Bring Me the Head of Alfredo GarciaPeople driven by greed make sacrifices they shouldn't, carving off parts of their soul for a pittance. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia follows Bennie (Warren Oates), the manager of a small saloon in Mexico, who learns that some professional bounty hunters are seeking the eponymous Alfredo Garcia after he impregnated the daughter of a wealthy and powerful crime lord known only as "El Jefe" (Emilio Fernández). Bennie's girlfriend, Elita (Isela Vega), shared an intimate past with Al; she accompanies Bennie, only discovering the grisly purpose of his journey en route: to claim a trophy from this unpopular man who is worth more dead than alive.
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Like other works by filmmaker Sam Peckinpah, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is an ultra-violent film--but each scene of violence is underscored by tragedy and futility. To say that El Jefe overreacts when he discovers his daughter is pregnant is to put it mildly, no matter his religious convictions; he sets a bounty of one million dollars for his head...and nothing else. His offer attracts the worst kind of assassins and cold-blooded killers, including the dapper (if ruthless and condescending) Sappensly (Robert Webber) and Johnny Quill (Gig Young). Along with their less savory cronies, they scour the Mexican countryside for Garcia, and eventually meander their way into Bennie's bar. Bennie looks like a man who is content with life--but this is before the lure of money sours his world. A great sadness in Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is that just because El Jefe wanted someone else dead, and started waiving a bunch of money around, everyone else's lives are ruined. El Jefe exists in a world that is removed from reality--his guards are dressed like cowboys, and people get around on horseback. With an opening like this, you might think the film took place in the past, until El Jefe's killers depart the compound in automobiles and are shown travelling by airplane. Once Bennie's curiosity is piqued, and when he discovers that Elita took Al for a lover, he is determined to be the one to come out on top. Elita says that Al knew he was doomed when he came to see her, and she informs her cuckold boyfriend that Al died in a drunk driving accident. This is the moment where Bennie truly turns the proverbial corner; more than the money, he uses this betrayal as a justification to dive into this widening gyre of self-destruction. He brings her along for a "vacation", concealing his plot until they are well on their way; she is understandably appalled, but her guilt keeps her from dissuading Bennie, who has already cast his lot with the insidious killers as their proverbial (and literal) bag boy. Although Bennie believes he is squeezing El Jefe's minions when he demands ten thousand dollars, he's the one being suckered into doing the hard work--a subcontractor of sorts--tracking down and getting Al's head for a fraction of the bounty. Bennie may be clever in some ways, but his decision to get involved with these people is not one of them. It's possible that Bennie knows this, and thinks that by pushing himself to the point of no return, that he can harden his heart after Elita's betrayal, and prove that he is the "better" man by providing for them both...but at what cost?
Bennie is an odd duck--he drinks too much, has a strange sense of humor with his friends, and wears his sunglasses to bed. Spanish is not his native tongue, although he can fake it a little, and Elita helps him when he needs it. His idiosyncrasies and eccentricities evolve into full-blown neuroses after the half-way point in the movie. This shocking twist transforms his mission of greed or petty revenge into a singular vision of hollow remorse, driven beyond reason, leaving him talking to a head in a bag buzzing with flies. Warren Oates' performance in Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia recalls some of the iconic roles performed by Humphrey Bogart. Bennie is like Rick from Casablanca, in that he is an American living abroad, maintaining a tavern, and suffering from an ache in his heart for a woman who has loved another. This leaves him with questions about his masculinity and self-worth, and full of spite and resentment. Bennie's strange sense of humor resembles that of Marlowe's from The Big Sleep; the complex plot riddled with tense altercations and colorful characters is also similar to it. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia could be described as "Mexican" noir; Bennie fights to get his hands on the MacGuffin that is "Alfredo Garcia", just like in The Maltese Falcon. But more than all of them, Bennie is Fred C. Dobbs from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, a man whose fixation on money and getting something he believes he's entitled to at the start is what ultimately drives him and those around him to ruin. (Johnny teases him about this when he tells Bennie his name is "Fred C. Dobbs".) Degradation and fatigue is visible on Bennie's face as each setback and tragedy befalls him. This fosters an animal-like cunning and deadliness in him, which turns him from an avaricious seeker of buried treasure into an avenging angel. In desperation, he goes from battle after battle, climbing up the rungs of the ladder to confront the man who indifferently ruined his life: El Jefe.
