Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia

Colour, 35 mm
Mexico, USA, 1974, 112 min
Section: Tribute to Sam Peckinpah

Synopsis

Sam Peckinpah’s most autobiographical work is also the most bizarre of his fourteen films - nothing unusual for alcohol-dependent geniuses. This truly western story, about a hitman hired by a rich Mexican to fulfil the task so aptly described in the title, doesn’t play out in the late 19th century, but in the disturbingly shady 1970s, full of unmotivated violence and unanswered questions. Benny, bartender and pianist at one of the many Mexican bars “at the end of the line,” suffers through endless repetitions of “Guantanamera” played for the pleasure of Illinois tourists. Then he gets a chance to escape this life-sucking routine: he’s offered $10,000 for the head of Al Garcia, a good looking guy who’s gotten the daughter of a Mexican landowner pregnant. Even if Benny’s delirious odyssey, in the company of a señorita named Elita and, later, even the abovementioned torso, is drenched in blood and tequila, it doesn’t lack bright moments of pure romance or ironic relief from the film’s quotable quotes. A far cry from the meticulously composed The Wild Bunch, Alfredo Garcia presents an intense cinematographic report on the state of Sam Peckinpah’s body and soul; he was a man of the West and lover of old times striving to find his bearings in the modern world. “I did Alfredo Garcia, and I did it exactly the way I wanted to. Good or bad, like it or not, that was my film.” (Sam Peckinpah).