Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo García Blu-ray Movie Review

Peckinpah heads for the hills.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 24, 2014

Sam Peckinpah—comedian? One would hardly think of the vaunted director in the same category as Mel Brooks, Woody Allen or other ticklers of the collective funny bone. And it may seem like a decided stretch beyond even that formulation to conceive of one of his thorniest films, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, as anything other than a gritty, violent outing depicting the desperate plight of an erstwhile lounge pianist who becomes an unlikely bounty hunter in an equally improbable attempt to deliver the titular head of one Alfredo Garcia to a Mexican mob boss who will pay handsomely for such a prize. The fact that Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia posits a lounge pianist as its hero is perhaps one clue pointing toward a subversive sense of humor in this film, and I say that as a proud sometimes lounge pianist myself (albeit one who has very rarely carried around a sack containing a decapitated head). In both of the commentaries included on this Blu-ray disc as supplements, the participants state outright at several intervals that Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia can in fact be seen as a comedy, albeit one of the blackest comedies ever to attach itself to celluloid. Certainly one of the hardest nuts in Peckinpah’s oeuvre to easily crack, the film almost seems to be playing with the popular “buddy” genre, although in this instance the screen pals are the aforementioned piano player, one Bennie (Warren Oates) and Alfredo Garcia himself, or perhaps more particularly, the former Alfredo Garcia’s cranium.

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia begins with a riveting sequence where a pregnant young girl is summoned before her father, a notorious Mexican mob boss nicknamed El Jefe (Emilio Fernandez). El Jefe is not pleased that his daughter is with child, and a really disturbing act of violence against the girl sets up the tenor of the film in spectacular fashion (though it’s notable how Peckinpah and his editor Dennis Dolan handle the moment). Alfredo Garcia is the father of the child, and El Jefe offers a bounty of a cool million dollars for anyone who brings him the head of his soon to be born grandchild, setting off the chain of events which will inform the rest of the film.

One of the most striking things about Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia’s opening scene is that it almost seems as if it’s playing out in the 19th century milieu of one of Sergio Leone’s “Spaghetti Westerns”. Only after that opening sequence is it made clear that this is a resolutely contemporary story, as two bounty hunters named Sappensly (Robert Webber) and Quill (Gig Young) arrive in a bustling Mexico City to try to track down Garcia. They end up at a dilapidated cantina which also serves as a bordello, which is where they meet Bennie, a man with a past (of course) who is tickling the ivories in the corner of the grimy joint. Sappensly and Quill are met with uncooperative customers when they ask if anyone knows where Garcia is, though it’s patently obvious that at least some of the people in the place at least might know his whereabouts. After the two leave Bennie a nice tip and ask him to let them know if he can get any information about Garcia, Bennie decides to take matters into his own hands.

Bennie enlists the aid of his on again off again girlfriend Elita (Isela Vega), who works as a prostitute, but who also informs him that Garcia is in fact already dead, something that might make removing his head a bit easier in the long run. Bennie sees the chance to make a quick and easy buck as well as pave the way for him and Elita to get out of the fetid environment they both find themselves in, and he makes a down and dirty deal with the two henchmen who came by his place of work earlier. Bennie and Elita set off to find Garcia’s grave, where two seemingly random acts of violence soon intrude on Bennie’s best laid plans, leading to a rather profound transformation in his character and motivations.

So—is Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia funny? Certainly not in any traditional sense, though it is infused with a certain sense of the absurd that at times recalls—albeit in a spectacularly more violent and naturalistic fashion—the supremely surreal seventies films of Luis Buñuel. This is not even a traditional Peckinpah film in some ways. Instead of browbeating the audience with amped up violence from the film’s first frame, Peckinpah is surprisingly discursive, at least in the early going (as hinted at in my previous comment of some interesting editing choices in the first moment of ostensible violence). In fact Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is unexpectedly languorous in the early going, even casting a potential rape scene (featuring a cameo by Kris Kristofferson) in a weirdly sylvan light. Peckinpah’s first forays into on screen violence definitely have a humorous edge, as best exemplified in the cantina sequence where Sappensly cold cocks a prostitute with his elbow when she gets a little to up close and personal.

