{ "id": "ep3x5t8sf3", "slug": "la-escopeta-nacional", "title": "La Escopeta Nacional", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films", "label": "Black comedy and satire films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films.yr-1939-1997", "label": "Released 1939 to 1997", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films.yr-1939-1997" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000: Black comedy and satire films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films", "label": "Black comedy and satire films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films" } ] } ], "excerpt": "La escopeta nacional (The National Shotgun) is a 1978 Spanish satirical comedy by Luis García Berlanga and Rafael Azcona, first of the Leguineche trilogy, about a Catalan industrialist staging a hunt to sell intercoms to Franco-era elites; 2,063,043 admissions.", "snippet": "La escopeta nacional (The National Shotgun) is a 1978 Spanish satirical comedy by Luis García Berlanga and Rafael Azcona, first of the Leguineche trilogy, about a Catalan industrialist staging a hunt to sell intercoms to Franco-era elites; 2,063,043 admissions.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films.yr-1939-1997", "markdown": "# La Escopeta Nacional\n\n**La escopeta nacional** (The National Shotgun) is a 1978 Spanish satirical comedy film directed by Luis García Berlanga and written by Berlanga with the screenwriter Rafael Azcona. Set in the late Franco regime, it follows a Catalan industrialist who stages a lavish pheasant hunt at an aristocrat's estate to court the ministers and grandees who can help him sell his intercom doorbells. It was the first film Berlanga made without government censorship restrictions, and it opened the trilogy about the aristocratic Leguineche family that continued with *Patrimonio nacional* (1981) and *Nacional III* (1982).[1](https://ivc.gva.es/es/audiovisuales/pelicula-181/la-escopeta-nacional) • [2](https://elpais.com/babelia/2026-06-19/la-escopeta-nacional-berlanga-azcona-y-la-fabula-del-cazador-cazado.html)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director and writers | Luis García Berlanga; screenplay and story by Berlanga and Rafael Azcona[1](https://ivc.gva.es/es/audiovisuales/pelicula-181/la-escopeta-nacional) |\n| Premiere | Madrid, 14 September 1978, at the Real Cinema and Proyecciones theaters[3](https://cervantesvirtual.com/portales/rafael_azcona/escopeta_ficha_tecnica/) |\n| Setting | Winter of 1972, at the hunting estate Los Tejadillos, property of the Marqués de Leguineche[4](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-44709/) |\n| Principal cast | José Sazatornil (Jaume Canivell), Luis Escobar (the Marqués), Antonio Ferrandis (Álvaro, the minister), José Luis López Vázquez, Mónica Randall, Amparo Soler Leal, Agustín González, Rafael Alonso[3](https://cervantesvirtual.com/portales/rafael_azcona/escopeta_ficha_tecnica/) |\n| Box office | 2,063,043 spectators and 1,629,961.10 euros in receipts, per the Spanish film archive ICAA[5](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/es-es/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=405851) |\n| Recognition | Medal of the Círculo de Escritores Cinematográficos for Best Film[4](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-44709/) |\n| Sequels | *Patrimonio nacional* (1981) and *Nacional III* (1982)[1](https://ivc.gva.es/es/audiovisuales/pelicula-181/la-escopeta-nacional) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nJaume Canivell, a Catalan manufacturer of electronic intercom doorbells (porteros automáticos), travels to Madrid with his mistress Mercè in the winter of 1972. Ignoring his late father's advice that the best way to sell was through traveling salesmen, he pays for a hunt at the estate of the Marqués de Leguineche, an impoverished aristocrat. The secret arrangement is that Canivell covers the costs of the event and the marqués, in exchange, gives him access to his high-society guests so that the industrialist can promote his business and land sales of his devices.[4](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-44709/) • [6](https://elpais.com/diario/1978/09/19/cultura/275004016_850215.html)\n\nThe guest list gathers the powerful of the late dictatorship: ministers, opposition figures, bankers, real-estate developers, an integrist priest, and hangers-on. Canivell's main target is Álvaro, the minister of industry, but a cabinet reshuffle during the hunt removes his contact from office, and the businessman must redirect his attentions to the incoming government team, identified with [Opus Dei](https://www.edgepedia.org/opus-dei).