Watch Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia For Free

Good concept, poorly executed.

Fresh and Exciting

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Warren Oates delivers the best performance of his cinematic career in director Sam Peckinpah's melodrama "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia," co-starring Emilio Fernández, Helmet Dantine, Robber Webber, Gig Young, Kris Kristofferson, and Isela Vega. According to the Internet Movie Database, this R-rated, 112-minute, masterpiece represented the only film that Peckinpah ever possessed the distinction of final cut. Of course, like most Peckinpah parables, "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" is bloody, violent, and unintentionally funny. A suave gigolo—Alfredo Garcia—impregnates the daughter of a wealthy patron named El Jefe, and the scandalized father demands that somebody do as the title indicates. Everybody is suddenly on Garcia's trail, including a sleazy nightclub musician, Benny (Warren Oates of "Return of the Seven"), who fallen in love with a prostitute Elita (Isela Vega of "Barbarosa") who knew the person of interest. Meantime, El Jefe has authorized a group of Americans, headed up by Max (Helmut Dantine of "The Killer Elite"), to find that noggin. Max has two trigger-happy gay killers, Sappensly (Robert Webber of "10") and Quill (Oscar winning actor Gig Young of "They Shoot Horses, Don't They") to handle the business of getting the head. Eventually, Bennie finds out of the interest in Alfredo and persuades Elita to help him find the gigolo. Things turn out easy at first because Alfredo is already dead. Nevertheless, things suddenly turn complicated when Bennie is robbing Alfredo's grave and he is knocked unconscious by a shovel. As it turns out, two other Mexicans are going to claim the 'head' and take it back to El Jefe. When Bennie recovers with a headache, he discovers that he has been buried where Alfredo's grave is and Elita has suffocated to death because she had been buried alongside him. Later, Bennie tracks down these two dastards and kills them in a roadside shoot-out that Max's two bounty hunters Sappensly and Quill participate in and both die.Nothing about "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" is glorious. This is a personal film for Peckinpah, and he doesn't resort to the usual Hollywood bravura. During the first half of it, Bennie is pretty much a milquetoast musician, but he turns into a killer later on and handles himself well in a gunfire. Now that Bennie has gotten the head, he wants to know why prompted El Jefe to have it. Our Bennie gets nowhere. He shoots it out with Max and his bodyguards, and then he visits El Jefe to ask him the big question. When he doesn't get a response, Bennie drills the father and tries to careen out the gates, but he is brought down by an small army of riflemen. Initially, Peckinpah had asked James Coburn to portray Bennie, but Coburn turned him down. Warren Oates gives a soulful performance. Robert Webber and Gig Young as quietly sadistic as the two homosexual hit men. "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" is a strong, realistic film that is for the squeamish. Kris Kristofferson appears in a cameo as a rapist who barges in on Bennie and Elita when they are sitting down to a picnic.

BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA is Sam Peckinpah's most intimate and underrated film. I can think of few other films of this caliber that are as neglected or unsung. A bizarre, sleazy film that has Peckinpah's signature trademarks - his romance with John Huston's TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, loners, Mexico at it's grittiest, slow-motion violence. When I saw it the first few times, the film seemed to wander aimlessly at various stretches and Peckinpah's direction felt tired to me. Even though Peckinpah can still lift you two inches off the ground with his action sequences, it doesn't have the kinetic impulse running thru it like THE WILD BUNCH, STRAW DOGS, THE GETAWAY or CROSS OF IRON.Knowing now what I do about his career, I suspect the tiredness was authentic, due to his battles with studio executives and a self- destructive life. This knowledge and the ensuing years of experiencing the picture, have taken on added meaning and enriched it for me. Bennie the down and out piano player, memorably played by Peckinpah's Bogart, Warren Oates, is a wonderful alter ego for the director.Starring Oates and Isela Vega and a strong supporting cast which includes Gig Young, Robert Webber and Emilio Fernandez. The excellent score is by Peckinpah's best composer, Jerry Fielding. It may take several viewings but sit back and relish the sad poetry of an authentic film artist, Sam Peckinpah.

