There's a Missing Voice in the Quezon (2025) film and It Shows
Ok, I've had more time to marinate in my thoughts now, so I do have some critiques of the Quezon 2025 film:
It does skew Pro-American Colonization sometimes, especially with the way they made it clear that Independence was a campaign tactic more than a genuine, urgent need that the people of the Philippines had at the time. That being said, this is not false, and it is historically documented that that is what happened-- the Philippine government was run primarily by rich landlords, the petite bourgeois, and not the Philippine people. However, all of this could have been prevented if real Philippine grass root movements had been included in the film. The Philippine socialist movement was alive and well in the 1920s-1960s, and should have been part of the movie. Furthermore, we very rarely got the perspective-- real, in depth perspective-- of an every day Filipino who was living through this colonialist regime and actively trying to make a better life for themselves. Every portrayal of the everyday Filipino in this film was always as the bumbling fool or the unwitting pawn or people who were either purely pro-Quezon or purely pro-Aguinaldo and never in between or actively despising both.
In the last two movies, we got this, somewhat. The soldiers fighting in the war were those voices. Particularly Isabel, Lt. Garcia, the Bernal brothers, atbp. But in this movie, they've tapered off, I think, and I do think the movie suffers from this. Both on a "moral" level (for lack of better term) and on a "narrative" level. On a "moral" level, is this really the kind of message they wanted to convey? I don't think so-- they weren't intentionally trying to be pro-American Colonialism, but intention wasn't enough to curb reality. On a "narrative" level, the examination of Quezon as an individual would have ended on a more hopeful and less cynical note if we had someone (who wasn't Joven Hernando) on the opposing end of his politics. Someone who endured hardships and still kept trying to help and uplift people despite the struggles politics threw their way.
The Hukbalahap and other underground Filipino movements, who opposed Japanese occupation during WW2 (and beyond) would have been a neat tie-in to the grass roots movements already stirring in the 1920s-30s, if Jerrold Tarrog had deigned to go there. But, alas, as much as he has matured as a film maker and storyteller, I don't think he's reached that level of nuance just yet.
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Ancestral homes are things of beauty, but also hold the memories of the past and the legacy of a family. Anywhere you go, whether it be the Philippines or the United States, ancestral homes can be safe refuges and places of celebration; and it can also be the only things that link us back to our past. However, there are times that these places, sadly, end up being unkempt and uncared for, and endâŚ
For our international Heneral Luna fans out there, hereâs a mostly literal translation of the main theme song âHanggang Wala Nang Bukas.â (Until Tomorrow Is Gone)
Verse 1
You are the home of my heart
The beginning and the end of my life
I will dream until we can
I will dream* until death
Refrain:
As much as possible I want to stay away from war
But if itâs necessary
Even at the cost of my own life...
Chorus:
To see you set free
And love in peace
Live in this world
Safe from fear and chaos
To see you set free
My one vow is to embrace you, love you
Until tomorrow is gone
Verse 2
To win or to die
To kiss the night without assurances
This is the life I chose: to love you truly with all I amÂ
Until the end, I am by your side
Until the end, your name is on my lips
*the first dream is âpangarapâ that is about aspirations, the second dream is âpanaginipâ that is about sleep
iâm back from finally seeing âHeneral Lunaâ
and i haVE SO. MUCH. TO SAY.
WHAT A GORGEOUS FILM. WHAT A FUCKING GORGEOUS FILM, aesthics-wise. the colors, the settings, the costumes, fuck me with a chaINSAW IT LOOKED. SO. GOOD. cinematography porn lemme tell ya, so many shots that wouldâve made epic desktop wallpapers tbh
fantASTIC PERFORMANCES ALL AROUND OHMYGOD, i think one of my faves is epi quizonâs performance as mabini, this understated, quiet performance which made his presence that much stronger. mylene dizon as isabel was also a stand-out, not just coz of her performance but also the character, generally fictional though she may be - she was a woman of the time, but not the sweet, pure, virginal maria clara of the upper class, and i think mylene dizon did isabelâs sharp tongue justice.
