Review of Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974) by Gregory S — 14 Mar 2010

The description for the film here A powerful man wants to see proof that his daughter's lover is, in fact, dead, isn't particularly in depth but it does almost sum it up. The only issue with the description is it leaves out our hero Berny who seizes this opportunity as chance to advance himself in the world.

From the start of the film the setting appears atypical for one of Peckinpah's western with the scene in our 'powerful man' in question first enquires about his daughters lover named Alfredo Garcia and when he sets a price on his head the movie sets off into the modern day. The film however in structure still bares resemblance to the western genre with our hero setting forth into a frontier hoping to prosper but like many of the best westerns here those possibilities give way to things like greed, corruption, betrayal, bloodshed and even to an extent madness.

Peckinpah's films are often associated for their bombastic approach and this film is certainly no exception in regards to its reputation. However this causes many of Peckinpah's films almost to be over simplified because when looking at this film many overlook the sober approach Peckinpah adapts for almost the entire first half of the film that serves as almost the complete contrast for the bloodshed that will follow. The film also allows Warren Oats who's at his absolute best to truly shine the film relies less on cinematic exuberance than something like The Wild Bunch and for all the films violence its his performance that's central. Perhaps that's because as so many Peckinpah biographers have concluded there are autobiographical aspects to the film, Peckinpah who was at constant odds with the studio must have shared shared some of Benny's mentality who for much of the film is at the service of a criminal organization looking to cash in on the head. Some have gone as far as to say that Peckinpah is Benny and the Head is the film and the studio being the criminals.

I once a read a review of the Wild Bunch citing it as a film about men destroying themselves, that could probably be applied to almost any of Sam's films but still his work shows much personal growth, where in Ride The High Country we have Joel McCrea sacrificing himself to help redeem Randolph Scott here Benny as well as over a dozen others are lost in a futile cause for revenge, and a man merely trying to make his way in the world but the real tragedy being that Benny had what all he wanted before he even learned about Garcia which the first half of the film showcases in an almost poetic fashion almost at odds with what Peckinpah is known for that enhances the sense of loss and the elements of dark rheumatism; Stephen King associate the film with Cormac McCarthy's work and the Coen's channeled him on the making of 'No Country for Old Men "Hard men in the south-west shooting each other â?? that's definitely Sam Peckinpah's thing. We were aware of those similarities, certainly." Harold Bloom would in turn associate McCarthy with Herman Melville the forgoer of Dark Romanticism a genre conveying elements of mankind being prone to self destruction and without any cosmic significance. Even with Benny sharing some of Captain Ahab's obsseion this entire comparison is a bit elaborate I admit but thinking back one will remember the auteur theory was proposed to convey directors as artists in the same way a painter of a literary figure is regarded, so as film advances as medium and the true artists are revealed maybe the comparison wont seem so far off, until then maybe when talking about same Peckinpah its easiest just to refer back to what Scorsese said,' It's tempting to say that he was not of this world'.