El Bar is a Spanish foreign language film about a group of
people stuck in a downtown Madrid bar during a terrorist attack.
The film is both a comedy and
thriller. El Bar follows the bar regulars as time passes and as each of
them grow more paranoid by the minute.
El Bar touches on a variety of real world themes relating to
media coverage during terrorist attacks and the trust we give others.
Synopsis
El Bar follows the aftermath of a terrorist attack in downtown Madrid. Outside of a rundown bar, a businessman is shot by a sniper. The downtown district is set into chaos.
Inside the bar, everyone runs for cover despite being in shock of just seeing someone killed just in front of them. None of them can make any sense of what happened and being to panic.
They turn on the news and discover that the entire downtown district has been evacuated and that heavily armed police have surrounded the area.
Soon enough the hysteria inside the bar turns to mass
paranoia. Everyone begins to turn on each other. Each making up various explanations
for what happened. They all begin to point fingers at each other as being the
potential killer.
The remainder of the film follows the group of characters in
the bar as they try to figure out who the assassin is before the police promise
to blow the bar to smithereens.
Important Themes
As funny and entertaining as El Bar is, the film still touches on some real world themes. Mainly the film unsurprisingly touches on the role media play when covering breaking stories and terrorist-like events.
Unfortunately, at this point in time mass shootings happen all too often. Every week there seems to be another terrible
school shooting or another horrible event.
The media plays an important role in
spreading information as event happen. As well as being responsible for forming
the running narrative or opinion about the event days after.
All to often you hear about an event take place, whether it’s
a car accident, civil dispute or arrest and the media are far to quick to label
it as a terrorist attack.
In contrast, when a terrorist attack does happen the media
label the terrorist as a shooter, lone wolf or mentally-unfit person when the
terrorist doesn’t fit their ideal mold of a terrorist.
Recent examples like the 2018 Toronto Van Tragedy, the 2017 Las Vegas Concert Attack and the 2017 Quebec Mosque shooting illustrate this point vividly. As the media has refused to link said attacks to terrorism as the assailants are white males.
Recent examples like the 2018 Toronto Van Tragedy, the 2017 Las Vegas Concert Attack and the 2017 Quebec Mosque shooting illustrate this point vividly. As the media has refused to link said attacks to terrorism as the assailants are white males.
There are also examples where the media is guilty for giving
out too much information. An example of such an event in the Boston Marathon Bombings in 2013.
The media became extremely
transfixed on the event and divulged important information about police
positions, movements and strategies. All while one of the bombers was in a
hideout with a TV on getting extremely valuable intel.
El Bar plays on this aspect of media during terrorist attacks
and comically depicts the mass hysteria, paranoia and falsehoods that it
creates inside the bar.
Conclusion
All in all El Bar is an extremely funny, entertaining and thrilling film.
Before watching the film, I didn’t have any real expectations. But I quickly found myself being roped into the story, which kept on growing as the film went on.
The film is very entertaining. You get to know each of
the characters inside the bar fairly well.
El Bar is a film that will surprise you with its wit and humour.
El Bar is a film that will surprise you with its wit and humour.
El Bar is a film that will keep your interest for the entire 102-minute
runtime. Be sure to add this one to your watch list.
