Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Tadhana?: Reflection on Heneral Luna







I tried to remember the last time I both enjoyed a movie yet feel terrible after. Let me explain below.

I'm not a film critic. The last review I made for a film was during my dearly-departed undergraduate years. I do enjoy the technical aspects of a film: the aesthetics (cinematography/photography), the pace, the score... but without thinking much about it. I'm more inclined to view the whole as a package, because... Here's a confession: I watch movies for recreation. I rather not overthink things. But more often than not, I believe movies ought to do more: they should make the audience think. There's something more to moving pictures.

I'm glad that I got to watch Jerrold Tarog's Heneral Luna. Social media was filled with praise for the film. In case the reader is averse to local films, this is a welcome disappointment to the usual gibberish that is mainstream Philippine cinema. Against the backdrop of the usual romance-drama-comedy and blockbusters, there is actual artistic and creative talent in this film. I am happily surprised that it is enjoying an extended run, being a historical piece.

Pasensya pala, nag-i-Ingles ako sa sarili kong bayan.


The movie enjoys the service of an ensemble cast (led by the brilliant John Arcilla), a simply elegant cinematography, and a competent script. It is fairly simple: the movie recounts the tale of General Antonio Luna as he faced the American colonizers. The movie played its disclaimer well: it has weaved facts with the imagination. It stretched what could have been a straight-forward narrative into something more by letting us into the different agendas of the members of the ruling class: President Aguinaldo, Gen. Mascardo, the wealthy Buencamino and Paterno. I went into the film, knowing that there will be some sort of propaganda. It's a good propaganda, and spoiler alert(!): the government officials had hidden agendas.

The movie is far from perfect, but it stands distant from what the local film industry churns out these days. Stating the obvious but I would rather have historical pieces that provoke critical thought than films about unguided juvenile romance and ethics on being unfaithful. What is mainstream can hardly be considered worthwhile. I do not dismiss the need for entertainment, since I watch movies for exactly the same reason. But the shallow and repetitive offerings in our cinemas betray our ready willingness to be vapid. We have a long way to go to change the public's taste in films. But this movie is a step in the right direction. It's not perfect, but it is something fresh for a mainstream film. You can have a film that sells, without a glaring romantic plot, without product placement, and without the usual blockbuster actors.

Now for the terrible feeling that the movie gives. I enjoyed the script. It is written so anyone can understand and it is not unintelligent. It does, however, contain profanity. But what happens in the film is much more disturbing than the language. I am not fond of profanities, but the script works because I suspect that as a people, we need to be shamed and slapped to get a particular point. We are more ready to respond to "in-your-face" gestures. Profanity serves that purpose, unfortunately. Without a sharp word, we won't take a message seriously.



There are memorable quotes. Filipinos love quotes, as social media was littered with memes lifted from the film. You can take some of the memorable ones, especially during the cabinet meeting, and you have the movie in a nutshell. It's dialogue is sharp, and gives the sense that we are allowed to overhear it because it is directed to us, the audience.

Laughing at the comedic scenes is partly humiliating. It pokes at Filipino idiosyncrasies; it feels like laughing at one's self. Uunahin ang pamilya bago ang tamang prinsipyo. And social media is having its share of the fun, consequently helping the movie's cause. But I hope, like the movie's makers, that it would spark a much more critical discussion than merely disseminating memes.

To close, this leads me to the strange fanfare the movie is receiving. It is worth the hype and the praise. At a deeper level, however, it is meant to disturb the conscience. I'm led to ask why does it resonate with us? For an obvious answer, it is because the government is the villain. It is portrayed as dishonest, scheming, untrustworthy, similar to the public opinion of our government today. However mainstream news outlets spin the public's view of the government, I do think it is at its lowest. But this for me is but a superficial layer that the film wants to show. It is but an instance of a more sinister problem:
Mga kapatid, may mas malaki tayong kaaway kaysa mga Amerikano: ang ating sarili.
I understand that our particular society's ills has become systematic. As the film showed, regionalism and tribalism aggravate rather than alleviate. But before looking outside, will we figure out that the root problem is more personal than we think? O ganito ba talaga ang tadhana ng natin? Sisihin ang iba? Makakalimot? Nakakapagod.

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