Review of Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974) by Hossein N — 10 Aug 2009

'70s crime, 'Bloody Sam' style: down-and-outer Warren Oates, on the trail, riding hard for high-stakes satisfaction south of the border so he can lay low once and for all. But for a Peckinpah hero, nothing or nobody in life--and certainly not the head of Alfredo Garcia--comes without an onslaught.

Contemporary settings aside, it's certainly representative of Peckinpah's body of work, and entertainingly so; but without the pursuer-pursued dynamic of THE WILD BUNCH or PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID, or the conflict between two partners that drives many of Peckinpah's films--RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY, MAJOR DUNDEE, THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE, STRAW DOGS, and even a mess like THE GETAWAY--there's too little tension.

Oates and Isela Vega are for real, but there's no doubt they'll be together 'til the end. The forces that they are at odds with get too little screen time, or are played for farce, 'til Oates' all too suddenly turns from a Harry Fabian-like hustler into the Punisher.

Far from Peckinpah's best, but worth a look, especially at Mexico City locations as squalid in 1974 as Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's are almost 25 years later in AMORES PERROS.