Plot: After learning that his daughter has been inpregnated by some Alfredo García, a Mexican tycoon sends bounty hunters all over the country to bring him his head. Literally. An American loser, Benny, learns of the reward and of Alfredo García's death, and the prospect of enough money to start over is enough incentive for him to dig out the head. But his troubles have just begun.
Comments: By all accounts, Sam Peckinpah was already over the hill in 1974. I think his only worthwhile film after this one was "Cross of iron", although he still managed to direct a few subpar action films like "The killer elite" or "The Osterman Weekend". Knowing this, I found surprising that this one turned out such a great film. It's easily much better than other Peckinpah films that were much better received, such as "The getaway".
If it has any flaw, apart from being a really weird flick, it is that after a great opening sequence the film slows down so we can know the main characters, Benny and his girlfriend, a bit better. And they're that kind of people you don't want to know. But then, you have to wonder if the rest of the film, which is quite wacky, would have worked as well without those foundations. It is not only that the character of Benny eventually grows on you (he's sort of the ultimate loser, and Warren Oates performance is pure genious), but also that those early scenes are filmed in a quite restrained (for Peckinpah, at least) fashion, and without them the whole film could have ended up as a pure caricature (my guess is that was Oliver Stone's main mistake in "U-Turn", but that's another story).
And when Benny digs out the head and the s**t really hits the fan, it's Peckinpah at his best. There are plenty of wonderfully staged shootouts, each more improbable than the previous one, and Benny emerges more dirty, bloodied and crazied after every bloodbath. As for the ending... it's a weird one, but by then the film has reached such heights of weirdness it somehow seems fitting.