Cesar Arredondo

The 1974 Mexican-American film Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia starring Warren Oates and Isela Vega and also featuring Robert Webber, Gig Young, Kris Kristofferson, and Emilio Fernandez, is set for home video release with a special edition later this year.

The gritty neowestern drama was one of few Mexico-US co-productions in the first half of the 1970s featuring Mexican actors in starring and other prominent roles. Written and directed by Academy Award nominee Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch), the film tells the story of an American forlorn barroom pianist and his girlfriend who got deep into the Mexican underworld to collect a bounty on the head of a dead gigolo. Peckingpahs

Reporterly, United Artists was interested in producing the film but Peckinpah decided to make it independently to be able to keep ownership of the work. With a $1.5 million budget, the film was shot in Mexico in English and Spanish and relied on a mainly Mexican crew that included cinematographer Álex Phillips Jr. It was released in Los Angeles in August of 1974, a few weeks after Vega appeared on the cover of Playboy magazine. 

The action and crime drama bombed at the box office and was panned by the critics. However, some reviewers like Roger Ebert still gave it four stars for what he considered ”some kind of bizarre masterpiece.” The American critic revisited Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia decades later with even more appreciation, also pointing to the seemingly autobiographical nature of Peckinpah’s film. The neowestern was presented in 2019 at Italy’s Locarno Film Festival as part of a retrospective on the American director.

Slated for a video release on March 9 by Kino Lorber Studio Classics, the film’s special edition is a 2017 high definition master from a 4K scan of the original camera negative, according to the company. The release also features an audio commentary by co-writer/co-producer Gordon Dawson and several film historians. 

Featured Photo: Trailer Screenshot

For more information, visit www.kinolorber.com.

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Arau’s first film appearance in his native Mexico was in 1954 as an uncredited dancer.  By 1973, he acted in and directed the humorous political critique film Calzónzin Inspector, aimed squarely at the then Mexican ruling party, the PRI.

By the 60’s he was already one of the very first “crossovers” talents working in U.S. big-budget films both as an actor as well as a director.  He was cast in Sam Peckinpah’s classic western The Wild Bunch; He starred alongside Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner in Romancing the Stone and played “El Guapo” in Three Amigos starring alongside Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short.

In 1995 he directed  Keanu Reeves and Anthony Quinn the 20th Century Fox film A Walk in the Clouds, and in 2003 he directed A Painted House, a TV film adapted from John Grisham’s novel. 

In December 2004, the Santa Fe Film Festival honored Arau for his work in cinema. He recently did the voice of Papa Julio in Disney’s Coco and has two projects in development.

Featured Photo: Subject Courtesy

— Latin Heat New Service

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