Movie: Heneral Luna

To say that Heneral Luna is probably one of the most important contemporary movies in Filipino (pop?) culture is probably still an understatement. This movie was great considering all standards to measure movies against, and I enjoyed it immensely. I think the mark of a great movie lies not only in how it made you feel while you were watching it, but how much it stays with you once you're done, and boy, did Heneral Luna stay.

General Review
In general, what I loved the most about the movie was how the story was treated, and how the filmmakers treated the audience. It was well paced, with an easy-to-follow narrative, but it never tried to dumb anything down for the audiences. It injected realistic amounts of humor, action, swearing, and heartbreaking sadness that war, and particularly this narrative, would bring - all without seeming indecisive in its tone. The cinematography was also great - shots and lighting used were very deliberate and enhanced the viewers' experience of the story without distracting from the overall tone.

Finally, I loved the overall tone of the movie - unapologetic in honesty, while still showing vulnerability. It portrayed Luna as irreverent, but showed a great deal of respect for his passion to defend the country and its people.



(Spoiler-y...ish?)
I ask myself when I write my opinions, what worked? It was easy for this movie: everything. Everything worked. Everything worked together to create a great movie.

Seriously though, I loved how it made the people so real. Something I feel very strongly about in the local movie scene - and really, this applies to TV shows as well - is that it takes so much away when you can tell and actor is acting, when they're just throwing out lines without meaning it. This was not true for Heneral Luna - its power relied heavily on how much the actors were able to internalize their roles, and that they did. The motivation for each character was accessible and obvious without being explicit, which is the thing you really need in order to make any form of storytelling work.

As important as the actors though, if not more so, was the story itself. By hiring actors who are not considered artistas and by not depending on star power like most contemporary Filipino films do, the film was able to breathe and naturally come into its own without being stuttered by product placements (which ultimately jar the viewers from the universe onscreen), attempts to pander to a famous actor or love team, and the like. In the same way, it also didn't treat Luna as some can-do-no-wrong hero who was faultless - it was very easy to see how he might have rubbed many people the wrong way with his seeming crassness, bubbling-on-the-surface temper, and passion and dedication for his position that could be very easily mistaken for arrogance. Still, and this is what is important, the viewer knows Luna was in the right, that he only wanted what was best, and made pragmatic plans and carried them out the best and most efficient way he saw fit.

He also had a great supporting cast - in particular the annoyingly effective and effectively annoying performance of Mon Confiado as Aguinaldo, a surprisingly sympathetic performance of Mabini by Epi Quizon, Archie Alemania's great comedic timing that made his character Rusca all the more endearing, and Lorenz Martinez as the (unnecessarily) proud Mascardo. These people not only acted well, they also looked like real people. They weren't whitewashed or made to look more attractive for the sake of it - this is a film about war, it's not supposed to be shiny or pretty.

And, yet, with all its realness, Heneral Luna still remains to be one of the most visually poetic films I've seen. Every shot had meaning, seemed to be chosen to showcase a specific emotion or character or item important to the story. The film is also rife with symbolism - from the flag that slowly deteriorated throughout the movie, to the scene where there's a very poignant reference to Juan Luna's Spoliarium (and The Parisian Life, but that's more direct), to strategically placed soaring eagles, Luna's poem juxtaposed with the situation of the country at the time. There are so many way to analyze this film, it's actually making me dizzy.

But that's what makes this film so important. It makes us ask ourselves the hard questions. This takes place in history, but does the conflict have any bearing on our current society, especially the sentiment of Filipinos' greatest enemy being themselves? What does it mean to be a Filipino in this day and age, and why is that so? What does it say about how we teach our children history that many Filipinos only learned how historical events and figures were interconnected by watching this movie - that many Filipinos seemed to have no idea this ever took place? Why does it matter? (Does it?)

Heneral Luna is a great movie by itself, but what makes it stand out is how it's gotten people talking - and therein lies its success. This week, my Facebook feed was full of people encouraging others to watch the movie, to help it make bank because it deserves the attention - and when I watched the film last Friday, it was with a literally full house. And people laughed openly during humorous moments, cheered loudly to Luna telling off the America train station officer, and clapped when the film ended. This is a message to the film industry in as much as it is to society in general - there is a very open audience/market in the country for meaningful, well-constructed, thought-provoking films. If done well, if the reception of Heneral Luna is anything to go by, it will also literally and figuratively pay off.

To end, I leave you some of my favorite lines from the film which resonated very strongly with me:

"Kaya nating mabuwis ng buhay para sa pamilya, pero para sa isang prinsipyong makabayan..."

"Negosyo o kalayaan? Bayan o sarili? Pumili ka!"

"Ganito ba talaga ang buhay natin, Paco? Kalaban ang kalaban. Kalaban ang kakampi. Nakakapagod."