats transporting Garcia's not-so-fresh head, talking to it as he goes.

Many think the movie is over the top or just plain bad, but they're wrong. This movie has guts and emotional intensity. There's a good amount of both action and drama, and they both work.

If you like Peckinpah, action, or movies centering on severed head, BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA is for you!

Film starts promisingly enough , as the story takes place in the Mexican frontier with the U.S. , in 1974 . The Mexican baron land dubbed "The Boss" (Emilio Fernandez) to be aware his teenage daughter "Teresa" is pregnant , and he offers a reward : to take the head of Alfredo Garcia , a former employee . It is concerned by two American bounty hunters , "Quill" (Gig Young) and "Sappensly" (Robert Webber). Also, "Bennie" (Warren Oates), piano player and co-owner of a bar , along with her lover "Elita" Peach Vega (frequently naked Isela Vega), a prostitute and former girlfriend of "Alfredo Garcia" ; all of them are determined to get the reward . The pianist becomes mixed up vicious bounty hunters who are looking for the head of the man who has impregnated the wealthy owner's daughter and finishing in an orgy of blood and destruction .

An enjoyable film , it turns to be an elegiac and tough perspective at the world of losers . Taut excitement throughout , though soon becomes to drawn out , beautifully photographed and with brutal scenes and some images filmed in slow-moving . The film results to be one of the most strong and ferocious directed by Peckinpah . Tenth Sam Peckinpah film , shot with limited financial resources and total freedom . As it was the only movie directed by Sam Peckinpah that he had final cut on , all the others were re-cut by the studios . However , upon release , it was banned in Sweden, Germany and Argentina . The screenplay from S. Peckinpah , Gordon T. Dawson, develops a plot of S. Peckinpah and Frank Kawalski . It is filmed on location in various localities of Mexico . The picture is full of action , drama , adventure , crime , thriller , romance and western . There is a lot of bloodletting but seems almost restrained alongside nowadays's movies . It proposes a rough history , violent , sordid and heartbreaking . Abundant dust , odors , standing water covered with algae , watering foul , squalid housing , etc. It shows the poverty of the region , school children , nasty motorists , rapists stalking , assault , murder , shootouts , etc . Extremely violent throughout , it does show a side of Mexico rarely shot in American movies . Violence takes many forms , including long shootouts , punching, pushing malicious torture in private and in public . The central motive is a cruel revenge . The film is possibly the most brutal and ferocious made by Peckinpah , when he was dominated by alcohol , melancholy , loneliness and despair . Warren Oates turns in an excellent acting as independent pianist who is searching redemption by a crazy vengeance , he and Isela Vega strike real sparks . Warren Oates is on the screen as "alter ego" of the director, who creates one of his most candid self-portraits . It is a road movie , which develops the action as a long drive from the city of Mexico , near which lies the estate of "The Boss" . The film is formatted in a violent odyssey , peppered with unexpected incidents , outrageous situations , social problems and a stark as well as shocking bloody violence . It also has exalted friendship , companionship , affection and love . Displays signs of misogyny that characterizes the filmmaker , where women are not reliable : they are infidels , weak character , disloyal , deceitful, and all men are big losers . In the context of this bleak world , explores the mythic figure of the loser, in line with the general mood of the country after the end of the Vietnam War . It pays tribute to "The Treasure of Sierra Madre (Huston, 1948) , which is inspired and takes some elements included in the screenplay .

The soundtrack by Jerry Fielding , Peckinpah's usual ("The Wild Bunch" 1969), composed a score in short melodies that evoke the folk music traditional Mexican and 4 songs notables : "Bennie's Song", "A place to go", "Bad Blood Baby "(voice of Peckinpah) and" JF. " Photography, Alex Phillips ("Robinson Crusoe", Buñuel, 1954) , offers images that accompany and underscore the dirty , rough and violent film . Action , dialog , cinematography , score and slow-moving editing are Peckinpah classic in his film more authentic and personal. Professionally made by the famous director who was a real creator and author of masterpieces as ¨Cross of Iron¨,¨The ballad of Cable Hogue¨, ¨Wild bunch¨ . ¨Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia¨ was lovely realized by Sam Peckinpah in his punchy directorial style . Hardcore Peckinpah moviegoers will appreciate this one more than the casual spectator .