RUSCA IS A MAGANDANG ENSAYMADA ROLL, TOO MABAIT FOR THIS MUNDO, MASYADONG PURE
john arcilla was aMAZING i think the best thing about his performance is that you could FEEL the lunacy (ba-dum tss) behind the wheels turning in lunaâs head, but it was never overboard, there was no room in his performance for âcrazy-eyes, if weâRE GONNA DIE WE ALL DIE TOGETHERâ kind of insanity, and at the same time, you could FEEL that it was his nationalism that was driving his seeming nuttiness
i have never really cried about or at rizalâs execution, not even in marilou diaz-abayaâs ârizalâ movie, but oHMYGOD THE SCENE IN THIS MOVIE???? the way it was stylized and had both the filipino AND spanish readings of âmi ultimo adiosâ ovER IT???? OMG I SHED TEARS thank you for that, jerrold tarrog, that was a masterpiece
MARC ABAYA AS YOUNG TONY LUNES ASDLKFJDSF HE FUCKING LOOKS LIKE A YOUNG JOHN ARCILLA TOO #GODDAMMITLARRY
i also really like the way that the americans werenât actually portrayed as villains, only the invading conquerors with business on their mind, even seeming bored with the war proceedings. youâd expect, considering this is a filipino historical fiction film, that with the time period the americans mightâve been painted as greedy bad guys, but with the exception of the opening notes and the last scene with MacArthur and Otis, they were really just there to establish the reason behind the civil conflict
i believe it was jerrold tarrog who said that âthis film doesnât have villains,â and thatâs very true, and i love that. yeah, youâve got your antagonists in buencamino and aguinaldo (fuck you, president flat-top), but all buencamino was doing was fighting a different kind of war, using different tactics, to defend his country, but antagonists arenât always the villains. sure, he tried to cop innocence of any involvement in lunaâs killing, but when he says that he didnât wish for the brutality of lunaâs killing, when he says he respected him, it was sincere.
again - FUCK YOU, SEĂOR PRESIDENTE FLAT-TOP
i thought mabiniâs role in the whole thing was interesting - he was very âneither a borrower nor a lender beâ about the whole thing. like i said to mindifimoveincloserâ, he was âthe devilâs advocate until he advocated too much.â it wasnât that he was playing both sides, but he was trying to settle a middle-ground, trying to be a voice of reason and compromise, even though he knew that no matter where he pointed his words, they would fall on deaf ears.
NO BUT REALLY EDUARDO RUSCA IS ME I AM EDUARDO RUSCA
that scene where general tony lunes is basically a teenager honing his mad skillz on his totally rad ax until his mom totally harshes his buzz WAS FUCKING GENIUS
of note is also the musicscape for the movie. there was never really one Big Sweeping Orchestral Moment in the entire thing, and that was a touch of genius because there was a fuckton of dialogue with heavy filipino/tagalog, and really, why would you want to drown out fantastic, snappy writing with huge orchestral swings? adversely, the ONE moment where the music DID swing up was in that scene i was talking about in the previous bulletpoint, where the seed of eliminating luna had been âInceptionedâ into president aguinaldoâs head by the antagonists, juxtaposed against antonio luna finally finding some time to be alone, for himself, and heâs not saying a word but his fingers are going nuts on the strings of his guitar. after the antagonists leave aguinaldoâs office, there isnât another word of dialogue until general lunaâs mom comes into her sonâs room, and THAT was the best moment to let the music tell the story, which wasnât even so much a story as it was your ominous âshiTâS ABOUT TO GO DOWN AND YOU WONâT FIND OUT WHAT FOR ANOTHER TWO OR THREE PAGESâ moment. gorgeous tbh.
the pacing of the story, overall, was really good. although war was at the heart of the conflict, the movie itself wasnât heavy on the actual battles, just enough to establish that yes, these are difficult, bloody times and people are dying left and right and nothing is happening because the countryâs leaders canât get their shit together. all of the conflict of war and the rising action and denouement of the conspiracy against luna being cross-sectioned by the domesticity scene with luna and isabel felt right - device-wise, it was a great way to bring the audience back down after all the gore and blood of the battlefield, and a great way to lull them into some sense of relaxation so that the tide rising against luna became all the more pronounced.