Somewhere in Mexico, two bounty hunters meet a bar's piano player named Bennie, a cheerful and easy-going dude (some drops of Tequila helping) played by the late Warren Oates. Robert Webber's character asks him if he knows about a 'hombre' named Alfredo Garcia. Meanwhile, a prostitute puts her hand on his crotch and gets a severe kick in the head. No doubt, this is a Sam Peckinpah film.Yet if "Bring me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" features all the archetypes that cemented the legend of the ultimate Hollywood rebel through its cinematic orgy of booze, flesh and bullets, the sinful quest carries a much deeper meaning through its converging point: the head of Alfredo Garcia. The owner of the deadly grail was a ladies' man who had one woman too many when he impregnated the daughter of a rich Mexican plantation owner (General Mapache from "The Wild Bunch"). Whoever brings 'El Jefe' the head of Garcia would be rewarded 1 million dollars. The bounty hunter is a recurrent figure in Peckinpah films as the quest for money is generally the mark of the antagonistic side. The Gig Young's character leaves a name for Bennie: 'Fred C. Dobbs', much more than a tribute to "The Treasure of Sierra Madre", it's also a pessimistic premonition echoing the demise of Bogart's legendary character. And Peckinpah's films, of the same macho-breed as Hustons', obey to the same sense of Immanent Justice; all the people motivated by lust or greed get punished, while killing for a matter of Honor and revenge generally belongs to the central protagonist. And it's only fitting that Bennie's love interest is Ileta, a prostitute, played by Isela Vega, crystallizing the violent symbiosis of lust and greed: a cocktail beyond redemption. She 'knew' Alfredo Garcia and reveals that after three days they spent together, he died in a car- crash. Bennie expresses an ironic sadness as if Garcia finally paid for his sins and had no reasons to be loathed anymore. Garcia's head was the unlikely symbol of his redemption before becoming the instrument of Bennie's revenge. Bennie accepts the bounty hunter's contract for 10,000 dollars. Yet Bennie strikes as a man who'd be no more motivated by money than Bloody Sam was for awards or peers' recognition. Warren Oates's droopy eyes, hidden in the same dark-tanned glasses that Peckinpah used to wear, betray the hypnotic exhaustion of a totally ravaged soul, torn between a profound desire to be happy and a sort of lucidity governing his actions, as if he was sure that he would never get his break. Bennie desperately tries to reach an oasis of happiness after a life full of torments. No matter what it is, he carries guilt like his conscience's eternal hangover.But the film features a very tender and relieving moment of true love between Bennie and Ileta, during a picnic, set in a nice bucolic garden. Bennie wants to move to some place, one he doesn't know. Apparently, whatever he left behind him left him with sore feelings. And then, there's a heart-breaking exchange when she asks him if he ever thought of marrying her. Oates is too genuine not to be sincere, he's trying to come up with the most honest answer: he thought of it but never asked. "Then ask me", she says and those are the truest words of any woman in love.Bennie starts crying as if he was the closest ever to his own vision of happiness, realizing that maybe things could change for the best. He asks her, and she breaks down crying. She's a prostitute and never thought she could ever find a man who'd love her. These are cries of joy from people who're not used to happiness, each one being the key to the other's redemption. This touching and human moment is ruined by the arrival of two bikers and the rape attempt on Ileta, not a gratuitous display of misogyny but a pivotal scene.The scene is ambiguous because Kris Kristoferson starts as a sexual predator and then gets tenderer with Ileta when she 'gives' herself. The bikers (who sinned by lust) are killed but the experience proved Bennie that his woman is still a prostitute because she played their game, didn't scream or shouted for help, and he's still the same schmuck. Later, he tells Ileta his plan to desecrate Garcia's grave, she's against it, but this time it's for the money. And Bennie would pay his move the biggest price, and the death of Ileta annihilates every possibility of redemption. And under this Divine Justice, Sam, Bennie/Oates and Garcia's ghost are parts of the same trinity, tempted by the worst aspects of human nature and struggling to resist to them because they are not bad guys. Bennie is convinced that Garcia, whose putrid head is packed in a bag with flies buzzing around, would have forgiven him to make money out of his head, just like Bennie forgives him for Ileta. It's not a parallel between money and women, but a way to look of them as elements of happiness. But there's a time in a man's life where he finally sees the true value of things and that no reward, no bounty, not 10,000 not even one million dollars, can buy a man's soul.At the end, like for "The Wild Bunch", the true redemption comes up when the man decides to live his life on his own terms. So, call it modern western, campy B-movies, a bizarre mess, an autobiographical essay; the film is beyond any label. BUT if you take movies as the greatest art form when it comes to convey human emotions, "Bring me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" IS a masterpiece. Like a true author, Peckinpah really opens his soul to the audience and to appreciate this film is to understand him and to respect his legacy.

