Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
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Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is a 1974 film directed by Sam Peckinpah.
According to a quote from Peckinpah, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia was the only "pure Peckinpah" film he ever made. Warren Oates stars as Bennie, an American piano player at a Mexican brothel.
Bennie is used to life at the bottom. When the chance arrives to rise above the hum-drum and make a little easy money, avarice clouds his judgment. He is given an incentive to dig up the head of his already dead friend who had impregnated the daughter of drug baron El Jefe (Emilio Fernandez). On the road down to Mexico, Bennie's sensibilities degenerate even further as he argues with the head - he has to make stops to replenish ice for preserving the head while avoiding gangsters and the authorities
The film was universally panned when it was released in 1974 but in the intervening years it has acquired cult status. It is regarded by some as Peckinpah's darkest masterpiece, and the combination of the acting performances by Oates, Isela Vega, and Kris Kristofferson, and the 1970s penchant for road movies, has given it a lasting quality.
It is the subject of a running joke on the BBC 4 radio programme I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, and a pun on its name will invariably appear during a themed film club round.
Links
IMDB entry: Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071249/)