This one is a masterpiece light-years better that Pat Garret & Billy the Kid. This film updates the traditional American anti-hero of films like Huston's "Treasure Of The Sierra Madre" Mitchum's "Out of the Past", Eastwood's "Leone trilogy" and re-incarnates him as a decadent "lounge lizard, piano bar operating, sleaze-ball" named Bennie, out originally for the easy money and then out for revenge. This film is tight, brutally tragic, and picaresquely funny with the continuing one sided dialog between Benny and Alfredo a hoot. Benny's battered oil burning red Chevy Impala convertible imprints an impression of an impromptu pimp mobile-environmental disaster as it lays a blue contrail down on the highway.

The best Peckinpah I've seen so far.

Great cinematography, great dialog's and memorable one liners. Benny take your place in the Pantheon of Anti- Heroes

It wasn't a hit in its day, and its title became a staple of late-show humor soon after, but "Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia" is regarded a good deal more seriously today as one of legendary director Sam Peckinpah's signature films, maybe second only to his "Wild Bunch".

It's a pretty good film, but likely to resonate more with those who appreciate Sam going in. In it, a hard-drinking piano man in Mexico with a mysterious Army past named Bennie (Warren Oates) gets wind of the fact a fellow named Alfredo Garcia, who has just taken Bennie's girlfriend Elita (Isela Vega) out for a three-day tryst, has a price on his head and is wanted by some scuzzy killers. Bennie knows Alfredo is in fact dead. All he needs to do is get Al's head out of his grave and bring it to the killers for a payoff. He offers his services to the killers, though not explaining the part about Al being dead already.

One of the killers calls Bennie a "loser," which sets Bennie's big teeth on edge. "Nobody loses all the time," he replies.

That's a signature line in "Alfredo Garcia", though there are other good ones, too. In one, Bennie watches as a pair of gringo assassins demonstrate their disregard for the fairer sex by knocking one of them cold as she sits at Bennie's piano. "How d'you guys like baseball?" Bennie asks, a line that comes out as random as it reads. In another, Bennie pumps bullets into an already prone enemy. "Why?" he cries out to himself. "Because it feels so goddam good!"

What else is good about "Alfredo"? Start with Oates in a rare lead role, playing a character barely holding it together for half the film, completely insane thereafter. Watching him chop dry ice to preserve a rotting head is like watching Laurence Olivier soliloquize over a skull. Vega is fantastic as the wayward but compassionate Elita, lolling naked on a bed trying to coax Bennie back to sanity. A lot of nude scenes in movies feel wrong for the way they work to showcase the actor rather than the character, but Peckinpah shoots Vega from less flattering angles, to the point that the scenes underscore not her sexuality but her vulnerability. It's bold, arresting work, from both Peckinpah and Vega.

Peckinpah seems to be working with half a movie, though, a script which is an interesting idea but underdeveloped. Robert Webber and Gig Young get a great introduction as a pair of killers (Webber's the one who cold-cocks the girl) but don't make much of an impact thereafter. There's a bizarre bit with Kris Kristofferson as a menacing biker, except since he's Kristofferson he's not all that menacing or credible. Nor is the scene, which serves no useful purpose. The music by Jerry Fielding is well below his usual standard, except for the surreal muzak that plays in a hotel room when Bennie makes his deal for Al's head. The negative overall vibe of the film makes it almost impossible to watch sober, at least for me.

Bennie seems to feel it, too. "I wanna go someplace new," he tells Elita. It's his justification for going after Alfredo's head. But it's also a cop-out. Wherever Bennie goes, he can't escape his insecurities, with Elita and himself, something she tries to get him to deal with until it's too late.

As a pulp fiction piece that doesn't really seem that interested in the usual pulp fiction rules, "Alfredo Garcia" does work in its askew way. The best scene in the film, perversely enough, is a picnic where Bennie and Elita declare their love for one another. Like Edgar Buchanan's speech on marriage in "Ride The High Country" and Jason Robards and David Warner contemplating the pain of lost relationships in "The Ballad Of Cable Hogue", it's another standout sequence that belies a director's reputation, one for good or ill the rest of "Alfredo Garcia" ruthlessly upholds.

