Review of Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974) by Tommi P — 25 Oct 2007

In the Autumn of 1973, teetering dramatically on the verge of mental and physical breakdown, Sam Peckinpah began principal photography on his tenth feature.

Set in Mexico and described variously as â??a repulsive nightmareâ?? and â??the grimmest, most horrifying of his filmsâ??, Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia can now be appreciated as one of the directorâ??s most brilliant, uncompromisingly bleak meditations on masculinity.

Bennie, a washed-up bar-room pianist (underrated Peckinpah stalwart Warren Oates) leaps at the chance to pick up $10,000 by hunting down Alfredo Garcia, a former henchman of powerful mob boss El Jefe (Emilio Fernandez) whose daughter Garcia has left pregnant.

Along with a handful of films such as Jerry Schatzbergâ??s Scarecrow (1973), Alfredo Garcia remains one of the great, sorely under-appreciated classics of New American Cinema. Wrapped up in a surreal, dream-like aura of fatalism, it is essential, unmissable Peckinpah.