Next up was a sleazy 70s day with the triple bill of Chato's Land, Coffy, and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia.
Chato's Land is the first film where Charles Bronson and director Michael Winner worked together - later they would do Death Wish. Bronson was middle-aged before he got famous, and in this movie he was 51 but still extremely buff. It has a simple revenge plot: half-breed Chato kills in self-defense, runs from the posse, and when this posse kills his friend and rapes his woman Chato kills every motherfucker in the desert. One rapist gets his balls burned and does not survive the experience. Jack Palance plays the morally ambiguous leader of the posse.
Coffy is a blaxploitation classic. Voluptuous knockout Pam Grier is a nurse whose young sister is ruined by drugs, so it's revenge time again by any means necessary. This is the film which teaches you to hide razorblades in your afro, just in case. All sympathetic characters get hurt (not that there are many) and all bad guys are colorful stereotypes and suitably rotten. This time the genital destruction is carried out with a shotgun.
Alfredo Garcia features a tremendous performance by Warren Oates as Bennie, who goes looking for the titular head. Everything is dirty and sweaty, and occasional moments of peace are guaranteed to not last. Bennie gets truly deranged towards the film's conclusion and bad people meet bad ends. Some good people also meet bad ends. Sam Peckinpah delivers again. I don't remember any nuts getting specifically smashed, although it might have happened in one hail of bullets or another.
Good times throughout!
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