I have to comment on this film, although I don't know how well I am able to address my feelings relating to it. I guess you can't blame me: Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is a bizarre, not-so-literate film. But the minute I saw the poster of the blood-stained hand holding a pendant, the title and Warren Oates in the headlining, I knew I was going to love this film. Now having seen it, I have only superlatives to say about it.

What makes Peckinpah's films so good in the first place is that even though they have a lot of graphic violence, it's not self-serving, brainless entertainment like Tarantino's or Rodriguez's films (not that I don't like them as well). Peckinpah makes a point with it all, especially in Straw Dogs and The Wild Bunch, and Al Garcia is no exception to that. Here Warren Oates is a man whose morals are challenged by greed and corruption around him, who loses everything he has and thus takes his shots on the bad guys who try to capitalise things they bear no emotional relationship to. Not that I could make sense everything of it; as said, this film is bizarre and surreal from start to finish, but somehow it grabs you and doesn't let go. Just as Ebert said, there's hidden meaning even in a severed, rotting head. Considering this film was made when Peckinpah was losing his credibility among Hollywood studios, I would say he wanted this film to be an allegory of a maverick director surviving in the Hollywood system.

How this film has remained only a film buffs' favorite, I don't know. I mean, come on, it has everything to be a crime/thriller classic: Peckinpah in the director's chair, Warren Oates at his best, truckloads of attitude and some jet-black comedy in lines such as "you guys are definitely on my s**t list now." A truly brilliant, brilliant film.

Sam Peckinpah's Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia is hailed by some as a masterpiece (I've even seen reviews which claim, absurdly, that it is better than his film The Wild Bunch). Others view the film somewhat less favourably, seeing it as a deeply unpleasant sleaze-fest unworthy of the director's ability. I'm a huge fan of Peckinpah's work, but I'm afraid on this occasion I've got to go along with those who label the film a disappointment. The only Peckinpah movie that I like less than this is his final one, The Osterman Weekend. Mainly, I find Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia too self-consciously grim. Peckinpah wants to give us a dirty, sweaty antihero totally unlike any other hero we've seen before, but he makes Warren Oates' character TOO disagreeable, so that he goes beyond a mere antihero and becomes something truly unappealing, even unappetising. Likewise, the plot deliberately focuses on unpleasant detail, and the locations chosen are presented as seedily and uninvitingly as possible (presumably to add to the film's themes of anti-every thingness). Ultimately, the film chokes itself to death by over-doing the ugliness to such an extent that it becomes a turn-off.

Latin American moneybags El Jefe (Emilio Fernandes) is enraged to learn that his daughter has been impregnated out of wedlock by ex-soldier Alfredo Garcia. El Jefe promises a million bucks to anyone who can kill Garcia for him, on the proviso that they bring Garcia's head to him to prove that the killing has been carried out properly. An alcoholic American pianist, Bennie (Warren Oates), learns of the bounty and is immediately interested in the idea. Bennie knows what everyone else doesn't:- that Garcia is dead and has been buried in a Mexican graveyard. Therefore, he sets off with his girlfriend Elita (Isela Vega) planning to dig up Garcia's corpse, saw off its head, and take the head to El Jefe in order to collect the reward. The plan backfires and Bennie finds himself pitted against a whole bunch of unscrupulous and murderous bounty hunters, all of whom want the blood-stained sack that holds Alfredo Garcia's head so that they can hand it over to El Jefe, thus laying their hands on the million dollar purse.

During the shoot, Peckinpah was allegedly in a perpetual haze of booze and drugs. The effect is certainly pretty disastrous on he film. It's a deeply personal film in which he director seems to be dangerously angry, but at no point does he get enough grip on the material to fashion it into something coherent and meaningful. From time to time, people have also interpreted it as some sort of black comedy, but I couldn't see any truth in that interpretation when I watched it. The pacing is rather slow too, and worse still the editing is awfully sloppy (unheard-of in most Peckinpah movies, as they usually make innovative use of editing techniques). On the whole, Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia is a very dismaying failure; particularly disappointing when one considers Peckinpah's talent and reflects on how scandalously it has been wasted here.