Most Sam Peckinpah fans regard Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia (’74) as one of his best. Below The Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs and Ride The High Country but above all the rest. I haven’t seen it in years but my recollection is that the Warren Oates factor aside (shades, unshaven, piano-playing, laconic attitude), it’s Peckinpah doing his schtick in a relatively rote and uninspired way. That’s not an eternal opinion — just a recollection. The main problem is Peckinpah’s persistent sexism, particularly the way his screenplay (co-written with Gordon Dawson) depicts Isela Vega‘s Elita character as a slut with a heart of gold. That fantasy didn’t travel all that well to begin with and it certainly doesn’t fly today. That scene in which Vega agrees to have it off with Kris Kristofferson in exchange for KK and his biker buddy not killing Oates is just icky and strange. In my book Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia is below The Getaway, Junior Bonner, The Ballad of Cable Hogue and Major Dundee. The limited Bluray is out now.