Blu Ray Review: Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)

Arguably Sam Peckinpah’s finest film, Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia has just been released on blu ray by Kino Lorber in a new HD master from a 4K scan of the original camera negative. The visual sharpness only enhances one of the most creative and powerful films made during an especially strong decade for cinema.

A Mexican crime lord’s daughter is impregnated by the man’s chosen successor, Alfredo Garcia. He puts a million dollar bounty on the man’s head, and among those searching for him are two American businessmen. They meet a fellow American playing piano in a Mexican dive bar and ask him the whereabouts of Garcia. Bennie, the piano player, professes to know little, because he has his own plan to decapitate Garcia, and sell the severed head for money. He believes this will allow him the financial stability to marry his girl Elita.

This is said to be the only production for which Peckinpah had full creative control, his other films, including the exceptional revisionist western The Wild Bunch, were disrupted by studio interference. Performances include a career-best from Warren Oates as Bennie, along with Robert Webber and Gig Young as the ambiguously gay, dispassionate American hit men. A young Kris Kristofferson has a small role as a libidinous biker, while Isela Vega steals every scene as Elita.

This was by no means considered to be mainstream entertainment, even in a year as creative as 1974, so Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia didn’t make half its budget costs back in box office receipts. Critics hated it, because they were incapable of understanding it, and audiences stayed away. Over time, the film’s creative ideas and auteurist cinematic structure has allowed it to emerge as Peckinpah’s masterpiece.

Much of the film’s success is due to Warren Oates’ sweaty, nihilistic Bennie, who exhibits the same unbridled passion for repeatedly and excessively pumping slugs into a corpse, as he does making love to Elita – both because “it feels so damn good.” His cigarette bounces from the corner of his mouth as he snarls his dialog. It’s really an incredible piece of acting for which Oates receives too little attention.

Some of us have been waiting a long time for a blu ray at this level of this film. Its extras include audio commentary from film historians Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons, David Weddle and Nick Redman, as well as an alternate one from Co-writer/associate producer Gordon Dawson, which is moderated by Redman. This adds greater depth and substance to our understanding of Peckinpah’s approach.

The blu ray is available at this link: Peckinpah/Alfredo Garcia