Midnight Movie - Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia
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Fri 24 June 2005 // 00:00
(Sam Peckinpah / 1974 / USA / 112mins / Cert 18)
(Fri 24th / midnite / £4/3)
A rare chance to see what is, for many, the definitive Peckinpah masterpiece. Shot in Mexico, far away from the beady eyes of the Hollywood money men, the director felt free to realise his vision undisturbed and untainted. What we have here, then, is unrepressed Peckinpah, with all the transgressive energy this might imply. Having already committed to celluloid two or three of the most challenging mainstream genre films which brought audiences a poetic, yet brutally nihilistic, vision of men pushed to the edge ('Straw Dogs', 'The Wild Bunch'), Sam really felt that with 'Garcia' he could let himself go. In doing so he created one of the grimly funny and, frankly, odd films in the revenge genre - a film that has had more than a little influence on the shape of the history of subsequent films (Tarantino and Rodriguez are both fans, as recent work will attest!)
A family scandal causes a wealthy and powerful Mexican rancher to make the pronouncement--'Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia!' Two of the bounty-hunters thus dispatched encounter a local piano-player in their hunt for information. The piano-player does a little investigating on his own and finds out that his girlfriend knows of Garcia's death and last resting place. Thinking that he can make some easy money and gain financial security for he and his (now) fiancée, they set off on this goal. Of course, this quest only brings him untold misery, in the form of trademark violence.
A truly unimissable experience!
(Fri 24th / midnite / £4/3)
A rare chance to see what is, for many, the definitive Peckinpah masterpiece. Shot in Mexico, far away from the beady eyes of the Hollywood money men, the director felt free to realise his vision undisturbed and untainted. What we have here, then, is unrepressed Peckinpah, with all the transgressive energy this might imply. Having already committed to celluloid two or three of the most challenging mainstream genre films which brought audiences a poetic, yet brutally nihilistic, vision of men pushed to the edge ('Straw Dogs', 'The Wild Bunch'), Sam really felt that with 'Garcia' he could let himself go. In doing so he created one of the grimly funny and, frankly, odd films in the revenge genre - a film that has had more than a little influence on the shape of the history of subsequent films (Tarantino and Rodriguez are both fans, as recent work will attest!)
A family scandal causes a wealthy and powerful Mexican rancher to make the pronouncement--'Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia!' Two of the bounty-hunters thus dispatched encounter a local piano-player in their hunt for information. The piano-player does a little investigating on his own and finds out that his girlfriend knows of Garcia's death and last resting place. Thinking that he can make some easy money and gain financial security for he and his (now) fiancée, they set off on this goal. Of course, this quest only brings him untold misery, in the form of trademark violence.
A truly unimissable experience!