In celebration of our country's independence, we will feature our very first review of a Filipino movie. We haven't done one since its rare to find that's worthy of our time. We wish not to downplay the industry but we wish it to elevate its standards so that we can export our creative products around the world. As of now, we can be proud to showcase Heneral Luna.
To know our history we have been under Spanish rule for 333 years and through the revolution, we almost won but was pre-empted by Spain, they sold our country to the Americans instead of accepting defeat. With the Americans coming in, then first president Emilio Aguinaldo (played by Mon Confiado), heads a cabinet meeting. They are thinking how they will handle the influx of the Americans, and some of the Ilustrados headed by Felipe Buencamino, suggests for an American alliance. while General Antonio Luna (played by John Arcilla) wanted not waste time but instead prepare for war against the Americans. Filipino troops were barred from entering Intramuros during the mock battle of Manila (as per the Treaty of Paris) so that Filipinos would see the Americans liberating us from Spain. General Antonio sees its as another imperialistic ruler in America simply replacing Spain governing over the Philippines.
Their fear of the Americans were founded when Filipino troops were fired upon in Sta. Mesa and that started the Filipino American War. Americans then proceeded to conquer not only Intramuros and Sta Mesa, they also included San Juan, Paco and Pandacan in a timely manner.
General Luna then in command of the Filipino forces engages the Americans in different parts of Luzon, while also battling insubordinate generals under his reign. It seemed that generals particular of that under the Kawit Brigade do not follow him but instead follow only direct orders from President Aguinaldo. This angers General Luna and relentlessly fights them trying to instill discipline in them. All these are for naught as President Aguinaldo coddles the generals and cabinet members that General Luna comes in tangled with.
Seeing that he no longer could fight the enemy with one hand tied behind his back, he informs President Aguinaldo of his desire to resign as head of the Philippine forces for which the latter denied. He was persuaded to return to his post and to continue to fight against the Americans.
Due to his arrogance and strictness, it is not surprising that General Luna had a growing number of enemies, so in an efforts to silence him, a telegram supposedly sent from President Aguinaldo reached him, inviting him for a cabinet re organization in Cabanatuan. When he arrived there, Aguinaldo was not around and this irked General Luna. He never knew that this was just a ruse to lure him out and assassinate him. He was killed there along with one of his trusted aide by the Kawit brigade headed by Captain Janolino (whom earlier Luna had arrested and demoted but was reinstated by Aguinaldo).
General Luna and his trusted aide were later buried with honors by Aguinaldo. Ironically, the men who buried him were the same ones who killed him. Later investigation on the incident exonerate the Kawit brigade and his killers were never found.
President Aguinaldo denies his involvement in the assassination calling the general ,his most brilliant and most capable one. General McArthur and Otis of the American forces branded him as a worthy adversary and that the Filipinos killed the only general they had.
The movie was based on historical records but filled in with fiction to make it more cinematic. It may have imaginary scenes in it but it was done tastefully. A well written script with colorful dialogues and the use of proper Filipino language made for a great watch for us to see. We sometimes see other films use deep Filipino words that do not relate well with the person saying it or it simply does not make sense in using them. Here it was not over the top and it was just appropriate, for the scene and for the actor speaking them.
We also applaud the production team who supervised the selection of the actors to be included in Heneral Luna. They hired actors based on merit and that they were suited for the characters they are going to play with. Good thing this wasn't produced by a television company as they tend to hire only actors under their wing and not on the basis of merit (we saw one period piece but we stopped watching after 5 minutes). For what they did with Heneral Luna, we liked the casting and we liked all the characters so much you have to watch it so that you will know what we are extolling about.
John Arcilla was in our opinion the best choice to play the general. His stature, his performance was top notch to say the least here in the movie. We may have not known much about the general, personality wise in our history classes, but we can relate well with his rendition of the character. We simply know that the Luna brothers had a penchant for being hot headed individuals so outbursts of the general is not far from our imagination. This emotional explosions by John Arcilla was spot on.
As the movie has been adapted a number of times from the original script done for a television series that didn't materialize. We laud the efforts done, it was adapted from a television series to a full feature film, translated from English to formal Tagalog, and finally the words were tweaked further and modernized a bit for the modern audience. We appreciate that all these efforts were done beautifully.
The scenes in the film also was a mirror of the modern times so it endears to the viewes as well. It tackles how politics manipulate our country's direction and of how greed lords over sovereignty affects policy making in the higher echelons of government. These things are happening right now making this film relatable. Giving a viewer some lessons from our history hoping to raise awareness in our present times. This may or not be the intention of its creators but somehow this is the message we can see after watching the film.
We like Heneral Luna as a film who can instill love and pride for our Inang Bayan (motherland) and that no one is above the law and follows the law in a strict manner. He abhors doing favors and he dislikes people who put selfish interests over one's country.
We do hope that more Filipinos see this film and we are pushing everyone to watch this especially during the time we celebrate our day of independence. Currently showing in Netflix and YouTube.