[2](https://elpais.com/babelia/2026-06-19/la-escopeta-nacional-berlanga-azcona-y-la-fabula-del-cazador-cazado.html) • [4](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-44709/) A critic writing in *El País* in 2026 listed the offenses recognizable in Canivell's conduct: bribery, influence peddling, prevarication, fraud, swindle, and manipulation of prices.[2](https://elpais.com/babelia/2026-06-19/la-escopeta-nacional-berlanga-azcona-y-la-fabula-del-cazador-cazado.html)\n\nThe hunt itself becomes the film's central metaphor. As the Berlanga Film Museum puts it, the cacería is the perfect image of clientelism in Spanish society, an operating method forged under Francoism by shooting partridges.[7](https://berlangafilmmuseum.com/el-desengano-nacional/) The film closes on the on-screen caption \"Y ni fueron felices, ni comieron perdices...\" (And they were neither happy, nor ate partridges...), because, the caption continues, where ministers are present a happy ending is impossible.[8](https://www.lavanguardia.com/cultura/cine/20210618/7533832/la-escopeta-nacional-dispara-de-nuevo-berlanga-centenario-cines.html)\n\n## Production background\n\nThe film marked Berlanga's return to Spanish cinema after years of obstruction. The political uproar caused by *El verdugo* (1963) under the Franco administration forced him to shoot *La boutique* (1967) in Argentina and *Tamaño natural* (1974) in Paris; *La escopeta nacional* was his first Spanish feature in nine years and his first made free of government restrictions.[9](https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/criticas-de-la-escopeta-nacional/html/ff42986a-82b1-11df-acc7-002185ce6064_2.html) • [2](https://elpais.com/babelia/2026-06-19/la-escopeta-nacional-berlanga-azcona-y-la-fabula-del-cazador-cazado.html) The critic Carlos Losilla, author of an entry on the film in a dictionary of Spanish cinema 1950–1990, notes that it was also his first box-office success in a long time, and that Berlanga deliberately set the story back to the early 1970s to close the account with the late Franco years that censorship had not let him finish at the time.[10](https://cvc.cervantes.es/el_rinconete/anteriores/septiembre_24/26092024_01.htm)\n\n**Origin of the story.** According to the Filmoteca de Andalucía, the film grew from an anecdote at one of the hunts organized by the dictator [Francisco Franco](https://www.edgepedia.org/francisco-franco), at which the minister Manuel Fraga accidentally shot [Carmen Franco](https://www.edgepedia.org/carmen-franco-1st-duchess-of-franco), the dictator's daughter, in the backside. Little of the incident survives in the film, but it served Berlanga as the seed for one of his most acid works.[11](https://www.filmotecadeandalucia.es/documents/282361/45816046/2019-09-25%2B-%2B%2820%2730%29%2B-%2B2019-09-26%2B-%2B%2818%2700%29%2B-%2BLa%2Bescopeta%2Bnacional.pdf/be41a00d-c384-4efd-bf64-9116e697ccda) Berlanga himself downplayed the political reading, remarking that he had taken the story of the Francoist hunt \"because it is very funny, not because it is an image of the past regime,\" and that he would have written the same film under Franco had the idea occurred to him then.[12](https://www.rtve.es/play/noticias/20261001/escopeta-nacional-genialidad-berlanga-azcona/17240051.shtml) • [13](https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/8177404.pdf)\n\nThe production was In-Cine, with Alfredo Matas as producer, photography by Carlos Suárez, editing by José Luis Matesanz, and art direction by Rafael Palmero.[1](https://ivc.gva.es/es/audiovisuales/pelicula-181/la-escopeta-nacional) The poster was designed by the graphic designer Cruz Novillo, who also created the posters for *Ana y los lobos*, *La prima Angélica*, and *El espíritu de la colmena*.[12](https://www.rtve.es/play/noticias/20261001/escopeta-nacional-genialidad-berlanga-azcona/17240051.shtml)\n\n## Style and reception\n\nBerlanga told the story in enormous long takes (planos-secuencia). Fernando Trueba, reviewing the premiere in *El País* in September 1978, called Berlanga the most solid narrator in the whole history of Spanish cinema, Buñuel included, and described the film as a merciless satire in which the director seemed to have forbidden himself all sentiment, though the tenderness of the maker of *[Plácido](https://www.edgepedia.org/placido)* still showed through.[6](https://elpais.com/diario/1978/09/19/cultura/275004016_850215.html) Trueba also observed that the film's characters are the powerful, the ministers, and the \"miserable by vocation,\" for whom Berlanga feels \"the most cordial of hatreds.