Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia

Sam Peckinpah
1974

Not to say that Warren Oates is an unappealing leading man, but the nappy-curls, massive teeth, and ratty moustache make him the kind of guy Hollywood pretty boys (unsuccessfully) attempt to transform themselves into for prestige anti-hero roles. The massive sunglasses he wears dwarf his head, disturbingly suggesting a chain-smoking child with facial scruff - as if Peckinpah was hell-bent on stripping any element of aesthetic beauty from his film. The picture's titular two-bit Romeo makes the mistake of knocking up El Jefe's daughter, and nothing short of Freddie's melon will satisfy the insulted Grandfather-to-be. Bennie (Oates) catches wind of the hefty bounty on Garcia while tickling ivories in a dilapidated border-town cantina, and sets off with his hooker girlfriend on a boozy greed-fueled nightmare. There's plenty of Peckinpah staples on hand here: excessive drink, fast women, and a passel of fat, sweaty, gun-toting drunks on the hunt. Unfortunately the premise is more interesting than the delivered product. The fetishized violence, and existential savagery doesn't have the same spark of "The Wild Bunch" (1969), or "Straw Dogs" (1971). The most rewarding sequences involve a broken Bennie traveling across Mexico with the fly-covered head riding shotgun. As he slips further and further into a depressive bender Oates begins to confide with and philosophise to the severed head of Alfredo Garcia. This extremely appealing premise could have been great as an extended sequence of episodes in road movie format, but sadly this accounts for only a small portion of the film. The requisite apocalyptic ending doesn't come off so hot with a violent escalation that's far too clinical, and a hero with unsatisfyingly opaque motives. It's worth watching for it's unapologetically black heart if nothing else, but it's not one of Peckinpah's best efforts.