Guys who rule Vol. 1 : Warren Oates

Warren Oates rules.

Has there ever been a better character actor than Warren Oates? You never once think to yourself that you are watching an actor. You just believe him.

He had done a few films, but got his first real break when Sam Peckinpah cast him in Ride the High Country, one of the best westerns ever, and probably my personal favorite. Oates and Peckinpah struck up a lifelong friendship. When you're the drinkin' buddy of a legendary alcoholic like Sam Peckinpah you really must be a talented boozer.

Oates had a gritty realism about him that was perfectly suited for the shift that was happening in the western genre. Westerns mirrored the social climate of the sixties, and shifted away from unconditional moral positions. Oates personified moral ambiguities. Mostly by being covered in filth.
Check out the guy's resume.

Ride the High Country

In the Heat of the Night

The Wild Bunch (in which he personally takes out a good 75 guys)



Barquero (with another guy who rules, Lee Van Cleef)

Two-Lane Blacktop

Badlands

Cockfighter

And of course, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia

Although he was a supporting actor in most of his films, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia was his film. He reteamed with Sam Peckinpah a final time, and created his best role. A western in every respect outside of time period; this is one booze-soaked journey into hell. Oates plays the ex-pat bartender Bennie. Bennie takes what amounts to a sub-contracting job from gangsters looking to retrieve the head of a man. Bennie's prostitute girlfriend, Elita, goes with him. There is a deep tenderness and understanding between them. When she is killed, Bennie has nothing left to lose except his mind.

There are reports of a missing scene in which Bennie makes love to Elita after she has been murdered. He then buries her remains with Alfredo Garcia in his desecrated grave. This seems pretty reasonable considering the difference in his character's demeanor between holding her body and leaving the graveyard. He seems more disturbed than if he had just buried her.

He now only has one focus : revenge. The film captures the frightening core of the male psyche when every other driving force (love, tenderness) has been stripped away. The only thing left to do is die like a man should die; in a hail of bullets.