THE SPOLARIUM SCENE. I FUCKING GOT CHILLS. I KNEW IT WAS COMING AND I STILL WASNâT READY. iâm lucky enough to have seen an original copy of Juan Lunaâs original Spolarium painting, made by one of Juan Lunaâs first students (in an ancestral home in Vigan). it was one of the most stunning things iâve ever seen, and i remember the melancholy and sadness of it, the despair and the exhaustion. that was almost 10 years ago, when i saw that painting, and all of that came flooding back in the Spolarium scene in this movie. i fucking wept at the power of that. also, as a movie fan, those are the things i live for, like Peter Jackson recreating iconic Alan Lee and John Howe illustrations in the LoTR and Hobbit movies, or even when The Hillywood Show put out a teaser video for their New Moon Parody where they had a shot that was a recreation of the poster. thatâs the kind of shit that sends me to heaven, and i donât think iâll EVER be over that.
antonio lunaâs death scene was FANTASTIC. like most people, i highly doubt it went down exactly like that, where he basically Sean Beanâd/Boromirâd 12 people and their guns and bolos, but considering the way he was portrayed in this film, it was poetically fitting - a man people were touting as insane refusing to go down even after a torrent of bullets had been pounded into his body, even after 12 filipino soldiers took their knives to him and tried to cut him down to size, like a hunk of meat in a butcherâs shop; a man who refused to give up his ideals and nationalism in a time of war refusing to give his body up to death. fucking beautiful.
also all throughout the movie my head was translating the dialogue and i just wanted to write the english subs for the damn thing, the writing was so gorgeous. stuff like âganito ba talaga ang ating magiging tadhana?...kalaban ang kalaban, kalaban ang kakampi,â feels so simple, and if youâre going to translate it, itâs not as simple as âis this all we have to look forward to?â it has to have weight to it - âis this to be the filipinoâs fate? weâre at war with our enemies, and weâre at war with our comrades.â AND THATâS THE BEAUTY OF THE WRITING. the filipino/tagalog isnât that heavy, those are words any native speaker of filipino/tagalog would generally use in casual conversation, but thereâs so much weight in them. even in lines that are meant to be comedic or sarcastic, like âpaano ko silang kakalabanin - kakagatin ko sila?â (âand how do you expect me to fight back - shall i just bite them?!â) thatâs as simple as tagalog/filipino can be, but thereâs so much bite in them, and i think thatâs as much a commentary on the writing as it is on the language.
NO. REALLY. R U S C A. THE BAE. THE BHE. THE BHEYANI.
(for the uninitiated, the filipino/tagalog word for âheroâ is âbayaniâ.)
one character that needs to get a FUCKTON of love and attention is Joven Hernando, by all intents and purposes the narrative audienceâs eye into the story. what a great character - given his time to shine and stand-out and yet never being pushed in front of moments that matter more. he is meant to be the audience - the one seeing it all only from lunaâs side and therefore rooting unconditionally for him, the one who ends up admiring him and villainizing the antagonists of the story. because heâs there, the audience doesnât HAVE to see aguinaldo and buencamino and paterno as the bad guys, the audience is free to see the picture as a whole, to see that while luna defended the philippines on the battlefield, the politicians were trying to do the same in the courts, in the houses of the foreign nobles and in the territories of supposedly friendly invaders. everything joven does is meant to be the emotional reaction of the audience - he starts out as a writer trying to get an interview with luna, ends up out on the field with him and sees him in action, becomes sucked up in lunaâs intense nationalism and will to drive out the foreigners, is angered at the flimsy lies of buencamino and aguinaldo, gets frustrated at the thought that these people have not only thrown luna under the bus but have tossed all his efforts out the window. he even tries to join an actual battle, takes a gun and tries to take down a few american soldiers, gets injured for his trouble. joven hernandoâs character was a way of removing the audience from those feelings of outright rooting for luna even though there was hardly ever a scene that DIDNâT have luna in it. what a stroke of genius that was.
also iâm pretty sure we donât have to talk about the way politics is viewed as a dog-eat-dog world this close to philippine presidential and senatorial elections, especially with the state that the countryâs politics is currently in. BUT IâM GONNA DO IT ANYWAY. the best scene that i think is a nice little âfuck you, philippine politics, i fucking see you there with your shit and allâ is the last 5 minutes of the film, where people are giving their statements on lunaâs death. buencaminoâs heartfelt, emotional âI HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THATâ speech playing over him seeing the tail-end of lunaâs butchering, and then turning away and trying to walk away from it. like, thatâs not even subtle, thatâs a straight-up âSEE THIS AND THINK ON YOUR SINSâ shot right there.
