Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia

Review for Kino Lorber Blu-ray release. Movie is great but usual Kino laziness. They did do a new scan so looks better but they did not spend too much time cleaning it up. Lots of grain, flecks and sound is only okay. Still glad to have it but wish Arrow Video would release it in A-format for US market. Only can find it in region B for Arrow. They do better quality work.

I watch this DVD at least twice a month. A cult classic for Sam Peckinpah fans. Great performance by Warren Oates. Well filmed on location in Mexico and really hits the mark of 1970s films. Violent storyline with great character actors - Robert Webber, Gig Young, Kris Kristofferson.

Good movie

You know, if I had chosen the title for this film, I would have gone with `Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, and Put Some Sizzle on it!' What? It doesn't work for you? Well, I guess I can cross `Movie Titler' off my list of possible career choices...let's see, what's next on the list...chicken farmer? Nuts...but seriously, the title of this film is Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974), written and directed by `Bloody' Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch), a man whose humble beginnings in Hollywood stemmed from his occupying a shack behind Ida Lupino's house (hey, I read it on the Internet Movie Database). The film stars Warren `Quaker' Oates (Major Dundee, The Wild Bunch) and Isela Vega (The Deadly Trackers). Also appearing is Robert Webber (Revenge of the Pink Panther), Gig Young (They Shoot Horses, Don't They?), Emilio Fernández (Return of the Seven, The Wild Bunch), and Kris Kristofferson in an early bit part, prior to his true star-making role as `Rubber Duck' in the seminal trucker film Convoy (1978) that was directed by none other than Sam Peckinpah...see how I tied that all together? Impressed? Probably not...As the film begins, we're treated to a scene of tranquility as a young, Hispanic woman with a noticeable belly bulge is sitting on the edge of a pond. We soon learn the girl is the daughter of a wealthy Mexican landowner (Fernández) and someone named Alfredo Garcia has impregnated her out of wedlock. For the shame now brought on to his house, the landowner issues a $1,000,000 dollar bounty on this Garcia fellow, and so the manhunt begins. The lure of a large wad of cash draws a local bartender named Bennie (Oates) in, as it seems he may have knowledge of where Garcia is, based on a relationship Garcia may have had with Bennie's girlfriend Elita (Vega)...boy, this Garcia is quite the lothario...anyway, Bennie is given four days to find Garcia, so he and Elita hit the road. They eventually do find the million-dollar man, but circumstances lead to Bennie getting the double cross via the flat end of a shovel upside the noggin. With a bandage on his head, a gun in his waistband, and a gut full of tequila, Bennie finds himself on a nihilistic path of retribution from which there's no turning back...Is this Peckinpah's best film? Hardly...that distinction will always go to The Wild Bunch, but this one is still pretty good, and a heck of a lot better than the films he made afterwards. I think the most interesting thing about this film is the sense that Oates was channeling Peckinpah through his character of Bennie, in his obstinacies, stubbornness, being a general pain in the rear, and was shown continually working on bottles of booze (Peckinpah had quite the affinity for the stuff, among other mind-altering substances). Given Bennie's predicaments throughout the film, I can fully understand why his necessity for the dulling effects of sweet, sweet alcohol was needed. There are no apparent heroes here, as this is just a dirty, greasy, grimy, seedy, sweaty, dingy tale of less than admirable men driven to extremes. Anything wrong with that? Certainly not...it tends to inure the film with harsh sense of reality as we witness the base qualities inherent within all of us, whether we will admit to it or not...we're all sinners, some just more visible than others. One thing I like about Peckinpah's films is he rarely pulled any punches when it came to violence directed towards men or women (especially women). Sure, there's a undeniable misogynistic quality present, but these actions never go unanswered as the devil always gets his due (at least in this film). I thought all the actors here did very well, especially Oates...I'm curious as to what was in the sack when he was driving back after finding Garcia. Oh, I know what was supposed to be in their with regards to the story, but I'm wondering what they actually put in the sack given its ability to attract so many winged pests...I could sense the funk coming out of my television....maybe that's something I don't want to know...if you're a fan of the violence, then you've come to the right place. Peckinpah's trademark usage of slow-mo is in full effect here, allowing for the study of what happens when bullets rend flesh. Some things to watch for...if you've ever had a desire to see Isela Vega (who, incidentally, was Princess of the Carnival in Hermosillo for the year 1957) in the buff, here's your chance. Have you ever wanted to see Gig Young getting jiggy with a machine gun? I did, but didn't know it until after I saw this film. Gig's relationship with guns would take a more serious, realistic tone a mere four years later as he, prior to shooting himself, killed his newlywed wife German actress Kim Schmidt under mysterious circumstances (Young was known to problems with the alcohol and lost out on the role of The Waco Kid to Gene Wilder in Mel Brook's Blazing Saddles due to suffering from delirium tremors). Keep an eye out for Kris Kristofferson in a minor role as a greasy biker. I didn't recognize him at first, but he seemed awful familiar.The wide screen picture (1.85:1), enhanced for 16 X 9 TVs, looks sharp and clear on this DVD. I was a little disappointed in the Dolby Digital 2.1 Mono as it was very soft at times and hard to make out. As far as extras, there is a theatrical trailer and a commentary track featuring Peckinpah scholars Paul Seydor Garner Simmons and David Weddle, with moderator Nick Redman. I haven't had the opportunity to listen to it, but I've heard it's worthwhile. If I've learned anything from this film, it's that if you involved in a manhunt in Mexico, it's advisable to bring lots of dry ice and a case of air fresheners.Cookieman108

