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38 out of 40 people found the following comment useful :-
A twisted and dark masterpiece, 27 February 2000

Author: contronatura (contronatura@aol.com) from Los Angeles, CA

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.

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36 out of 40 people found the following comment useful :-
Violent, Beautiful, Ugly, Haunting., 23 June 2001
Author: INFOFREAKO from Perth, Australia

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!

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33 out of 36 people found the following comment useful :-
Unrivaled., 15 April 2005

Author: (sothisislife) from Southern California

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.

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38 out of 48 people found the following comment useful :-
Peckinpah has come full circle, 27 January 2005
Author: norm1972_8 from United States

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.

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21 out of 25 people found the following comment useful :-
This HEAD has got guts!, 12 March 2004

Author: Reggie Santori from Fort Worth, Texas

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!

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24 out of 31 people found the following comment useful :-
Dark Latter-Day Western, 27 February 2004
Author: RobertF87 from Scotland

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.

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19 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :-
well a head of it's time..., 9 December 2003
Author: MIKEHILL38 (MIKEHILL38@HOTMAIL.COM) from manchester, england

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

sam's masterfully blackly comic thriller about the tragic retribution of an already dead title character is indeed a cult classic and easily one of his most overlooked movies. a luckless ex pat yank bartender living in mexico (warren oates) embarks on obtaining a reward by producing the head of a former acquaintence who has impregnated the daughter of a wealthy mexican baron (emilio fernandez). en route, he encounters rival hitmen including two gay gringos (gig young and robert webber) and a couple of hells angels led by kris kristopherson. featuring some superb peckinpah shoot outs and breathtaking mexico scenery along with a superb music score by jerry fielding; this is a complete joy from beginning to end.

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14 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :-
Brilliant!, 21 January 2006

Author: mgtbltp from upstate ny

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 sleaze-ball", out originally for the money and then out for revenge. This film is tight and funny with the continuing one sided dialog between Benny and Alfredo a riot. Benny's pimp mobile of choice an oil burning red Chevy Impala convertible is an environmental disaster as it lays a 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 Panthenon of Anti- Heroes

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13 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
Whither the Crucial Missing Scene?, 16 January 2002

Author: Steve Fischer (stvdoe@aol.com) from New York City

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The following commentary should only be read by those who have seen the film. It is, in a sense, a spoiler for something that doesn't exist in the film's current release.

I first saw Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia here in Manhattan on the day it opened so many years ago. After the reviews came out, the studio immediately pulled the prints from the theaters and cut the most CRUCIAL scene in the film.

The original release contained a scene wherein upon discovering his lover dead, the Warren Oates character makes love to her corpse. He does so tenderly, and with deep regret. Then he buries her along with Garcia's remains in the grave he's just desecrated.

It is in this moment that he slips into madness. If you watch the film again, note the transition from the "pre-grave" character and the "post-grave" one. (Also note the somewhat disjointed transition from his holding his dead lover in his arms, to his leaving the graveyard.) I'm sure you could view his character change as simply being a reaction to her death. But if you imagine the missing footage, his impending lunacy has greater depth, and makes more sense. It also gives the film a different resonance than his other films that employ a machismo/revenge motif.

It's always driven me crazy (so to speak <G>) that this most important scene was taken out of the film, denying the audience a true understanding of the Oates character in the last third of the film.

I eagerly await a DVD release that restores this footage. I hope it hasn't been lost forever.

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12 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
Scratch the Surface and You Find Great Art, 14 March 2002

Author: mikenuell from El Dorado, USA

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.

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