#mark gil

Film Language

Robedillo, Jeremy

MMA23 S.Y. 2019-2020

      The film was a very tragic and heavily laced film for me, it followed the journey of young student Sid Lucero (Mark Gil), from seemingly an inexperienced beginner to the leader of the frat. Along the way, each strike of a hitting him, each dignity-crushing act of subservience, each death of a comrade would serve only to push forward as being part of the frat. He gave me the feeling of a person’s behavior can be misleading. We need to be clear though this does not make them a misleading person. Rather we are born with a defense mechanism not to show any kind of weakness, mental or otherwise.

       Crime levels decrease quickly when a dictatorship arises in society. As Sid goes deeper in the film, it gave us the ideas on how fraternity works such as the severe physical, mental—and even fatal—initiation rites they undergo in the name of the fraternity’s promise of brotherhood. Although crime levels typically rise in a dictatorship because there are different laws passed, sometimes at a whim by the leader. The film gave a huge impact when it comes to the forefront of the fraternity’s name now takes greater significance. As the film portrays the psyche of men it also illustrated that men join fraternities to exercise dominance, power, and control over other men rather than seeking brotherhood.       

       It was in this scene where Martial Law was mentioned once throughout the film, it was very shocking for me knowing that Mike De Leon was able to produce this kind of film especially it attacks the Marcos followers and such. So many young promising men had been put to waste. So many dreams had been shattered and many families had been broken. The fraternity system has become a big black hole that sucks these young promising men to their graves. By offering underage students access to alcohol, fraternities promote illegal drinking, which often leads to hospitalizations for alcohol poisoning or alcohol-induced injuries will often cause him to sacrifice his grades to put the fraternity first. Education for me makes us capable of interpreting things, among other things. It is not just about lessons in textbooks. It is about the lessons of life. Some college students can find it hard to juggle classes and fraternity responsibilities with their authoritarian regimes. 

      Moreover, the film lives in crushing poverty, increasingly lack basic provisions, and at any given moment face the possibility of instant or agonizing death, largely at the hands of their government which is the strategy of co-opting the leadership of a launching organization by buying its loyalty.