Peckinpah. The name conjures up the bloody battle of The Wild Bunch (1969), the brutal rape terror of Straw Dogs (1971), and the rattling country driving of, believe-it-or-not, Convoy (1978). One film had elements of all three - and more - more blood, more terror and more god-damn hot rubber to the searing gravel driving. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974) dynamited the boundaries of acceptability in mainstream film and crushed the concept of morality.

The movie, set in Mexico, begins with a young pregnant girl bathing by a lake. She is dragged into the home of her father, El Jefe (Emilio Fernandez). Her dress is ripped off and she stands topless among many family members and ranch workers. She is ordered to give up the name of the father of her child, she only does so when one of her finger's is cruelly broken. His name is Alfredo Garcia and El Jefe wants him dead and offers a reward of $1 million for his head as proof. As men leave the ranch in search of Alfredo, charging off in their cars and planes, we realise the movie is contemporary and not some 19th century western.

Warren Oates stars as Bennie, the American owner of a shanty-town bar. Into the bar comes Quill (Gig Young) and Sappensly (Robert Webber), two bounty hunters looking for Alfredo. They talk tough and act tough, Sappensly knocking-out-cold a girl who feels him up. Bennie offers to help them find Alfredo and is offered $10,000. 'Well how about dead or alive? How about that?' he asks. 'Dead. Just dead" they reply.

Bennie is aware that his on-off girlfriend, Elita (Isela Vega), knows Alfredo and goes off to meet her. Their tempetuous relationship reveals itself immediately; 'You're a lyin', cheatin', no-good two-bit bitch'. Elita reveals that Alfredo is already dead. He died just a week earlier. Bennie, realising that he only needs the head, goes off to a market and buys a huge hacking sword. He returns to Elita and they spend the night together drinking, fucking and sleeping. The two of them are sexy, earthy and lustfully hungry. When Bennie awakes, in one of films many darkly humourous scenes, he cracks crabs found in his pubic hair and drowns his dick in alcohol.
Bennie and Elita drive off in search of Alfredo's grave not knowing they are followed by a couple of cheap hoodlum's.

The pair stop for a picnic and Elita confesses her love for Bennie. Uneasy about their quest for a dead man's head she makes plans for their future together and marriage. Further on she asks that they stop the search but Bennie needs the money to set-up a new life. A couple of bikers (including Kris Kristofferson) interrupt them and, in a very disturbing scene, Elita is dragged off to be raped. Considering the reaction to the rape in Straw Dogs Peckinpah would have been well aware how the scene would prove controversial, and yet went ahead to add even an more troublesome context.

As the tension rises one of the bikers and Elita move off into the hills, leaving Bennie with the other biker. He is frustrated and knows if he acts both he and his woman could end up dead. Elita is scared but appears to be stronger than the biker, even when her top is ripped off to expose her breasts (reinforcing the earlier scene with the pregnant daughter). The biker acts like a child, Elita the mother figure and she slaps him twice. She moves in to comfort and kiss him.

Is she aroused? Is she trying to save both herself and Bennie? Is she so sexualised that her cunt is a commodity to be used by anyone and at anytime? The scene is hugely problematic and it's easy to see why the director was accused of chauvinism and misogyny. More daring (and many would say foolhardy) than the similar rape in Straw Dogs, it perhaps led to the humiliating low attendance figures and very poor critical reviews, many palcing it amongst the worst movies of the year. This is unfortunate (though perhaps a fair appraisal given the situation) as the actual acting is so very good. Warren Oates, in one of his very few leading roles, is outstanding and is ably matched by Isela Vega.

Bennie overpowers the biker, takes his gun and goes off to find Elita. He finds her stroking her would-be-rapist further compounding the issues raised above. One does have to question what exactly Peckinpah was thinking when he set-up the scene. It can be read many ways but even if she is acting in a role to save herself, her face appears to betray sadness and tendernessrather than horror. This is reflected in Bennie's confusion, he hesitates and watches, before shooting the biker dead. Elita now knows that if they continue their search it can only end badly and she pleads with Bennie to return home.

At a motel Elita showers herself, she cries as the blood from the dead biker pools around her feet. Bennie watches and his face fills the screen. 'I love you' he finally says. His eyes burn fiercely but his face is that of a living dead man. Not so much in search for a dead man, but a dead man in search of his destiny. The pair eventually find the graveyard but are disturded by Alfredo's family. Returning at night Bennie starts to dig up the grave, but an anguished Elita decides to leave the graveyard and goes off. As Bennie raises his sword to start hacking away at the neck of Alfredo he is himself bludgeoned around the head with a spade.
He awakes the following morning covered in blood and aware that his life now has no meaning, no future. He gets into his car and gives chase to the hoodlums who had been following him and taken the head. He finds them changing a tyre and a shoot-out ensues. Bennie kills them and retrieves the head and places it on the passenger seat. Flies congregate and a prutrid smell fills the air as the head continues to rot in the searing Mexican heat. Bennie appears to hallucinate and begins to talk to the head, 'You got jewels in your ears, diamonds up your nose'. Was the money really worth it?

Alfredo's family chase him and when they finally catch-up take the head back. The grandmother refuses to release the head when offered money by Bennie. A car pulls up and Quill and Sappensly reappear and, pretending not to know Bennie, act as lost tourists. It's perverse black humour as near a dozen people all stake claim to a dead man's head. A greyhound bus then slowly runs through the ungodly scum, tourists taking pictures of the unknowingly horrifc scenario. As the bus leaves another shoot-ot takes place. Quill machine-guns the family but is gunned down himself. Sappensly goes over to Quill in a tearful rage. He attempts to shoot Bennie but is killed himself and cradles Quill in a deathly lovers embrace. Only Bennie and an old grandfather survive.

Bennie returns the head to a bail office and is offered the $10,000. Knowing he has little left to live for he asks why they want the head so desperately. When the officials refuse to answer another bloody shoot-out begins and Bennie kills them all.
Placing the head in the basket he then moves on to the home of El Jefe. Alfredo's child has been born and a christening is taking place. The head is placed before El Jefe and his astonished daughter. Bennie is given the whole £1 million reward but Bennie knows the money now means nothing to him. He realises it was not worth all the dead bodies left in his trail. The daughter asks Bennie to kill her father. There's an awful lot of blood that has been shed, why not a little more?

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is a very darkly funny and shocking movie. At times it's not easy to watch and it's problems are not easy to put to one side. However, Warren Oates performance is outstanding and makes the movie a must-see in itself. The issues it draws forth can offer much debate. Fans of Straw Dogs and Bonnie and Clyde (1967) should find much to enjoy. The movie has recently been released on DVD by MGM.