Moviedrome

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974) (1994x26)

Fecha de emisión: Sept 05, 1994

I saw tonight’s film - Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia - years ago. And hated it. I saw it with a friend, Greg Hersov (now the Artistic Director of the Exchange Theatre in Manchester, I believe) and he was much more positive. But, for me, Alfredo Garcia seemed corny and a messy betrayal of the talent shown by its director Sam Peckinpah in The Wild Bunch and Guns in the Afternoon. Twenty years later I must admit that I was wrong and Greg was right. What he knew instinctively I only figured out over the course of the years. Alfredo Garcia is an extraordinary film. Perhaps Peckinpah’s best after The Wild Bunch and certainly his most personal film. Hidden behind the sometimes dubious b-movie veneer. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is the story of Bennie, a worn out bar room piano player portrayed by Warren Oates. Bennie learns there is a large reward available for the head of his best friend, Alfredo Garcia. Since Bennie knows Alfredo is dead he volunteers to dig the corpse up and