GOTTA SEE IT # 9 - "BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA"

“BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA”

Starring: Warren Oates, Isela Vega, Robert Webber, Gig Young, Helmut Dantine, Emilio Fernandez, Kris Kristofferson, Chano Urueta, Donnie Fritts.

Written by: Frank Kowalski, Sam Peckinpah, Gordon T. Dawson.

Directed by: Sam Peckinpah

Colour – 1974

112 minutes

U.S.A.

Money is the root of all evil.

Okay, maybe things aren’t that cut and dry. After all, money can be a positive force in our lives. It’s all about balance, right? Well, this picture - Sam Peckinpah’s scuzzy, blood soaked up-chuck of a road movie - flips a filthy middle finger at that quaint notion.

A Mexican land baron, El Jefe (Emilio Fernandez), triggers a vicious and gruesome man hunt, when he offers a million dollars to the person who can bring him the head of the man who impregnated his young daughter. Yes, that would be Alfredo Garcia and, yes, he would be in deep, deep trouble.

Peckinpah favourite, Warren Oates (Ride the High Country, The Wild Bunch, Cockfighter) plays a down on his luck, small town bartender named Bennie, who is promised ten thousand bucks by a professional outfit if he’ll deliver Alfredo’s head to them within 4 days. They, in turn, will deliver it to El Jefe and collect a cool million for Bennie’s troubles.

Thematically focused like a laser, BMTHOAG is principally about two things - the corrupting nature of money and the power the past has over the present and, consequently, over any potential future. Bennie’s the victim of both, as he tries to use the search for Alfredo’s head as a means of turning his luck around and setting up a new life with Mexican girlfriend Elita (sexy and earthy Isela Vega). Oates has this regular guy-doofus appeal that makes BMTHOAG a surprisingly enjoyable ride. I say surprisingly enjoyable because this flick is bleak - no doubt about that - but Oates’ oddball charm keeps it from being eaten alive by its’ own relentless pessimism.

Peckinpah was a romantic. He threw his whole self into his films. Also, like Fellini or Woody Allen, his films are inseparable from himself. He is his films and vice versa. Consequently, his characters are larger than life, do or die, go-big-or-go-home types who live on the edge and prefer it that way. They cannot compromise. They cannot do anything half-way. They are what they are - for better or worse - just like the man who made them. Oates’ Bennie fits this mold, but he’s one of Peckinpah’s least commanding characters. He has more in common with Dustin Hoffman’s math professor from “Straw Dogs” or Jason Robard’s “Cable Hogue” from “Ballad of Cable Hogue” than he does with either William Holden’s “Pike Bishop” or Robert Ryan’s “Deke Thorton” from “The Wild Bunch.” He’s a loser (heck, he admits as much) and screws-up time and time again. He’s a horrible dresser, worse protector and a lousy judge of character. Summing up, it’s best not to pin your hopes on this guy. Yet, he’s the lead character in the film! Have I mentioned how much I like films about lost causes like Bennie?

There is plenty of doom and gloom in BMTHOAG - plenty of dirt and blood and dead bodies lying lonesome in the hot Mexican sun. There’s also romance, touches of black comedy and the grimy fingerprints of day old sleaze. Peckinpah has crafted an uncompromising work that, in the end, leaves no heroes and spares no villains.