This is a must see for any film afficianado. There was a fleeting period from the late 60s to the late 70s, between the death of the Hays Code and the birth of the blockbuster, when cinematic auteurs were free to explore the risqué and avant-garde. Untethered from stuffy dictations of taboo, and under minimal pressure from the studios to be commercially successful, the decade of the eploitation film enabled the rawest creativity since the post-war Italian cinema scene.This movie is the Denali of that bygone landscape, towering over the many other peaks.It is a movie filled with senseless violence that candidly protests the very senselessness of that violence.The love story is as unexpectedly sensitive as it is sincere and tragic.The antihero's motivation pivots from greed to vengence as his state of mind pivots from gleefully optimistic to crushingly remorseful.Equal parts caper, action, romance, vendetta crusade, dark comedy, and demented buddy road-trip movie, this is Sam Peckinpah's singular opus.With all due respect, this is the type of film that Quinton Tarantino would aspire to make if he really had the balls.

...says Warren Oates' Benny as he empties his gun into the corpse of the man he just killed. Words basically do not do justice to this film. I'll just give some context. Peckinpah had (for the second and last time in his career)terminated his professional prospects by his misbehavior and antagonism of studio bosses during the shooting/editing of Pat Garret and Billy The Kid. Pickled in booze and filled with hatred and self-loathing, his aesthetic solution was to make a cheapie with no stars in his beloved Mexico. The resulting film, the subject of this review, turns The Wild Bunch and Straw Dogs celebrations of violence and revenge upside down, and nobody wanted to hear about in in 1974. Few do now. A blackly comic nightmare, this is the only narrative film that I think can be described as suicide note. Warren Oates had difficulty getting a grip on the character of Benny ("Nobody's a loser all the time..."), the sleazy lounge singer turned lunatic corpse-desecrating avenger; then he showed up on set with a moustache and shades that made all who saw him realize he was aping Peckinpah. The director himself never commented on his stars' mimicry of him, probably silent assent to the truth of Oates' understanding of Sam's intentions. This one must be seen to be believed.

