1974 Peckinpah jointRating: 16/20
Plot: When the daughter of some wealthy plantation owner winds up pregnant, he demands the daddy's head. Part-time piano player and full-time loser Bennie finds out about the bounty for Alfredo Garcia's head, and visits one of his old flames. She informs him that Alfredo has already died, and the two , who decide they're in love, travel to his grave to retrieve the head and collect the bounty. Things don't go smoothly, however.
On the surface, you've got a grimy, slow-paced action story that looks like a product of its time. But this work's got some dimensions, layers of grime that make this the type of movie that's got a soul. It's the soul of a sinner or a drunkard or a guy who rubs his junk on vegetables at the supermarket, but it's still a soul. The locations match the grimy plot. Pekinpah paints Mexico to be a truly magical place here, all dilapidated buildings, homely people, dust, and wrecked cars. The Mexican landscape and the faded colors of the dumps and dives these characters inhabit give this the feel of a raunchy dream. At one point in the movie, there's a family that is chasing the protagonist. They're driving this wonderfully battered blue car, something that looked like somebody had taken a sledge hammer to it. It made me laugh out loud. And although the pervading mood is one of despair or hopelessness, there is some off-the-wall humor in this movie. The protagonist is a great character, an A-grade anti-hero. If I had to be a loser, I'd choose to be this guy, a guy who doesn't care how badly his tie clashes with his shirt, sleeps with his sunglasses on, shoots pistols in the air while driving his convertible, takes exaggerated swigs from his bottle of vodka while he drives, and says really cool things like "You two guys are definitely on my shit list" and "You're looking at me with your goddamn fuckin' eyes." I haven't seen a lot of movies with Warren Oates, but I have to imagine this was the defining role of his career. He's got a way in this movie of simultaneously slurping in everything around him while looking utterly defeated the entire time. It's one of those performances you'll remember, simple but very effective. This is far from perfect (I can't figure out why Kristofferson's scene was in this), but it's a great movie about the price you have to pay to obsess, chase your dreams, and have things your way and the type of cult classic I imagine could be in some people's personal top tens. Other people? Not so much.
A Larst recommendation.
6 comments:
The Kristofferson scene was a Peckinpaw misogyny quota.
I do think it was a really important scene though.
Yeah, I guess being a Peckinpah movie, I know WHY the scene was there. But I don't think it was a "really important scene" at all. I don't see how it either developed the characters or advanced the plot. Why do you think it was necessary?
By the way, I don't think Cory will like this movie. I could be wrong.
It wasn't really recommended for Cory since he doesn't like Peckinpah and this is pure Peck.
I think it was necessary because you thought, hey things are going alright, and then they weren't. You got reminded that his girl was a "professional" in the way she dealt with the rape. And you got to see Bennie actually react which I wasn't sure he was going to do. I thought this scene was crucial.
OK, I actually thought more about this while showering (before reading your last comment)...
And you're probably right. It does give us a little about the woman's character and shows us that Bennie is a guy who, when pushed, will eventually be moved to do something. I guess it sets up most of what he does in the movie after he gets the head.
I also like the way the Bennie-hit-with-shovel part sort of references the Bennie-hitting-guy-with-pan moment.
I think it gives more than "a little" about her character... the woman in Straw Dogs behaves the same way, which says a hell of a lot about Peck, I think. Unnerving.
The pan/shovel thing is a nice detail.
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