“SWEAT AND FLIES”

By Raymond Benson

This is a tough one. On the one hand, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia a picture that has gained a cult status and a reputation among some cinema enthusiasts and certainly Sam Peckinpah fans as a retro classic. On the other hand, this is one nasty piece of work.

I remember immensely disliking the picture in 1974 (as did most audiences and critics) when it was first released. I appreciated its dark humor and Warren Oates’ superb study in futility and frustration—it was nice to see the longtime supporting actor be a lead—but the overall nihilism of the movie left a sour taste. I was eager to view to new DVD release by Kino Lorber on the chance that perhaps my opinion would have changed over the last forty-three years, given the title’s cult acceptance.

I’m afraid my views have not changed.

Director Sam Peckinpah always had a confrontational relationship with Hollywood studios. He was a rebel who liked to do things his way. By the time of Alfredo Garcia, he had pretty much given up on Hollywood and was forging his own path. Luckily for him, United Artists—known for indulging auteur filmmakers in those days—gave him enough money to make the picture in Mexico with an all-Mexican crew, save for a few key personnel. The film is perceived as one of the director’s most personal statements.

The story, by Peckinpah and Frank Kowalski, and adapted to screenplay by Peckinpah and Gordon Dawson, follows an American ex-pat in Mexico, Bennie (Oates), as he attempts to locate the body of deceased Alfredo Garcia, remove the head, and return it to Mexican crime boss El Jefe. Apparently, poor Alfredo impregnated El Jefe’s daughter and ran off, so the boss has placed a million-dollar bounty for her lover’s head. Bennie and his reluctant Mexican girlfriend, Elita (Isela Vega), are in competition with various hit men and fortune hunters. Lives are lost, women are tortured, shootouts occur, and violence (done in trademark Peckinpah slow-motion) follows Bennie wherever he goes. Once he’s in possession of the head, which Bennie carries around in a rucksack, flies are his only constant companions.

You don’t need Smell-O-Vision for this picture—you can swear the odors of sweat, death, and blood penetrate the screen.

Perhaps my biggest objection to the picture is Peckinpah’s treatment of women. Yes, we’re talking about Mexico here, and we’re focusing on bad guys and prostitutes and bar girls. But the misogyny and cruelty inflicted on the female characters is cringe-worthy, especially today, when we’re supposed to be a little more sensitive to this stuff. The sequence in which bikers (one is played by Kris Kristofferson) attempt to assault Elita, and her “here we go again, let’s get it over with” attitude toward it, is disturbing—and not because it’s supposed to be disturbing. I get that. The problem is that the entire scene is unnecessary.

The action bits/shootouts are well-done, and the latter half hour with Bennie lugging around that head with the flies buzzing around it is grossly comical. Hit men played by Robert Webber and Gig Young are fun to watch, and Oates’ performance elevates the picture to something that is, granted, watchable… the same way you might slow down and rubberneck on the highway to gawk at an accident.

Kino Lorber’s transfer looks very good, but there seems to be something wrong in the mastering with regard to subtitles. A lot of the movie’s dialogue is in Spanish (for example, the first five minutes, which takes place at El Jefe’s home). There is no default for English subtitles here. You must go to the main menu and manually turn on the subtitles. That solves the problem for the Spanish dialogue—but then, the subtitles continue throughout the picture even when English is spoken. Very annoying.

The only supplement is an interesting and insightful audio commentary moderated by Nick Redman and featuring film historians Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons, and David Weddle, all who have written separate books about Sam Peckinpah. There’s the theatrical trailer, and several more trailers for Kino Lorber releases.

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia just might be your cup of tea—it’s probably beloved by the “Tarantino crowd”—so if it is, then this DVD is for you.

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