Great film!Tim

Sam Peckinpah will always be a divisive name among cinephiles, and even the most dedicated of his fans have to concede that he made some outright stinkers, but he also delivered some of the greatest movies of his time. For my money, Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia is his masterpiece, largely owing to the fact that it's the only film he made without the vitriolic studio conflict for which he is famous. Some people accuse BMTHOAG (and many of Peckinpah's other films) of being nihilistic, but I think it's clear here, more so than in any other of his movies, that Peckinpah's concern was with how people survive in a world which he saw as nihilistic. Warren Oates' Benny is one of the most tragic characters in Peckinpah's oeuvre, because he retains a fundamental decency in spite of his apparent efforts to be a cynic. His emergence as a good guy (of sorts) in the final moments of the film could not have the impact it does if Peckinpah's world were any less atrocious and overbearing. The action and violence for which Peckinpah is known is used sparsely but ferociously here, but what really makes BMTHOAG unique among his films is that this is the only time Peckinpah shows any dedicated interest in the male-female relationship. (I am not overlooking Cable Hogue or Straw Dogs, but Hogue's approach was much more whimsical, while Dogs' main concern was man's relationship to himself and his notion of manhood). Typically, the relationship in BMTHOAG is skewed, challenging and quite disturbing, but its aftertaste has a much more genuine ring of love conquering all than almost any other movie I can think of.Arrow have done a great job with the video here, which was created from a new 4K scan. My only gripe, which at times becomes a major annoyance, is that it's heavily on the dark side. There are sequences in the film where whole areas of the shot disappear into blackness, and a cursory comparison with the earlier Twilight Time blu ray shows how much detail is actually being lost in these moments. Otherwise, detail and stability are stunning, and the colours, while a little softer than on Twilight Time's disc, are warm and realistic. What impressed me the most, doing a comparison, is how well Arrow have cleaned up the image. The Twilight Time disc was littered with scratches and marks, which actually became quite distracting at times. Arrow have removed almost all of the damage and the film looks completely natural and absolutely beautiful. I would rate it a perfect 5 were it not for the darkness, but I can't help the nagging feeling that it could have been just that little bit better.Sadly the audio quality is a huge letdown. It's described as "original mono", by which they clearly mean exactly that. The sound is horribly limited and lacks any genuine dynamic range, and there are sections of dialogue which are completely unintelligible. Another cursory comparison with the TT disc reveals a staggering difference in quality, with TT besting Arrow by a country mile. Why Arrow could not have licensed the same soundtrack is a mystery, especially given the obvious efforts made to deliver such wonderful PQ.It should be noted that subtitles are provided for all of the Spanish dialogue, which was not the case in my old MGM R1 DVD or (I think) on the TT disc. Personally, I always liked the ambiguity of not knowing exactly what's being said, but I also understand enough Spanish to be able to get the gist of things, which probably helps. The good news is that you can turn the subs off, which I did.Extras wise, Arrow have thrown in Paul Joyce's terrific documentary, Man Of Iron, which was also included on Criterion's old DVD of Straw Dogs many years ago, but has never been available in Europe. As if that weren't enough, Arrow actually sought out Paul Joyce, who provided them with beta tapes of all of the original uncut interviews he conducted for the film, which are presented here in their entirety, at a running time of over ten hours. It would seem fair to assume that the bonus disc containing these interviews will be limited to the initial run, as per Arrow's usual MO. With this is mind, if you're salivating after reading this paragraph, go and pick up this release asap.All told, the movie itself makes this release indispensable. The near perfect PQ is let down by the terribly sub-par AQ, but the extras package is a treasure trove of pure dope for Peckinpah fans.

Warren Oates gives the performance of his career. Violent, twisted Mexican noir with an assortment of characters popping in and out of this Mex- desert noir in getting their hands on the decapitated head of Alfredo Garcia to the head of a Mexican Mafia Lord who impregnated the daughter of the Mafia Lord. When the violence comes it proves cathartic and enjoyable. Sam Peckinpah has a visual style of film-making all to himself. The way he shoots the and edits his films is a visual grammar that distinctly belongs to the film-maker.

Aunque para muchas personas esta pelicúla sea "dificil" por el tema tratado, fue su última obra maestra, el clasico antiheroe de sus filmes luchando por lo que para el es valido. Excelente.

Sí, es otro disco-manta de resen; y no, ningún extra. Pero la he conseguido por tres euros y pico, así que, mientras no saquen una edición decente, es mejor esto que nada. La estoy viendo ahora y aguanta muy bien. Por otro lado, hasta le pega a esta brutalidad de los setenta que la saquen así. Con moscas y todo...Es mi Peckinpah favorita, desde siempre. Quien no la conozca, y quiera darse un paseo por el lado salvaje, es todo un viaje al infierno.