Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia **** (1974, Warren Oates, Isela Vega, Gig Young, Robert Webber, Helmut Dantine, Emilio Fernández, Kris Kristofferson) – Classic Movie Review 8420

Emilio Fernández stars as a wealthy Mexican rancher called El Jefe, who offers $1 million for the head of a lothario seducer who has made his daughter pregnant, in director Sam Peckinpah’s first-rate 1974 action crime adventure Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, a mix of Mexican Western and neo noir.

This macabre trip to Mexico’s heart of darkness starts with an elegiac atmosphere and proceeds at a deliberate pace through its tense 112 minutes to one of Peckinpah’s typically bloody climaxes.

The main star Warren Oates scores strongly as the down-and-out American barroom pianist Bennie, who is hired by a wild bunch of bounty hunters, Quill, Sappensly and Max (Gig Young, Robert Webber, Helmut Dantine) to join in doing the dirty work and collect the bounty, along with his prostitute girlfriend Elita (Isela Vega).

Written by Gordon Dawson and Sam Peckinpah, and based on a story by Frank Kowalski, this daring pseudo-Western is one of Peckinpah’s most weird and wonderful, and least understood films, though now revered as a Peckinpah cult classic.

Made in Mexico for $1,500,000, the film benefits from Peckinpah being in control away from the American studios, so it is own cut and not messed about with by studio bosses.

Also in the cast are Kris Kristofferson, Chano Urueta, Jorge Russek, Donnie Fritts, Chalo González, Don Levy, Enrique Lucero, Janine Maldonado and Tamara Garina.

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is directed by Sam Peckinpah, runs 112 minutes, is made by Optimus Films and Estudios Churubusco Azteca, is released by United Artists, is written by Gordon T Dawson (screenplay) and Sam Peckinpah (screenplay), based on a story by Frank Kowalski and Sam Peckinpah, is shot by Alex Phillips Jr, is produced by Martin Baum, is scored by Jerry Fielding and is designed by Enrique Estevez.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8420

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