Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)

Director: Sam Peckinpah

The title of Peckinpah's film is eye-catching, making you wonder who is Alfredo Garcia, what did he do to risk losing his head, and who will go and get it. Being a Peckinpah film you can expect the answer will come with a lot of violence, including multiple shoot-outs. The story focuses on the getter of head, Bennie, and the cost this expedition has for him.

I haven't warmed to Peckinpah's style. I do admire the way he shoots violence, which is impressionistic, with its slow-mos overlaid with loud gunfire, disorientating you as though you were part of the action. He does also focus on interesting characters. My problem is the story is often not as compelling as it could be, and as someone who tires of too much violence quickly (unless it is in horror), I get tired watching his films. All this is true of Alfredo Garcia.

I can't say much more about the film because it didn't grab me. I watched it a few weeks ago, and haven't thought about it since. Peckinpah clearly has his fans, several of his films appear on the 1001+ Films lists, but he doesn't do much for me.

I've Just Seen: Amores Perros (2000)

Amores Perros (2000)


Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

From the opening shots of this film I knew this was going to be a difficult watch. I love dogs, and have two of my own; watching people treat them despicably and seeing them injured is hard. Dogs and their owners are vital to understanding Inarritu's film. How people treat their dogs reveals more about their characters than their relationships with each other.

Hand-held camera doesn't always work for me, but in this film it did; it heighten the visceral aspects of the film, particularly at the beginning with the car chase. In the second section the camera became still and more distant from its subjects; the third had elements of candid-camera to it.

The film is decidedly non-linear, and at times I was slightly lost as to where we were in the story's chronology. The three different stories within the film are connected by a horrific event which affects many people's lives. The complexity of the inter-woven plots means that I will need to re-watch this at a later date. Did I like it? Mmm, I admired Inarritu's filmmaking but was rather confronted by the animal's experiences in the film. As a result, the characters are hard to like.