\"[1](https://ivc.gva.es/es/audiovisuales/pelicula-181/la-escopeta-nacional)\n\nThe critic Esteve Riambau, writing in *Dirigido por* in 1978, read the film as a double return: to Berlanga's engagement with concrete Spanish reality and to the ensemble, choral formula of several characters sharing the frame, after the misanthropic solipsism of *Tamaño natural*.[9](https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/criticas-de-la-escopeta-nacional/html/ff42986a-82b1-11df-acc7-002185ce6064_2.html) The film connected strongly with audiences of the Transition, who enjoyed seeing on the big screen the jokes about Franco they had long told in a low voice.[14](https://criticalia.com/pelicula/la-escopeta-nacional) Its commercial performance, 2,063,043 admissions according to the ICAA catalog, made the sequel viable.[5](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/es-es/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=405851)\n\n## The Leguineche trilogy\n\nThe success of *La escopeta nacional* led Berlanga and Azcona to continue the saga of the ruined aristocratic family. *Patrimonio nacional* (1981) and *Nacional III* (1982) followed, reflecting successive moments of the Spanish Transition, from the Opus Dei technocracy to the 1982 football World Cup and the attempted coup of 23 February 1981. The trilogy was never planned as such: a fourth film was even attempted, for which two screenplays were written, and the whole project ran roughly parallel to Spain's social and political reality between 1978 and 1991.[1](https://ivc.gva.es/es/audiovisuales/pelicula-181/la-escopeta-nacional) • [15](https://canal.ugr.es/tribe-events/cineclub-universitario-ciclo-luis-garcia-berlanga-2a-parte-la-escopeta-nacional/) Luis Escobar's Marqués de Leguineche, a role that returned the veteran actor to cinema and gave him great popularity, is the connecting figure.[16](https://www.comunidad.madrid/archivos/images/ACTIVIDADES/PUBLICACIONES/MEMORIAS_ARCHIVOS_CM/MEMORIA_ANUAL_ARCHIVOS_CM_2019.pdf)\n\n## Stage adaptation (2026)\n\nIn June 2026 the [Teatro Español](https://www.edgepedia.org/teatro-espanol) in Madrid premiered a stage version adapted by Bernardo Sánchez Salas and directed by Juan Echanove, with a cast of 19 actors and Pere Ponce as Canivell. The adaptation is not a copy of the film: the action is divided into seven scenes, six indoors, and the comic axis is the single outdoor scene, in which Canivell moves from one shooting post to another for about twenty minutes while the seven marksmen keep their backs to the audience.[2](https://elpais.com/babelia/2026-06-19/la-escopeta-nacional-berlanga-azcona-y-la-fabula-del-cazador-cazado.html) Echanove framed the production as a mirror of the present, saying that what he was staging was not a memory of an era but a fairly faithful reproduction of the state of things in Spain in 2026, and that the 1978 film speaks of the scandals newspapers, radio, and television report every day.[17](https://cadenaser.com/nacional/2026/07/01/juan-echanove-la-escopeta-nacional-de-1978-habla-de-los-escandalos-que-a-diario-nos-cuentan-los-periodicos-la-radio-y-la-television-cadena-ser/)\n\n## Legacy\n\nIn 2025 *El País* ranked *La escopeta nacional* second in a list of the 50 best Spanish films of the last half century, describing it as a revenge of Berlanga on the social class that held power in the late Franco years, and noting that its dialogue has entered Spanish film history, including Canivell's line \"yo soy apolítico, de derechas de toda la vida\" (I am apolitical, a right-winger all my life).[18](https://elpais.com/babelia/2025-05-10/las-50-mejores-peliculas-espanolas-del-ultimo-medio-siglo.html) The film was re-released in Spanish cinemas in June 2021 for the centenary of Berlanga's birth, and a restored digital copy has been screened by Filmoteca Española.[8](https://www.lavanguardia.com/cultura/cine/20210618/7533832/la-escopeta-nacional-dispara-de-nuevo-berlanga-centenario-cines.html) • [19](https://www.cultura.gob.es/eu/dam/jcr%3A94b37cfe-5913-4079-ab4a-1b24bb487099/programaci-n-de-agosto-2021---filmoteca-espa-ola.pdf) It remains available on Spanish streaming platforms including RTVE Play, Amazon Prime Video, and Acontra Plus.