While there’s an undeniable narrative drive to Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, there’s also a certain haphazard quality to much of the film, one that makes it one of the more unpredictable outings by Peckinpah, for better or worse. Peckinpah was just then coming off of his disastrous experience with Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, and Peckinpah himself was on record stating he was through with what he saw as the moribund ways of Hollywood. While according to most accounts (including those of several collaborators on supplements on this Blu-ray) Peckinpah was overjoyed to be working on this new film, feeling a new sense of inspiration and freedom far from the meddling hands of studio suits, he may have been experiencing a certain kind of post traumatic stress syndrome, for much of Alfredo Garcia feels a bit unstable, as if it at any moment it could all be separated from its body much like its titular character’s own head. This film has remained one of the most contentious of Peckinpah’s long career. Some insist it’s a disaster while others are just as sure it’s a masterpiece. I tend to come down somewhere in the middle—this is neither Peckinpah’s most assured work nor a complete debacle. It’s a questing, meandering and often viscerally compelling film that, while far from perfect, never fails to demand—and deserve—attention.

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo García Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.84:1. From a cursory comparison of screenshots and referring to comments made by my colleague Dr. Svet Atanasov, it appears that this could be the same master used for the Italian Blu-ray release; if it isn't, it at least certainly bears some striking similarities to that release. The elements are occasionally problematic, with quite a few white specks liberally distributed throughout the film. Contrast is also slightly variant at times, something that can affect shadow detail negatively in some of the darker sequences (sequences that at times have minimal though noticeable noise issues). There's some minor print through visible, especially when the film ventures outside in bright sunlight, where the sky is afflicted with slight but visible damage. On the whole, though, colors are nicely reproduced and there does not appear to have been any overt digital tampering with the image, leaving a nicely organic presentation that accurately reproduces the film's grain field.

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo García Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono is obviously quite narrow, but it's also surprisingly full bodied, nicely offering the boisterous gunshots that make up the film's violent sequences, as well as rendering Jerry Fielding's evocative score with decent precision. Dialogue is cleanly presented, and the track is not hampered by any damage.

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo García Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Passion and Poetry: Sam's Favorite Film (480i; 55:36) is a great little documentary by Mike Siegel which recounts the making of the film and includes a lot of excellent interviews.


• A Writer's Journey: Garner Simmons with Sam Peckinpah in Mexico (480i; 25:54) features Garner Simmons' recollections of just cold calling Peckinpah, offering to write his biography, and being invited to accompany the director on the Alfredo Garcia shoot.


• Promoting Alfredo Garcia (480i; 5:59) offers a picture gallery of various posters and other advertising memorabilia.


• U.S. TV Spots (480i; 3:57)


• Original Theatrical Trailer (480p; 1:57)


• MGM 90th Anniversary Trailer (1080p; 2:06)


• Audio Commentary with Gordon Dawson and Nick Redman. Dawson co-wrote and co-produced the film, but he had a long prior association with Peckinpah and relates several great anecdotes in this informative commentary. This can be just a bit hard to listen to at times, as Dawson either had a bad cold or unfortunately has some sort of breathing problem which comes through very clearly on the track.


• Audio Commentary with Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons, David Weddle and Nick Redman. This is another very interesting track with a quartet of Peckinpah aficionados (and in several cases, biographers). Surprisingly "well mannered", given the number of participants, this doesn't have the intimacy of the first commentary but delivers a wealth of information about the film and Peckinpah in general.


• Isolated Score Track. Jerry Fielding's varied score is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0.

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo García Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Putting aside for a moment that I may be at least slightly influenced by the fact that this film's hero shares a piano playing proclivity with yours truly, not to mention by the fact that the film's villain bears a moniker with an etymological connection to my first name, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is (one way or the other) an unforgettable experience. Peckinpah fans are split on this film, though, and probably for good reason. This has neither the in your face violence of films like Straw Dogs or The Wild Bunch (though it is undeniably violent at times), nor the whimsy and lighthearted feel of The Ballad of Cable Hogue (though it is in fact darkly humorous at least some of the time). The film is rough, uneven and tonally ambivalent, but it's one of Peckinpah's most distinctive efforts. This Blu-ray offers occasionally problematic video, which is at least partially offset by good audio and some very appealing supplements. Recommended.