The heart of Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is about the relationship between Bennie and Elita. The two of them are playful and enjoy one another's company; they fall into bed together, even after he found out she slept with Al. Bennie chides her about her infidelity, but still invites her for what should be a lovely getaway in the countryside in Mexico. They picnic under a tree, where they share their feelings, and Elita asks him why he hasn't proposed to her. When he does, it necessitates that he confess his plan to her about how he intends to finance their "better life" together--that he will have to claim her former lover's head. The feelings they don't share with one another also leads to some very convincing drama. Alfredo is already dead, but he is on everyone's minds--he is the proverbial elephant in the room as they drive from place to place. Elita may have been unfaithful, but she is smart enough to understand just how devastating the poison of this knowledge is to Bennie. She struggles to understand whether Bennie is trying to punish her or prove his love for her--or both. In one scene, Bennie and Elita are accosted by a pair of rough bikers, one of which (played by a young Kris Kristofferson) pulls a gun and takes Elita off into the fields. Rather than fight the thug, she begrudgingly accompanies him, telling Bennie that she "knows this road better than him". A part of her allows this self-abasement to transpire out of the guilt and sorrow she feels for Bennie's pain, and that she also wants to protect her naive American lover. This also speaks to Elita's promiscuous past--so does the comical surprise Bennie finds in the morning after a night of making love with her earlier in the film, and when a hotel clerk refuses them service after mistaking her for a prostitute. The heartfelt conversations they share are the kind two people would have who are dealing with their respective baggage, but are trying to continue loving one another. The love that Bennie and Elita share is natural and genuine, and speaks more to why Bennie puts himself through hell in Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia than the promise of a bounty.
Recommended for: Fans of a complex and moral tale about the dangers of avarice and the tragedies that befall those who put a golden idol ahead of their heart's desire. It is also a story that deals with unresolved pain inflicted in a relationship, and how it can drive us to do desperate things to cope.
Bennie is an odd duck--he drinks too much, has a strange sense of humor with his friends, and wears his sunglasses to bed. Spanish is not his native tongue, although he can fake it a little, and Elita helps him when he needs it. His idiosyncrasies and eccentricities evolve into full-blown neuroses after the half-way point in the movie. This shocking twist transforms his mission of greed or petty revenge into a singular vision of hollow remorse, driven beyond reason, leaving him talking to a head in a bag buzzing with flies. Warren Oates' performance in Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia recalls some of the iconic roles performed by Humphrey Bogart. Bennie is like Rick from Casablanca, in that he is an American living abroad, maintaining a tavern, and suffering from an ache in his heart for a woman who has loved another. This leaves him with questions about his masculinity and self-worth, and full of spite and resentment. Bennie's strange sense of humor resembles that of Marlowe's from The Big Sleep; the complex plot riddled with tense altercations and colorful characters is also similar to it. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia could be described as "Mexican" noir; Bennie fights to get his hands on the MacGuffin that is "Alfredo Garcia", just like in The Maltese Falcon. But more than all of them, Bennie is Fred C. Dobbs from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, a man whose fixation on money and getting something he believes he's entitled to at the start is what ultimately drives him and those around him to ruin. (Johnny teases him about this when he tells Bennie his name is "Fred C. Dobbs".) Degradation and fatigue is visible on Bennie's face as each setback and tragedy befalls him. This fosters an animal-like cunning and deadliness in him, which turns him from an avaricious seeker of buried treasure into an avenging angel. In desperation, he goes from battle after battle, climbing up the rungs of the ladder to confront the man who indifferently ruined his life: El Jefe.
The heart of Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is about the relationship between Bennie and Elita. The two of them are playful and enjoy one another's company; they fall into bed together, even after he found out she slept with Al. Bennie chides her about her infidelity, but still invites her for what should be a lovely getaway in the countryside in Mexico. They picnic under a tree, where they share their feelings, and Elita asks him why he hasn't proposed to her. When he does, it necessitates that he confess his plan to her about how he intends to finance their "better life" together--that he will have to claim her former lover's head. The feelings they don't share with one another also leads to some very convincing drama. Alfredo is already dead, but he is on everyone's minds--he is the proverbial elephant in the room as they drive from place to place. Elita may have been unfaithful, but she is smart enough to understand just how devastating the poison of this knowledge is to Bennie. She struggles to understand whether Bennie is trying to punish her or prove his love for her--or both. In one scene, Bennie and Elita are accosted by a pair of rough bikers, one of which (played by a young Kris Kristofferson) pulls a gun and takes Elita off into the fields. Rather than fight the thug, she begrudgingly accompanies him, telling Bennie that she "knows this road better than him". A part of her allows this self-abasement to transpire out of the guilt and sorrow she feels for Bennie's pain, and that she also wants to protect her naive American lover. This also speaks to Elita's promiscuous past--so does the comical surprise Bennie finds in the morning after a night of making love with her earlier in the film, and when a hotel clerk refuses them service after mistaking her for a prostitute. The heartfelt conversations they share are the kind two people would have who are dealing with their respective baggage, but are trying to continue loving one another. The love that Bennie and Elita share is natural and genuine, and speaks more to why Bennie puts himself through hell in Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia than the promise of a bounty.
Recommended for: Fans of a complex and moral tale about the dangers of avarice and the tragedies that befall those who put a golden idol ahead of their heart's desire. It is also a story that deals with unresolved pain inflicted in a relationship, and how it can drive us to do desperate things to cope.