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BRING
ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA
8/10
USA (USA/Mexico)
1974 : Sam PECKINPAH : 114 mins
 When
local stud Alfredo Garcia gets a rich man’s virginal daughter pregnant,
a massive bounty is offered for the offending bloke’s head. Various low-lifes
set out across northern Mexico to secure the prize. Trouble is, Garcia
is already dead. This fact doesn’t deter American bar-pianist Warren Oates,
who digs up the corpse, removes the head, stuffs it in a burlap sack and
sets off to deliver the goods… Except now our seedy, sweaty ‘hero’ has
his own scores to settle…
Though relatively
light on plot – the dramatic pivots of the story are very generously spaced-out
through the running time - Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is
very heavy indeed on character. And as a showcase for the miraculous talents
of Oates, who wears dark glasses at all times (even in bed), it’s
terrific. And while Peckinpah’s trademark presentation of violence (whenever
there’s gunplay, we go into slow motion) becomes repetitive, he creates
a thoroughly involving, tequila-hazed, sun-baked world of moral and physical
decay, full of inspired touches and moments of black humour (Oates starts
chatting to Garcia’s head, which he refers to as “Al”). There are
some dead patches – the Kris Kristofferson sequences are so torpid it’s
a relief when Oates shoots him – but by the end Peckinpah has taken us
on a remarkable ride. The apocalyptic finale, and the closing freeze-frame,
meanwhile, are simply stunning.
5th
June, 2003
(seen 25th May: CineSide,
Newcastle)
by Neil
Young
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