Talk:Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia

Untitled
Isn't it "written and directed by Peckinpah", which then could be shortened to "a film by Sam Peckinpah"? He at least seems to have written the screenplay.  22:43, 28 Mar 2004 (UTC)


 * My reservation on saying a film is "by" a writer-director, is that encyclopedia readers who are not film buffs, or persons browsing this edition for whom English is a second language, may not get this connotation, thus it's preferable to always identify the writer and director as such. But I'm not married to the idea. 209.149.235.254 21:04, 3 Apr 2004 (UTC)


 * The average person (I'm including myself in this category - I don't usually) would think that 'by' just refers to either the writer or the director - it should be implicit in this article that Peckinpah did both dutiessheridan 00:49, 2004 Dec 24 (UTC)

Actually, Peckinpah collaborated on the story and screenplay. IMDB gives the following screenwriting credits: Writing credits Frank Kowalski  (story) and Sam Peckinpah  (story) Sam Peckinpah  (screenplay) and Gordon T. Dawson  (screenplay) (as Gordon Dawson) ---

Wikipedia seems to frown upon calling any film "a film by", because that is viewed as subscribing to the auteur theory; whether you agree with the auteur theory or not, not everybody does, thus making it POV. It becomes especially complicated with Peckinpah; other than 'Alfredo Garcia', none of his films were ever released in his intended cuts, so, strictly-speaking, how can they be said to be films by him?

Producers can overrule directors, directors usually overrule writers and editors and can always overrule cinematographers and composers, and most actors, but all of these people contribute creatively to the film; the auteur theory kind of dismisses this fact out-of-hand. ThatGuamGuy 20:13, 6 April 2007 (UTC)sean

def con dos, spanish music group has a song called "Quiero la cabeza de Alfredo Gracía" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.59.81.47 (talk) 14:19, 6 October 2009 (UTC)

Clue (ISIHAC)
I'd never heard of the film until I noticed it's use as a punch line in I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, a particularly inexplicable UK radio programme. This would be a classic example of the film's "cult status". Having just watched it ... it's good - better than a lot of "cult movies." Aidan Karley (talk) 11:04, 20 November 2009 (UTC)


 * Creating variations on the title, usually spoken in an exageratedly gravelly voice, is a running joke in the programme. Paul B (talk) 15:18, 19 June 2010 (UTC)

Plot summary too long or overly detailed?
As someone who lines up on the "masterpiece" side of the great divide, I would plead against drastically cutting the plot summary. This detail is very useful as one rethinks the film and analyzes what all is happening beneath the action level. (I personally got several new ideas about the film from reading it, for example.) One should not be too arbitrary about when a Wiki article is "too long". The important thing is whether the article is properly structured, so that users can orient themselves easily. Let them then decide how deeply they want to go into each rubric. Of course, one may not want to insist on such length as a standard for film plot summaries, but those few who do go to that trouble to provide such are doing a service to filmlovers. After all, the Wiki goal should not be merely to produce a "tv guide type plot summary" as an aid to a decision about whether to "tape or not". --Remotelysensed (talk) 12:03, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

Reception

 * Tons of original research in this section. It is well-written but needs to be properly cited so I'm putting it here until it can be sourced.--J.D. (talk) 19:00, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

Some viewers have been fascinated by the careful and convincing presentation of Bennie's "journey" from a rather selfish, narrow-minded and unloving nobody to someone who came to live by quite another set of values. Bennie is not a psycho "talking to the head" but is rather a troubled person learning to talk to himself, and discovering in the process what is really important to him. And the violence is not the mindless shooting of some action film; each murder propels him on his way, not least his witnessing the mindless massacre of Garcia's family.

Peckinpah himself was deeply proud of the film. He often cited it as his purest and most personal work, and the only one of his films which was completed without any compromises to studio or audience, precisely as he had intended it. After Peckinpah's death, the film began to be reevaluted by critics and audiences. Many critics came to praise the film's uncompromising vision and the film has begun to be seen as the consummation of the themes present in all of Peckinpah's films – the conflict between honor and the necessity of survival in a dishonorable world, the dangers of vengeance and greed, the nature of human violence, and the self-destructive tendencies of modern masculinity. Some have gone so far as to compare it to the films of John Huston such as The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, which Peckinpah had cited as an inspiration. (The bounty hunter played by Gig Young actually gives his name as "Fred C. Dobbs" at one point – the name of Bogart's character in the Huston film.)

The dark humor and satirical interpretation of the cinematic clichés of the '70s road-movie and of the buddy film (Bennie drives around Mexico talking to a severed head; a pair of hitmen in business suits travel the rural Mexican badlands in a suburban station wagon) identify Bring Me the Head of Alfredo García as an anticipatory film of the surreal, violent, black humour of directors David Lynch and Quentin Tarantino (primarily in the scene he shot for Sin City). "Bennie" was Warren Oates's interpretation of Peckinpah, donning the director's clothes and sunglasses for the part. Moreover, co-writer Gordon Dawson admitted basing "Bennie" on Peckinpah.

Bring me the head...
No mention here of the story of Salome, who asked for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. In Oscar Wilde's play Salome she says "Bring me the head of Jokanaan." So the film title could be seen as a reference to that, and some of the "popular culture references" could be seen as referring to the familiar phrase rather than the film specifically. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sealbonny (talk • contribs) 19:16, 30 November 2015
 * I agree. Without a reference, those that do not explicitly include the words "Alfredo" or "Garcia", might equally refer to Salomé's request. -- Red rose64 (talk) 11:35, 17 May 2016 (UTC)

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