Warren Oates was a bad-ass. In case you didn’t know.
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Film Of The Week - Sam Peckinpah’s Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia
Sam Peckinpah’s Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia on the surface seems like a straightforward crime story about a down on his luck piano player in Mexico doing anything he can to make some money. Then the audience realizes it’s a Sam Peckinpah picture starring Warren Oates and nothing is quite like it seems. Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia is more than a crime thriller, it’s a road trip movie, it’s a musical, it’s a historical drama, it’s over the top, but most of all, it’s Sam Peckinpah being Sam Peckinpah.
Peckinpah considered this film to be most personal film and there appears to be a lot of the director in Benny (Warren Oates’ character): damaged, unhinged, drunk, and bitter towards the world. Benny is battling against the world much the same way Peckinpah battled against the studio system. Benny’s fate seems interlaced with the fate of Peckinpah’s post Garcia career. Yet for as personal as the film is, Peckinpah manages to infuse a lot of genres and time into the film’s nearly two hour run time.
The film opens what appears to be in the early 1900s, maybe even the 1800s and with each succeeding scene, we’re transported to modern time (the 70s) and life/the world becomes increasingly bleak and desperate. This is where the strength of Warren Oates as an actor comes into the film. Each line and wrinkle in Oates’ faces conveys more life than a million words can. You know that this man has been through a lot and will go through a lot worse by the end of this picture. At the same time, there’s a sense of cool and charisma with Oates. The way he wears that rumbled linen suit, the way his cigarette dangles out of his lip and the sunglasses that never come off. It’s all very cool and it adds to the film’s surreal tone.
Despite being a straightforward crime thriller, Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia is a rather surreal picture as it blends the previously mentioned period drama elements with its over the top violence and rather frequent musical interludes. At times, it doesn’t work, but as Benny becomes further and further unhinged from the world and a dark feeling consumes the film, the musical moments make sense. That was when things appeared to be good for Benny. That maybe he had a chance to put the pieces of his life together, but he begins to lose it and his life spirals out of control. It’s an insane trip into the mind.
Theme: Linear by Peter Vidani
