It wasn't a hit in its day, and its title became a staple of late-show humor soon after, but "Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia" is regarded a good deal more seriously today as one of legendary director Sam Peckinpah's signature films, maybe second only to his "Wild Bunch".
It's a pretty good film, but likely to resonate more with those who appreciate Sam going in. In it, a hard-drinking piano man in Mexico with a mysterious Army past named Bennie (Warren Oates) gets wind of the fact a fellow named Alfredo Garcia, who has just taken Bennie's girlfriend Elita (Isela Vega) out for a three-day tryst, has a price on his head and is wanted by some scuzzy killers. Bennie knows Alfredo is in fact dead. All he needs to do is get Al's head out of his grave and bring it to the killers for a payoff. He offers his services to the killers, though not explaining the part about Al being dead already.
One of the killers calls Bennie a "loser," which sets Bennie's big teeth on edge. "Nobody loses all the time," he replies.
That's a signature line in "Alfredo Garcia", though there are other good ones, too. In one, Bennie watches as a pair of gringo assassins demonstrate their disregard for the fairer sex by knocking one of them cold as she sits at Bennie's piano. "How d'you guys like baseball?" Bennie asks, a line that comes out as random as it reads. In another, Bennie pumps bullets into an already prone enemy. "Why?" he cries out to himself. "Because it feels so goddam good!"
What else is good about "Alfredo"? Start with Oates in a rare lead role, playing a character barely holding it together for half the film, completely insane thereafter. Watching him chop dry ice to preserve a rotting head is like watching Laurence Olivier soliloquize over a skull. Vega is fantastic as the wayward but compassionate Elita, lolling naked on a bed trying to coax Bennie back to sanity. A lot of nude scenes in movies feel wrong for the way they work to showcase the actor rather than the character, but Peckinpah shoots Vega from less flattering angles, to the point that the scenes underscore not her sexuality but her vulnerability. It's bold, arresting work, from both Peckinpah and Vega.
Peckinpah seems to be working with half a movie, though, a script which is an interesting idea but underdeveloped. Robert Webber and Gig Young get a great introduction as a pair of killers (Webber's the one who cold-cocks the girl) but don't make much of an impact thereafter. There's a bizarre bit with Kris Kristofferson as a menacing biker, except since he's Kristofferson he's not all that menacing or credible. Nor is the scene, which serves no useful purpose. The music by Jerry Fielding is well below his usual standard, except for the surreal muzak that plays in a hotel room when Bennie makes his deal for Al's head. The negative overall vibe of the film makes it almost impossible to watch sober, at least for me.
Bennie seems to feel it, too. "I wanna go someplace new," he tells Elita. It's his justification for going after Alfredo's head. But it's also a cop-out. Wherever Bennie goes, he can't escape his insecurities, with Elita and himself, something she tries to get him to deal with until it's too late.
As a pulp fiction piece that doesn't really seem that interested in the usual pulp fiction rules, "Alfredo Garcia" does work in its askew way. The best scene in the film, perversely enough, is a picnic where Bennie and Elita declare their love for one another. Like Edgar Buchanan's speech on marriage in "Ride The High Country" and Jason Robards and David Warner contemplating the pain of lost relationships in "The Ballad Of Cable Hogue", it's another standout sequence that belies a director's reputation, one for good or ill the rest of "Alfredo Garcia" ruthlessly upholds.
It's a pretty good film, but likely to resonate more with those who appreciate Sam going in. In it, a hard-drinking piano man in Mexico with a mysterious Army past named Bennie (Warren Oates) gets wind of the fact a fellow named Alfredo Garcia, who has just taken Bennie's girlfriend Elita (Isela Vega) out for a three-day tryst, has a price on his head and is wanted by some scuzzy killers. Bennie knows Alfredo is in fact dead. All he needs to do is get Al's head out of his grave and bring it to the killers for a payoff. He offers his services to the killers, though not explaining the part about Al being dead already.
One of the killers calls Bennie a "loser," which sets Bennie's big teeth on edge. "Nobody loses all the time," he replies.
That's a signature line in "Alfredo Garcia", though there are other good ones, too. In one, Bennie watches as a pair of gringo assassins demonstrate their disregard for the fairer sex by knocking one of them cold as she sits at Bennie's piano. "How d'you guys like baseball?" Bennie asks, a line that comes out as random as it reads. In another, Bennie pumps bullets into an already prone enemy. "Why?" he cries out to himself. "Because it feels so goddam good!"
What else is good about "Alfredo"? Start with Oates in a rare lead role, playing a character barely holding it together for half the film, completely insane thereafter. Watching him chop dry ice to preserve a rotting head is like watching Laurence Olivier soliloquize over a skull. Vega is fantastic as the wayward but compassionate Elita, lolling naked on a bed trying to coax Bennie back to sanity. A lot of nude scenes in movies feel wrong for the way they work to showcase the actor rather than the character, but Peckinpah shoots Vega from less flattering angles, to the point that the scenes underscore not her sexuality but her vulnerability. It's bold, arresting work, from both Peckinpah and Vega.
Peckinpah seems to be working with half a movie, though, a script which is an interesting idea but underdeveloped. Robert Webber and Gig Young get a great introduction as a pair of killers (Webber's the one who cold-cocks the girl) but don't make much of an impact thereafter. There's a bizarre bit with Kris Kristofferson as a menacing biker, except since he's Kristofferson he's not all that menacing or credible. Nor is the scene, which serves no useful purpose. The music by Jerry Fielding is well below his usual standard, except for the surreal muzak that plays in a hotel room when Bennie makes his deal for Al's head. The negative overall vibe of the film makes it almost impossible to watch sober, at least for me.
Bennie seems to feel it, too. "I wanna go someplace new," he tells Elita. It's his justification for going after Alfredo's head. But it's also a cop-out. Wherever Bennie goes, he can't escape his insecurities, with Elita and himself, something she tries to get him to deal with until it's too late.
As a pulp fiction piece that doesn't really seem that interested in the usual pulp fiction rules, "Alfredo Garcia" does work in its askew way. The best scene in the film, perversely enough, is a picnic where Bennie and Elita declare their love for one another. Like Edgar Buchanan's speech on marriage in "Ride The High Country" and Jason Robards and David Warner contemplating the pain of lost relationships in "The Ballad Of Cable Hogue", it's another standout sequence that belies a director's reputation, one for good or ill the rest of "Alfredo Garcia" ruthlessly upholds.