Film starts promisingly enough , as the story takes place in the Mexican frontier with the U.S. , in 1974 . The Mexican baron land dubbed "The Boss" (Emilio Fernandez) to be aware his teenage daughter "Teresa" is pregnant , and he offers a reward : to take the head of Alfredo Garcia , a former employee . It is concerned by two American bounty hunters , "Quill" (Gig Young) and "Sappensly" (Robert Webber). Also, "Bennie" (Warren Oates), piano player and co-owner of a bar , along with her lover "Elita" Peach Vega (frequently naked Isela Vega), a prostitute and former girlfriend of "Alfredo Garcia" ; all of them are determined to get the reward . The pianist becomes mixed up vicious bounty hunters who are looking for the head of the man who has impregnated the wealthy owner's daughter and finishing in an orgy of blood and destruction .An enjoyable film , it turns to be an elegiac and tough perspective at the world of losers . Taut excitement throughout , though soon becomes to drawn out , beautifully photographed and with brutal scenes and some images filmed in slow-moving . The film results to be one of the most strong and ferocious directed by Peckinpah . Tenth Sam Peckinpah film , shot with limited financial resources and total freedom . As it was the only movie directed by Sam Peckinpah that he had final cut on , all the others were re-cut by the studios . However , upon release , it was banned in Sweden, Germany and Argentina . The screenplay from S. Peckinpah , Gordon T. Dawson, develops a plot of S. Peckinpah and Frank Kawalski . It is filmed on location in various localities of Mexico . The picture is full of action , drama , adventure , crime , thriller , romance and western . There is a lot of bloodletting but seems almost restrained alongside nowadays's movies . It proposes a rough history , violent , sordid and heartbreaking . Abundant dust , odors , standing water covered with algae , watering foul , squalid housing , etc. It shows the poverty of the region , school children , nasty motorists , rapists stalking , assault , murder , shootouts , etc . Extremely violent throughout , it does show a side of Mexico rarely shot in American movies . Violence takes many forms , including long shootouts , punching, pushing malicious torture in private and in public . The central motive is a cruel revenge . The film is possibly the most brutal and ferocious made by Peckinpah , when he was dominated by alcohol , melancholy , loneliness and despair . Warren Oates turns in an excellent acting as independent pianist who is searching redemption by a crazy vengeance , he and Isela Vega strike real sparks . Warren Oates is on the screen as "alter ego" of the director, who creates one of his most candid self-portraits . It is a road movie , which develops the action as a long drive from the city of Mexico , near which lies the estate of "The Boss" . The film is formatted in a violent odyssey , peppered with unexpected incidents , outrageous situations , social problems and a stark as well as shocking bloody violence . It also has exalted friendship , companionship , affection and love . Displays signs of misogyny that characterizes the filmmaker , where women are not reliable : they are infidels , weak character , disloyal , deceitful, and all men are big losers . In the context of this bleak world , explores the mythic figure of the loser, in line with the general mood of the country after the end of the Vietnam War . It pays tribute to "The Treasure of Sierra Madre (Huston, 1948) , which is inspired and takes some elements included in the screenplay .The soundtrack by Jerry Fielding , Peckinpah's usual ("The Wild Bunch" 1969), composed a score in short melodies that evoke the folk music traditional Mexican and 4 songs notables : "Bennie's Song", "A place to go", "Bad Blood Baby "(voice of Peckinpah) and" JF. " Photography, Alex Phillips ("Robinson Crusoe", Buñuel, 1954) , offers images that accompany and underscore the dirty , rough and violent film . Action , dialog , cinematography , score and slow-moving editing are Peckinpah classic in his film more authentic and personal. Professionally made by the famous director who was a real creator and author of masterpieces as ¨Cross of Iron¨,¨The ballad of Cable Hogue¨, ¨Wild bunch¨ . ¨Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia¨ was lovely realized by Sam Peckinpah in his punchy directorial style . Hardcore Peckinpah moviegoers will appreciate this one more than the casual spectator .