The Bar

Starring: Marcelo Games, Marc Pittman, Leslie Orr

Director: Jim Van Bebber

Writer(s): Jim Van Bebber

Studio: Mercury/Blue Underground

Rating: Unrated

Official Bar Score: 

God bless the indie filmmakers of the world, because they are afraid of nothing apparently. This grisly little gem tell the story of the formation and activites of the notorious Manson family. It introduces each key member of the family and shows what their day to day activites were (drugs and sex, god bless the sixties too.) It also shows Charles Manson’s free fall into madness and how he took the impressionable young people he had with him, leading to some of the most grisly murders in history.

The filmmakers made a very stylish film. To tell the story, they use sort of a documentary type of format, were the actors are being interviewed as their characters as younger versions of themselves and also as the older, wiser versions. Between interviews they reenact the events leading up to the murders and the murders themselves. There is also a back story involving a journalist who filmed said interviews for his tv show who is in danger of being taken out by modern day followers of ol’ Charlie. It was pretty effective, something different. The film hooked me from the beginning credits where they use the old school, explotation type of intro, and even use the same kind of lettering. The film is very grainy and looks like it came from the period it covers. Very well made film. My only complaint is that some of the acting is, to say the least, awful.

What really surprised me is how unbelievably graphic the film is. This is NOT something for the faint of heart. The murders are played out exactly as they occured and the camera does not flinch. It is very gory, disturbing stuff, so if you can’t handle it, stay away. It is a very realistic film, so be prepared. I believe the only film in our library of reviews that is on par with the violence in this film is The Untold Story.

I usually don’t touch on this, but the soundtrack to the film is quite effective. They use actual music recorded by Manson, as well as modern day metal from the likes of Superjoint Ritual. The music is used well depending on the mood of the scene. It’s pretty crazy seeing a pregnant Sharon Tate being put in a noose and having her throat slit to some death metal. It definately leaves an impression.

Speaking of Sharon Tate, and the rest of the people who were murdered, they are not mentioned by name in the film nor in the credits. I do have a bit of a gripe with this. How can you not give the victims the respect of letting the world know that these were real people being slaughtered? It seems like the right thing to do, because the film borders on glorifying what happened, which doesn’t really matter to me (first amendment represent) but the filmmakers could have shown a little bit of class and sent some respect. Of course, I could be way off base here. There may be legal things holding this back, but I haven’t been able to find any info about this. (I will hop off the soapbox now…)

This is a quality film and I wholeheartedly recommend it to any one who can stomach it. Just keep the kids away.