Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia - 1974

Sam Peckinpah is well known for big, blockbuster movies like Pat Garret & Billy the Kid, The Wild Bunch, and Straw Dogs. And he certainly didn't shy away from some bloodshed in his projects. As William Holden says at the beginning of The Wild Bunch, "If it moves, kill it". Peckinpah lived life to its fullest, abusing drink and drugs, and that plays out in his scripts.

During a period in the early to mid 1970's, Peckinpah went through a severe period of alcoholic fear and loathing. From this mindset we get this film. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia was immediately panned by many film critics. But understand the context in which this movie was born of, and you will feel Peckinpah's life coursing through this movie. The movie's hero, Bennie, has a haunting demon, an exhaustion, and a sense of utter desperation that is certainly a picture of where Peckinpah was at the time.

The film stars Warren Oates, a grizzled character actor of the 60s and 70s. I grew up on a staple of this era's TV shows and probably have seen him in the likes of Gunsmoke, Bat Masterson, The Rifleman and Rawhide. Here he plays Bennie, a seedy American expatriate, playing piano in cheap bars and Mexican brothels. When a rich and powerful industrialist offers a large reward for the head of Alfredo Garcia for impregnating his daughter, Bennie sees a way out of the bottom of life. He teams up with a prostitute (and former lover of Garcia) to find Garcia and collect the reward, along with other enterprising bounty hunters. The odyssey to get the body part, and get it back to collect the reward is riddled with violence and desperation.

For most of the film, Bennie carries around the burlap sack with the severed head of Garcia in it. Much like Bogart's Fred C. Dobbs in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, the personal mission provides the emotional unraveling of the character. There is no joy in this life and this quest is undoubtedly not the best path towards happiness.

Under a scorching Mexican sun, a bagged head doesn't preserve well. Bennie however protects it over all else that might be of value in his life. Oates masterfully shows the desperate emotion required of the part. After a period he calls the head Al and chats about the woman they both loved.

This movie is what it is because of Peckinpah's emotional state. It seeps into the film at its core and the actors are part and parcel of it.

There is a scene where Bennie and Elita stop on the road for a rest under a tree. Elita talks of marriage and commitment after all this is over. Bennie is initially taken aback with the thought. A happy marriage is as foreign to him as any life joy. But they both run with the thought and pay proper respect to it. Although they agree to the commitment, and tears are shed, we all know that it is not in the cards.

This has become a cult classic - but it represents so much more. It is a slice of wild life of one of America's best film directors.

Research the movie at Amazon here.

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