Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
Once you hear about Sam Peckinpah, you’re not quite sure whether you want to dig into his work or not. His seminal 1969 western, “The Wild Bunch,” was restored for its 25th anniversary as I was getting into film on a deeper level, so I sought that one out, but the more you hear about his alcoholism, his abrasive nature, you wonder whether you want to go down the road of watching his films. I’ve always known there was at least one other film of his I wanted to seek out, and it was his 1974 film, “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia.” What I’d read about that one was too tantalizing to pass up. I was not disappointed.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve volleyed back and forth between leaning into conventional movies I loved- or at least, enjoyed- growing up, or movies that take some of those conventions, and upend them. Peckinpah’s approach to “Alfredo Garcia” is in the structure of a hero’s journey, but populating it with characters whom are anything but heroic. If we heard Bennie’s story in real life, we would be horrified, but in the hands of Peckinpah and Warren Oates, Bennie is a character who we are drawn to, and even sympathize with. We don’t really know what happened for his life to turn out this way, but by the end, we see him as someone who will go to any lengths to escape the life he’s found himself in. Whom amongst us has never done that? The difference is, we often find ourselves not carrying a rotting, decomposing head with us.
The film does not start with Bennie. It begins in Mexico, where a crime boss, El Jefe (Emilio Fernández), is interrogating his daughter (Janine Maldonado) about the identity of her unborn child’s father. As she is tortured, she says the name, “Alfredo Garcia.” The betrayal El Jefe feels, to have someone whom he respected- and wanted to make his successor- violate his teenage daughter, leaves him infuriated. He then offers a $1 million bounty to whomever brings him Alfredo Garcia’s head. As the search continues for months, two hit men walk into a saloon where Bennie is playing piano, and the manager. Bennie says he doesn’t know, but everyone knows; they just won’t give admit it to these two men. After a meeting with his girlfriend, Elita (Isela Vega), he meets up with the men, whom offer Bennie $10000 for Garcia, dead or alive. So begins Bennie’s journey to find Alfredo, with Elita in tow.
It turns out that, according to Elita- whom knew Alfredo- and he died a week prior in a car accident. One of the bizarre, wonderful touches in Peckinpah’s film is that the title is truly literal. Ok, maybe wonderful is the wrong word, but regardless, I appreciate the audacity of Peckinpah to challenge his audience by making his protagonist’s journey so reprehensible- to accomplish his mission, he not only will have to fend off others looking for Garcia’s head, but likely desecrate his burial spot to do so. There are times when the search for the head moves into the background of the film, and it’s a road movie between Bennie and Elita. They say they love each other, but like the characters in “Leaving Las Vegas,” it’s more that they are more comfortable in life together than they would be apart. They compliment each other well- Bennie’s misanthropic worldview and Elita’s romantic nature just work well together. Vega’s moments where she is singing, and playing guitar, are sweet to experience, and give us a respite from the film’s ugliness, most especially when the couple are beset upon by two bikers (one played by Kris Kristofferson) whom want to rape Elita. The way that scene plays out is uncomfortable, in part because Elita- a prostitute- has been down this road before. Bennie will ultimately save her, but this isn’t framed as a heroic action by Peckinpah, but a necessary one for them to continue the journey that will, ultimately, undo both of their plans for their future.
“Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia” definitely has the bones of an action film, but Peckinpah isn’t out to glorify violence. Rather than craft an escapist film where the hero is always the good guy, Peckinpah and his co-screenwriter- Gordon T. Dawson- is looking at violence as a means to an end in an ugly world. In the moments where Bennie is in shootouts with people keeping him from accomplishing his goals, Peckinpah’s editing and camerawork- including slow motion- operates as a way of illuminating how destructive violence is to life. For a more contemporary comparison, John Woo has- at his best- uses slow motion for the same reason. Do some of these people deserve to die? Perhaps, but the reasons for violence are fueled more by toxic worldviews than a sense of necessity. Few worlds are as toxic as the once Peckinpah creates here; few films are a more riveting example of dissecting a genre by stripping it of all the slickness it sometimes basks in.
