zardoz-13 Warren Oates delivers the best performance of his cinematic career in director Sam Peckinpah's melodrama "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia," co-starring Emilio Fernández, Helmet Dantine, Robber Webber, Gig Young, Kris Kristofferson, and Isela Vega. According to the Internet Movie Database, this R-rated, 112-minute, masterpiece represented the only film that Peckinpah ever possessed the distinction of final cut. Of course, like most Peckinpah parables, "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" is bloody, violent, and unintentionally funny. A suave gigolo—Alfredo Garcia—impregnates the daughter of a wealthy patron named El Jefe, and the scandalized father demands that somebody do as the title indicates. Everybody is suddenly on Garcia's trail, including a sleazy nightclub musician, Benny (Warren Oates of "Return of the Seven"), who fallen in love with a prostitute Elita (Isela Vega of "Barbarosa") who knew the person of interest. Meantime, El Jefe has authorized a group of Americans, headed up by Max (Helmut Dantine of "The Killer Elite"), to find that noggin. Max has two trigger-happy gay killers, Sappensly (Robert Webber of "10") and Quill (Oscar winning actor Gig Young of "They Shoot Horses, Don't They") to handle the business of getting the head. Eventually, Bennie finds out of the interest in Alfredo and persuades Elita to help him find the gigolo. Things turn out easy at first because Alfredo is already dead. Nevertheless, things suddenly turn complicated when Bennie is robbing Alfredo's grave and he is knocked unconscious by a shovel. As it turns out, two other Mexicans are going to claim the 'head' and take it back to El Jefe. When Bennie recovers with a headache, he discovers that he has been buried where Alfredo's grave is and Elita has suffocated to death because she had been buried alongside him. Later, Bennie tracks down these two dastards and kills them in a roadside shoot-out that Max's two bounty hunters Sappensly and Quill participate in and both die.Nothing about "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" is glorious. This is a personal film for Peckinpah, and he doesn't resort to the usual Hollywood bravura. During the first half of it, Bennie is pretty much a milquetoast musician, but he turns into a killer later on and handles himself well in a gunfire. Now that Bennie has gotten the head, he wants to know why prompted El Jefe to have it. Our Bennie gets nowhere. He shoots it out with Max and his bodyguards, and then he visits El Jefe to ask him the big question. When he doesn't get a response, Bennie drills the father and tries to careen out the gates, but he is brought down by an small army of riflemen. Initially, Peckinpah had asked James Coburn to portray Bennie, but Coburn turned him down. Warren Oates gives a soulful performance. Robert Webber and Gig Young as quietly sadistic as the two homosexual hit men. "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" is a strong, realistic film that is for the squeamish. Kris Kristofferson appears in a cameo as a rapist who barges in on Bennie and Elita when they are sitting down to a picnic.

axpalm BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA is Sam Peckinpah's most intimate and underrated film. I can think of few other films of this caliber that are as neglected or unsung. A bizarre, sleazy film that has Peckinpah's signature trademarks - his romance with John Huston's TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, loners, Mexico at it's grittiest, slow-motion violence. When I saw it the first few times, the film seemed to wander aimlessly at various stretches and Peckinpah's direction felt tired to me. Even though Peckinpah can still lift you two inches off the ground with his action sequences, it doesn't have the kinetic impulse running thru it like THE WILD BUNCH, STRAW DOGS, THE GETAWAY or CROSS OF IRON.Knowing now what I do about his career, I suspect the tiredness was authentic, due to his battles with studio executives and a self- destructive life. This knowledge and the ensuing years of experiencing the picture, have taken on added meaning and enriched it for me. Bennie the down and out piano player, memorably played by Peckinpah's Bogart, Warren Oates, is a wonderful alter ego for the director.Starring Oates and Isela Vega and a strong supporting cast which includes Gig Young, Robert Webber and Emilio Fernandez. The excellent score is by Peckinpah's best composer, Jerry Fielding. It may take several viewings but sit back and relish the sad poetry of an authentic film artist, Sam Peckinpah.

utgard14 The teenage daughter of a wealthy Mexican known as El Jefe is knocked up by Alfredo Garcia. El Jefe wants Garcia dead and places a $1,000,000 bounty on his head. Dive bar piano player Bennie (Warren Oates) wants to collect on the bounty. Luckily for Bennie, his hooker girlfriend Elita (Isela Vega) knows where Alfredo's buried. So Bennie gets Elita to take him to Alfredo's grave, where he intends to cut off the corpse's head and take it to El Jefe. But things go horribly wrong along the way.One of Sam Peckinpah's more controversial movies. Most people seem to either love it or hate it. I'm kind of in the middle. The first 3/4 of it is slow-going and you might find yourself checking your watch. When it finally picks up the pace it is undeniably interesting and hard to turn away from. It's Peckinpah so expect violence and nastiness with unsavory, dislikable characters and a somewhat nihilistic tone to it all. Excessive use of slow-mo in action scenes is also a bit much. It almost seems like the man is parodying himself. Peckinpah devotees will like it most.

mazec666 After the catastrophic production of PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID, Sam Peckinpah finally got total autonomy from United Artists with the most unusual movie on his filmography.BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA is one hell of an alcohol-soaked, blood-drenched joyride through the beautiful countryside of Mexico. Believe it or not, this is a film that dares to be unapologetic and different for a personal reason. Unsung character actor Warren Oates delivers an outstanding performance as the shades-sporting piano player Bennie. The down-and-out American is hired by two eccentric hit men (Gig Young & Robert Webber) to do a murderous dirty deed for them: By delivering a slain gigolo's severed head to a wealthy land baron (Emilio Fernandez) for a cool million dollar bounty.Mexican actress Isela Vega is an earthy presence as the curvaceous songstress Elita. Kris Kristofferson is awesome as always in his all-too-brief role as an unnamed hippie biker. Morbid, repulsive and melancholic in its own passionate way of mixing dark comedy, buddy movie clichés and Shakespearian tragedy which mirrors Peckinpah's downward spiral. Considered by many admirers as one of his last true works, ALFREDO GARCIA is an iconoclastic work of not only American cinema but visceral cinema indeed.