Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)

An American bartender and his prostitute girlfriend go on a road trip through the Mexican underworld to collect a $1 million bounty on the head of a dead gigolo.

Director:

Sam Peckinpah

Writers:

Frank Kowalski (story), Sam Peckinpah (story),

Stars:

Warren Oates, Isela Vega, Robert Webber

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Warren Oates	...	Bennie
Isela Vega	...	Elita
Robert Webber	...	Sappensly
Gig Young	...	Quill
Helmut Dantine	...	Max
Emilio Fernández	...	El Jefe (as Emilio Fernandez)
Kris Kristofferson	...	Biker
Chano Urueta	...	Manchot, the bartender
Donnie Fritts	...	John (as Donny Fritts)
Jorge Russek	...	Cueto
Chalo González	...	Chalo (as Chalo Gonzalez)
Don Levy	...	Frank
Enrique Lucero	...	Esteban
Janine Maldonado	...	Theresa
Tamara Garina	...	Grandmother Moreno

Storyline

A family scandal causes a wealthy and powerful Mexican rancher to make the pronouncement--'Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia!' Two of the bounty-hunters thus dispatched encounter a local piano-player in their hunt for information. The piano-player does a little investigating on his own and finds out that his girlfriend knows of Garcia's death and last resting place. Thinking that he can make some easy money and gain financial security for he and his (now) fiancée, they set off on this goal. Of course, this quest only brings him untold misery, in the form of trademark Peckinpah violence.

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Plot Keywords:

mexican | piano player | quest | violence | bounty hunter | 

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Taglines:

Why is his head worth one million dollars and the lives of 21 people?

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller | Western

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA Mexico

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

13 March 1975 (Mexico)

Also Known As:

Bring mir den Kopf von Alfredo Garcia

Filming Locations:

Chalco, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico

Box Office

Budget:

$1,500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Estudios Churubusco Azteca S.A., Optimus Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Isela Vega received a Best Actress nomination at the 1975 Ariel Awards held by the Academia Mexicana de Artesy y Ciencias Cinematograpficas. She lost to Pilar Pellicer, who won the Ariel for her role in Emilio Fernández's La choca.

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Goofs

At a little after 1:33 in the movie, as Bennie crosses inside his apartment, alone and talking to Alfredo's head ("A friend of ours used to take a shower in there...You know that? You know that!"), a crewman in black clothing can be glimpsed ducking behind an adjacent transom. A second later, his arm reappears as Bennie reaches for a bottle in the pantry.

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Quotes

Bennie: [after a shootout] Am I still gonna get paid?
Sappensly: [pulling out a gun] Yeah, you'll get paid.

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Connections

Referenced in I Spit on Your Grave (1978)

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Soundtracks

"A Donde Ir"
by Javier Vega

User Reviews

Dark Latter-Day Western

This dark and brutal film involves Benny, an American piano player in Mexico (played by Warren Oates) who gets involved with bounty hunters searching for the head of Alfredo Garcia. The head is worth one million dollars, because Garcia got the daughter of a very wealthy and powerful man, pregnant.

The film features plenty of Sam Peckinpah's trademark slow-motion violence in some very well-staged action set pieces. The cast (particularly Oates and Isle Vega, as his Mexican girlfriend) are good, and the film conjures up a powerful atmosphere of despair and casual cruelty and violence.

The film , however, features moments of genuine tenderness between Oates and Vega. Oates plays Benny as a man on the edge. Basically decent but forced to do some pretty horrible things to survive.

Reviled by critics on it's first release, this film will prompt some strong reactions in viewers. While not one of Peckinpah's best films, his enormous talent is still visible throughout this film.