OVERALL WHAT A FUCKING MASTERPIECE OF MODERN FILIPINO CINEMA AND I HOPE IT DOES GET SHORT-LISTED FOR THE BEST FOREIGN FILM AT NEXT YEARâS OSCARS AND I HOPE IT FUCKING WINS BECAUSE FUCKKKKKKKKKKK.
friends in the US, filipino or otherwise, theyâre going to have limited screenings of the movie in October, i hope you guys can go out and catch it at least once. iâm not generally a fan of filipino films, but this is a fucking masterpiece.
In SIBIKA, HEKASI, Social Studies, and Philippine History, we learned all the basics: Spaniards are bad, Americans are good, the Chinese just want to do business. Jose Rizal is our national hero, itâs Bonifacio day on November 30th, and Ninoy Aquino was killed by Ferdinand Marcosâ men. We believed the books because there wasnât anything else to suggest otherwise, and frankly, well, maybe we didnât really care. But thanks to the 1% of the student population who did care, who asked the uncomfortable questions and challenged the history books, we can now see the little film that could, and the little film that didâHeneral Luna.
How many times have we seen a movie about a Philippine hero portrayed in the most saint-like way possible? How many Rizal portrayals have we seen that venerate him to death, as if heâs God personified? (No wonder a religion was founded in his name) How many Bonifacio, Del Pilar, Aguinaldo films are there that suggest their heroic deeds make them worthy of canonization? Not that they donât deserve respectâthey do, but theyâre only human, too, and itâd do us (and them) a favor if they were drawn a little closer to reality. It is in this sense that Jerrold Tarogâs Heneral Luna is a true champion. He doesnât whitewash the Philippines' greatest general. Antonio Luna is as flawed as flawed can get, but is unapologetic for it. Sometimes you root for him, sometimes you wish he would shut up and chill. But you canât help but admire his unwavering patriotism, his persistence toward national independence, his undying valor.
He may be overbearing, self-righteous, and ridiculously rigid, but he had the best of intentions. John Arcilla is his most compelling self in the titular role. Massively effective, greatly engaging, charming to watch. Archie Alemania provides the much-needed comic relief and Joem Bascon balances him out as Rusca and Roman, respectively. Mon Confiado is a silent viper as Emilio Aguinaldo. The filmâs cast is so impeccable, I can even imagine Epy Quizonâs Apolinario Mabini on my old 10-peso bill.
Heneral Luna is controversial as most biopics go. It explores the theme that our heroes arenât the prudent saints we think they are, and it perfectly encapsulates Philippine society in all its tainted glory. âPara kayong mga birhen na naniniwala sa pag-ibig ng isang puta!â Luna berates the members of the elite who ride on the coattails of the Americans, and we, who venerate everything made in the West, sink in our seats. It fearlessly discusses cronyism in government, an illness that is as deadly in 1898 as it is in 2015. It broaches the sensitive topic of strong family ties. He laments âKaya nating magbuwis ng buhay para sa pamilya, pero para sa isang prinsipyong makabayanâŚâ He despised those with vested interests. âBayan o sarili, mamili ka!â he asked the elite, and to some extent, the moviegoers. I imagine our dear politicians cringing in their seats as he said these words. Vastly relevant and eye-opening, Heneral Luna seemingly doesnât pull any punches when it comes to exposing our societyâs cancer.
Iâve seen way too many movies, read too many books. Iâm on my way to being jaded. But Heneral Luna is different because it makes us care, makes us ask uncomfortable questions, makes us challenge the history books. History is not a dead religion. Itâs as real as it was 100 years ago as it is today. We cannot afford to be passiveâthe least we can do is be informed.
More than anything, Heneral Luna is a revolt against mediocrity, and that is its strongest suit. If you havenât seen it, see it now. If you have, watch it again. Letâs keep it in the cinemas for as long as humanly possible. Bring your shock medicineâyouâre in for a rude awakening.
âUntil the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.â -Chinua Achebe
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