Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Warren Oates, in a career best performance, unravels magnificently down Mexico way in Peckinpah's criminally underrated nouveau gothic masterpiece. This film is gradually coming into it's own, initially marginalised in the scheme of the director's work it is now reappraised as one of his major achievements. Weird romanticism, shattering violence, morbid subject matter, all combine to make it a unique cinematic experience. The obvious signpost to the progressively nihilistic tone of the movie is given earlier on when Gig Young is asked for his name by Bennie (Warren Oates). He replies "Dobbs. Fred C. Dobbs." The name is that of the Humphrey Bogart character in John Huston's classic "The Treasure of The Sierra Madre." Bogart's character was driven mad by greed in that movie, in his futile search for an elusive treasure. Peckinpah's vision encompasses many of the same themes, yet is far darker. As Oates' character spirals into psychosis during his journey through the searing and filthy Mexican badlands, he maintains a fractured, rambling dialogue with the decaying, severed head of Alfredo and coldly guns down those who get in his way.

Bennie is a loser, a pianist in a dead end bar, cuckolded by the woman he loves who got it on with Alfredo (a friend of Bennie's), broke and living in squalor, he perceives obtaining the severed head of his dead friend as a way out. This is his "golden fleece," a passport to a better life. In the process of digging up the body, his girl is murdered and Bennie's personality disintegrates. As he pumps bullet after bullet into the corpse of one of the hoods who whacked his chick, he spits: "Why? Because it feels so damn good!" The role is one that Warren Oates was made for. Seldom a leading man in Hollywood, his history of character parts provide him with the experience needed to invest Bennie with the complex traits of a complete anti-hero. Each tic, each mannerism, the almost improvised quality of his dialogue delivery, results in a totally believable performance.

Although many believe that Peckinpah's direction here is "messy and unfocussed" on reflection it seems more of a deliberate ploy to accentuate the nightmarish quality of the narrative. Bennie swigs Tequila almost constantly throughout the movie, and very often - combined with the obligatory slow motion violence and gunplay - the result is as if the audience is viewing the action through the languorous gaze of a drunk. Or maybe that's just my imagination running away with me. Or my own alcohol intake.

This is probably Peckinpah's most personal film, and his last masterpiece, and as such is one of the most original pieces of mainstream cinema ever produced. If you like Tarantino and Rodriguez, this movie will give a sense of where some of their roots are. Ultimately, a journey into the heart of darkness that makes Apocalypse Now seem like a paddle through Disneyland.

Quite simply the most nihilistic film ever made but also one of the best ever made. This is truly Sam Peckinpah's masterpiece - the main character, Benny , played by the amazing Warren Oates at last given a great leading role is basically Peckinpah himself and Oates based his characterisation on him. Where else will you get a film where the lead character wears his sunglasses for practically half the film, where even though he has no redeeming qualities you still route for him at the end as his road journey leads him to the abyss of who he is. This is the only film I think where Peckinpah had little to no interference in making it, and boy does it show. I often wonder if the great man was alive today what kinda films he would have ended up making and what actors he would have worked with. If you like only one of Peckinpah's films, but haven't seen this, then trust me and buy it, it's a true master being let loose of studio chains and making a personal `up yours to the lot of you' style of film. Violent, funny, beautifully shot, downbeat and one of the greatest lead performances in the history of film by Warren Oates, it just doesn't get better than this

I wish that Werner Herzog had taken his hero Strozek down the path that Peckinpah takes Bennie. Strozek ends in the suicide of a life that harmed no-one but could not rise to face a bad, bad world. But here, Bennie, the main character, faces up to the appalling world he lives in (the bars of the mexican border with Texas)finally redeems himself through a great act of sacrifice.

A modern american tragedy "Bring me the head..." I think exemplifies personal hubris; the west gone mad through an orgy fueled by drugs, alcohol , greed and lust. Bennie's just a tiny speck of dirt and his only hope is the love of a prostitute, and well.... you can find out what he does with that.

Some say this is flawed - but I dont understand that - Peckinpah shows you what its like living in that world and in 2009 that world is all around us.

Despite the violence (tame by todays standards), at its heart the film is about the ROMANCE between Bennie (played to perfection by Warren Oates) and his girlfriend (Isela Vega).

WATCH!