Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia - 1974

Plot Summary: A family scandal causes a wealthy and powerful Mexican rancher to make the pronouncement--'Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia!' Two of the bounty-hunters thus dispatched encounter a local piano-player in their hunt for information. The piano-player does a little investigating on his own and finds out that his girlfriend knows of Garcia's death and last resting place. Thinking that he can make some easy money and gain financial security for he and his (now) fiancée, they set off on this goal. Of course, this quest only brings him untold misery, in the form of trademark Peckinpah violence.

User Comments: There was probably no greater director in the U.S. from 1969-1974 than Sam Peckinpah. He made seven films, ranging from classics (The Wild Bunch) to superior genre pics (The Getaway). And before his career began sliding, he had one more masterpiece in him: Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. This is the story of one man's alcohol-fueled journey into dissolution and redemption and a really strange film. Warren Oates plays Benny, a piano player cajoled by a pair of men into finding Alfredo's head. See, Alfredo impregnated the daughter of a vicious landowner, and now he wants him dead. But this isn't really what the film is about. It's more about Benny, and how his journey costs him everything. Warren Oates is wonderful as Benny, and there are some great darkly comic moments between him and the head. And this is one of Michael Medved's 50 worst movies of all time - what more of a recommendation do you require? Seriously, this is a great film.

Mexico headless adventure

IMDb review

The Appaloosa - 1966

Plot Outline: Matt Fletcher, a Mexican-American buffalo hunter is constantly harassed and humiliated by bandit general Chuy Medina. When the bandit steals his horse - the appaloosa of the title - he sets out to even scores; at the climax, single-handedly, he takes on the whole gang.

User Comments: "The Appaloosa" is a superior low-key western with a great performance by Marlon Brando and very good ones by John Saxon and Anjanette Comer. Brando plays a white man raised by Mexicans who returns from the Civil War tired of killing and ready to build a ranch around one Appaloosa stallion. Brando has the misfortune of becoming a tool for Comer to escape the clutches of Saxon. Saxon retaliates by stealing Brando's stallion, and Brando follows Saxon into Mexico to reclaim it. Director Sidney J. Furie ("The Ipcress File," "Iron Eagle") extensively uses extreme close-ups of faces, in the same manner as Sergio Leone, but not for the same purpose. Furie uses these close-ups to establish intimacy between the characters and the audience. This works beautifully in "The Appaloosa," particularly so since the story is so unremarkable and low-key and Brando's character is by no means a superman. Most of the violence is of the "G" rated variety, with the notable exception of a hand-wrestling contest played with the addition of scorpions.

IMDb review

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre - 1948

Plot Summary: Dobbs and Curtin meet up in Mexico, and go to work for a contractor, Pat McCormick, who takes them away to remote site and tells them they will be paid when the job is finished. When they are finished, they return to town to find McCormick to get their wages. McCormick gives them a few dollars, and says he'll just go to the bank and pick up the payroll for them. Dobbs and Curtin then meet up with an old prospector, who claims the hills are still full of gold, and if they can get the cash, he'll go with them. They eventually get the cash from McCormick after a little "persuasion", and all three set off for the hills as good friends, but will they return that way ?

User Comments: John Huston's genius as a director is undeniable. From his beginning he showed an uncanny knack for getting not only excellent acting from his actors, but his movies always had a social conscience as well.

Mr. Huston loved Mexico and it shows in this film. It must have been a difficult task for him directing his own father in the movie. After all, Walter Huston was a major star on his own right. Both father and son made a great contribution, John behind the camera, Walter in front of it.

Basically the story is about men that have drifted into Mexico to escape jail, or in search of riches, as it was the case of the men that fate brings together in a Tampico shelter. Dobbs, Howard and Curtin start out as partners searching for gold in the Sierra Madre. They find it, but as luck will have it, none of them will live to be rich from what they find in that remote place.

In the most ironic of film endings, this one will be a classic. After the trio finds gold, greed sets in. Friendship turns sour and the three friends become enemies. When the bandits finally catch up with an exhausted Dobbs, trying to go north, they beat him up and discover some sacks full of sand....

Humphrey Bogart as Dobbs is excellent. Of course, Walter Huston made the best out of Howard, the clever old man who has seen a lot in his life. He is the only one that discovers a happiness living the simple life among the friendly Mexicans that welcome him into their community. Finally, Tim Holt, as Curtin is perfectly cast as an honest man who has gone into the adventure without any expectations.

The final sequence of Howard and the peasants riding their horses into the 'yellow dust' is amazing, as it it incredible. In retrospect, it seems to be telling us that sometimes dreams of becoming rich the easy way will not be sustained, but honest work will be more rewarding.

Hold Back the Dawn - 1941

Plot Outline: Stopped in Mexico by U.S. Immigration, Georges Iscovescu hopes to get into the country by marrying a citizen. A Romanian gigolo marries a naive American schoolteacher in Mexico so he can legally enter the United States. Complications arise as he discovers he is falling in love with her.

Told in flashback from a preface in which the main character visits Paramount to sell his story! Romanian-French gigolo Georges Iscovescu wishes to enter the USA. Stopped in Mexico by the quota system, he decides to marry an American, then desert her and join his old partner Anita, who's done likewise. But after sweeping teacher Emmy Brown off her feet, he finds her so sweet that love and jealousy endanger his plans.

User Comments: They Don't Make 'em like this any more! It is a sad reflection that many of the movies made so long ago still compare brilliantly with the best of today. "Hold Back the Dawn" is one of those - superbly put together by Billy Wilder & Charles Brackett, and with some of the finest acting of 1941. Outstanding are Charles Boyer, in what I feel is his best acting, and Olivia de Havilland who apparently had to go to Paramount to be appreciated (her two Oscar films were made there, and she was nominated also for this one!) is a standout. Paulette Goddard in a role almost written for her was very good, and the supporting cast was excellent. Migrants trying to get into the United States has always been a hot topic, but here it is treated sympathetically in a very informative way. I have to say the ending was not well done, and one gets the feeling all was not well somewhere

Subida al Cielo - 1952 AKA - Mexican Bus Ride

Subida al Cielo (1952) AKA- Mexican Bus Ride

Produced by Luis Bunuel (Luis Buñuel)

Plot Summary: A young man and woman's honeymoon is cut short when the man learns that his mother has fallen ill back at home. The newlywed couple rush there to discover the other sons neglecting their mom in order to plot their squandering of the inheritance. The newlywed son takes quite an adventurous bus-ride to a distant city to get his mother's will notarized to the contrary, and is faced with multiple temptations along the way.

User Comments: left me thinking about the righteous path

Subida al cielo is a messy little story probably about the distractions and small miracles happening on everybody's way to heaven. It is short and seems simple, but there are sometimes strange things happening: has anybody the strength to go straight? If one does really go straight, one probably do not even have dreams. Dreams, wishful thinking and miracles like the improbable solution (by a little girl) for getting the bus out of the river with an ox instead of a tractor and the small miracle of the two vehicles that for no apparent reason suddenly CAN pass each other on the narrow path after a short meeting. Furthermore, Buñuel incorporates a few modest but funny dream sequences to emphasize that people (secretly) can think of other things, while they are on their certain way to heaven (the righteous path?). The English title 'Mexican Bus Ride' applies very well I guess: the whole is kind of low profile (probably also low budget :)

The acting is ok, but I never really got into the story, because the editing isn't good and there is no convincing mood to get into, although Buñuel uses some music in this movie. Miniature cars and sets make it fun to watch, but also do not convince. The movie feels more like an exercise than as a message from the heart, but I would like to see it again some time.