Raiza A.

Masculino

Heneral Luna Review

Heneral Luna (played by John Arcilla) struggles to find cooperation
from his fellowmen during the Philippine-American war, making him fierce
and determined. Little did he know that his fortitude to win the war and the
support of his fellowmen would be the cause of his downfall.
As a Filipino citizen, I always knew who Heneral Luna was as a hero and
the things he did to protect our country from the Americans but I never knew
the struggles he had to encounter to achieve our freedom. Thats why this
film was total eye-opener for me. The screenplay had a proper balance of
comedy, action and extreme confrontation scenes which made it intense and
a feel-good movie. Of course the screenplay wouldnt be justified without the
outstanding performances from the actors. My personal favorites were John
Arcilla, Aaron Villaflor, Archie Alemania, Joem Bascon, Mylene Dizon, Nonie
Buencamino, and Ronnie Lazaro. They all delivered their lines in the most
accurate way on how would their characters react and emote in a certain
situation. There were no monotonous scenes.
Also, the cinematography of the film was on point. Although there were
a few shaky shots, but it was forgivable because they gave justice on the
long take shot during Heneral Lunas flashback and the other cinematic shots
that they took during the war scenes. The most memorable cinematic scene
for me was the aerial shot of Luna sitting alone on the top of a hill and the
slow motion moment of the Spolarium scene during Luna and Pacos unlawful
death. The lighting at the end of the film gave a sad cold feeling when Joven
was sharing his thoughts about Lunas death.
The musical scoring and the sound component of the film was also
really good. The cues were properly inserted highlighting every intense and
emotional scenes. But for me the most astonishing element of the film was
its production design. It made the movie realistic. Its like youve turned back
time. It was sophisticated because they made an effort to provide a lot of
costumes and props for the numerous cast. It is also clear that the location
manager made an effort to find the perfect place for a certain scene to shoot
a film with a vintage feel. One of the production design highlights of the film
was the soldiers blasted legs, the explosion of a soldiers head, and the
scene were Luna caused frantic among the poor people in the market place
where you can see the dirty looks of the place and the people working there.

Last but not the least was the directing element of the film which was
taken care of Jerrold Tarog. As a film student, I can say that Tarog made an
excellent job on supervising everything (the cast, pre prod, post prod, etc.) to
make a film that is: worth the money, about Philippine history, and
awakening nationalism.
If I would relate this film to our previous classes, I can prove that the
chaos in the Philippines during the Spanish and American times were truly a
source of stories to provide interesting films. Like the old movies by foreigner
filmmakers, like Albert Yearsly, Tarog made a film which is about a Philippine
hero but only this time the director is a Filipino not an American. Then it
made me think that, we Filipinos, learned the techniques and inspirations
from the colonizers which I found ironic because were trying to define and
separate our works from them. But then I realized that it IS different because
this time the protagonist is a Filipino unlike the American propaganda films,
that they make themselves look more powerful than us.