[20](https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/cine-de-siempre/escopeta-nacional/17245414/)\n\n## References\n\n1. [La escopeta nacional, Institut Valencià de Cultura, Filmoteca](https://ivc.gva.es/es/audiovisuales/pelicula-181/la-escopeta-nacional)\n2. [Javier Vallejo, \"'La escopeta nacional': Berlanga, Azcona y la fábula del cazador cazado\", El País, Babelia, 19 June 2026](https://elpais.com/babelia/2026-06-19/la-escopeta-nacional-berlanga-azcona-y-la-fabula-del-cazador-cazado.html)\n3. [La escopeta nacional (1978). Ficha técnica, portal Rafael Azcona, Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes](https://cervantesvirtual.com/portales/rafael_azcona/escopeta_ficha_tecnica/)\n4. [La escopeta nacional (1978), SensaCine](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-44709/)\n5. [ESCOPETA NACIONAL, LA, Catálogo de Películas ICAA, Ministerio de Cultura](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/es-es/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=405851)\n6. [Fernando Trueba, \"Una sátira despiadada\", El País, 19 September 1978](https://elpais.com/diario/1978/09/19/cultura/275004016_850215.html)\n7. [El desengaño nacional, Berlanga Film Museum, 21 July 2021](https://berlangafilmmuseum.com/el-desengano-nacional/)\n8. [\"'La escopeta nacional' de Berlanga dispara de nuevo\", La Vanguardia, 18 June 2021](https://www.lavanguardia.com/cultura/cine/20210618/7533832/la-escopeta-nacional-dispara-de-nuevo-berlanga-centenario-cines.html)\n9. [Esteve Riambau, \"Críticas de 'La escopeta nacional'\", Dirigido por, núm. 57 (1978), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes](https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/criticas-de-la-escopeta-nacional/html/ff42986a-82b1-11df-acc7-002185ce6064_2.html)\n10. [Carlos Losilla, \"Diccionario del cine español, 1950-1990 (25). 'La escopeta nacional' (1978)\", Rinconete, Instituto Cervantes, 26 September 2024](https://cvc.cervantes.es/el_rinconete/anteriores/septiembre_24/26092024_01.htm)\n11. [Hoja de sala, La escopeta nacional, Filmoteca de Andalucía, September 2019](https://www.filmotecadeandalucia.es/documents/282361/45816046/2019-09-25%2B-%2B%2820%2730%29%2B-%2B2019-09-26%2B-%2B%2818%2700%29%2B-%2BLa%2Bescopeta%2Bnacional.pdf/be41a00d-c384-4efd-bf64-9116e697ccda)\n12. [\"'La escopeta nacional': origen y curiosidades de esta genialidad que hicieron Luis García Berlanga y Rafael Azcona\", RTVE, 1 October 2026](https://www.rtve.es/play/noticias/20261001/escopeta-nacional-genialidad-berlanga-azcona/17240051.shtml)\n13. [Encuentro con Luis García Berlanga en 1993, Dialnet](https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/8177404.pdf)\n14. [La escopeta nacional, Criticalia](https://criticalia.com/pelicula/la-escopeta-nacional)\n15. [Cineclub universitario, Ciclo Luis García Berlanga (2ª parte): \"La escopeta nacional\", Canal UGR, Universidad de Granada](https://canal.ugr.es/tribe-events/cineclub-universitario-ciclo-luis-garcia-berlanga-2a-parte-la-escopeta-nacional/)\n16. [Memoria anual 2019, Comunidad de Madrid](https://www.comunidad.madrid/archivos/images/ACTIVIDADES/PUBLICACIONES/MEMORIAS_ARCHIVOS_CM/MEMORIA_ANUAL_ARCHIVOS_CM_2019.pdf)\n17. [Juan Echanove: \"'La escopeta nacional' habla de los escándalos que a diario nos cuentan los periódicos, la radio y la televisión\", Cadena SER, 1 July 2026](https://cadenaser.com/nacional/2026/07/01/juan-echanove-la-escopeta-nacional-de-1978-habla-de-los-escandalos-que-a-diario-nos-cuentan-los-periodicos-la-radio-y-la-television-cadena-ser/)\n18. [\"Las 50 mejores películas españolas del último medio siglo\", El País, Babelia, 10 May 2025](https://elpais.com/babelia/2025-05-10/las-50-mejores-peliculas-espanolas-del-ultimo-medio-siglo.html)\n19. [Programación de agosto 2021, Filmoteca Española, Ministerio de Cultura](https://www.cultura.gob.es/eu/dam/jcr%3A94b37cfe-5913-4079-ab4a-1b24bb487099/programaci-n-de-agosto-2021---filmoteca-espa-ola.pdf)\n20. [La escopeta nacional, Cine de siempre, RTVE Play](https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/cine-de-siempre/escopeta-nacional/17245414/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Black comedy and satire films › Released 1939 to 1997*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/la-escopeta-nacional", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/la-escopeta-nacional.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"La Escopeta Nacional\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/la-escopeta-nacional. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[La Escopeta Nacional](https://www.edgepedia.org/la-escopeta-nacional)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/la-escopeta-nacional](https://www.edgepedia.org/la-escopeta-nacional). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"La Escopeta Nacional\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/la-escopeta-nacional. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "La escopeta nacional is a 1978 Spanish satirical comedy by Luis García Berlanga and Rafael Azcona, first of the Leguineche trilogy, about a Catalan industrialist staging a hunt to sell intercoms to Franco-era elites; 2,063,043 admissions." }