← Back to Reviews
in
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Cast overview: Warren Oates, Isela Vega
Running time: 112 minutes
I typed out a long review for this and then it completely disappeared - AAARRRGGGGHHH. Anyway, here goes. I enjoyed this film a lot, which I was sort of expecting to given it's Peckinpah - the first of his I've seen, incidentally, though he is highly regarded. The basic premise was fairly straightforward - indeed, the title itself - my favourite film title of all time, and one of the best - gives away the synopsis in itself. Warren Oates is the man tasked with bringing the head back, and he plays his role with skill and expertise, creating a flawed protagonist that we still vouch for. He is no hero in the conventional sense, but he's our hero all the same. Bennie is a character that has fallen on hard times, seemingly at the bottom of society, yet his drive appears to be infallible.
The film is twisted, dark, and brutal, but it doesn't seem unnecessarily so - it really does show a gritty, raw, dirty underbelly of society that - coupled with the hot, barren Mexico landscape - is effective as a backdrop for the film. It's a dark western of a kind, one in which we are engrossed with the original theme. Peckinpah shows extremely effectively the hunger of man, and this is very little different from the one-man-on-a-quest films that tend to dominate Hollywood.
Overall, I think this is an underrated seventies film, panned by critics and audiences alike upon its release, and it holds up as a thrilling release. It's a difficult film, and one that I would bargain needs more than one viewing to fully appreciate its talents, but nonetheless it's one that won't be far off my seventies list, and it may indeed make it.
Quotes
El Jefe: I will pay one million dollars. Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia!
Bennie: Nobody loses all the time.
Bennie: You guys are definitely on my **** list!
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 (1974).
The only movie directed by Sam Peckinpah that he had final cut on - all the others were re-cut by the studios.
Upon release, it was banned in Sweden, Germany and Argentina.
Trailer
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Cast overview: Warren Oates, Isela Vega
Running time: 112 minutes
I typed out a long review for this and then it completely disappeared - AAARRRGGGGHHH. Anyway, here goes. I enjoyed this film a lot, which I was sort of expecting to given it's Peckinpah - the first of his I've seen, incidentally, though he is highly regarded. The basic premise was fairly straightforward - indeed, the title itself - my favourite film title of all time, and one of the best - gives away the synopsis in itself. Warren Oates is the man tasked with bringing the head back, and he plays his role with skill and expertise, creating a flawed protagonist that we still vouch for. He is no hero in the conventional sense, but he's our hero all the same. Bennie is a character that has fallen on hard times, seemingly at the bottom of society, yet his drive appears to be infallible.
The film is twisted, dark, and brutal, but it doesn't seem unnecessarily so - it really does show a gritty, raw, dirty underbelly of society that - coupled with the hot, barren Mexico landscape - is effective as a backdrop for the film. It's a dark western of a kind, one in which we are engrossed with the original theme. Peckinpah shows extremely effectively the hunger of man, and this is very little different from the one-man-on-a-quest films that tend to dominate Hollywood.
Overall, I think this is an underrated seventies film, panned by critics and audiences alike upon its release, and it holds up as a thrilling release. It's a difficult film, and one that I would bargain needs more than one viewing to fully appreciate its talents, but nonetheless it's one that won't be far off my seventies list, and it may indeed make it.
Quotes
El Jefe: I will pay one million dollars. Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia!
Bennie: Nobody loses all the time.
Bennie: You guys are definitely on my **** list!
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 (1974).
The only movie directed by Sam Peckinpah that he had final cut on - all the others were re-cut by the studios.
Upon release, it was banned in Sweden, Germany and Argentina.
Trailer