Second time's the charm

Heneral Luna (2015) a film directed by Jerrold Tarog is about Dr. Antonio Luna whom we have known so little about. This film is so raw. After watching this last Wednesday, September 17; it gave me more knowledge about Luna and I applaud his greatness and braveness of what he did and stand for our country, the Philippines, in my mind before watching Heneral Luna he was just in the sidelines.

The cinematography of Heneral Luna was sick! And by sick I mean awesome. The special effects, lighting, music, the angles was just WOW! Also, I heard that the movie had a low budget, AMAZEBALLS! I commend the Team of this movie, the costumes and props were impressive. The locations were wisely chosen. And I believe they used a drone with a camera strapped to it, the overview of the mountain where Luna was sitting. I was also impressed on how they emphasized important details like the slow motion of presenting the Spolarium and the close up of the wrecked Philippine flag, it’s almost hard to believe that this was made by Filipinos, no offense meant. Although some said there were mistakes in the movie, but regardless it was a one hit wonder I must say, it may not be seamless but kudos to everyone involved in the making of Heneral Luna. It was a very good and liberating film, maybe that’s why this movie is trending, I’ve heard my friends from different universities talk about watching Heneral Luna, Professors recommending it to their students, and even my family knows about it. A must-see movie it is.

The mise-en-scenes I have noticed in this movie were: First was the build-up of people complaining about how Luna treated his men, so when the scene of Heneral Luna dropped off by Rusca and before Luna left he said “Mag ingat po kayo, mukhang mabigat ang haharapin ninyo ngayon” I thought that Luna was going to be punished by Aguinaldo due to the complaints of the soldiers, but it was his wife all along. Second was the Philippine Flag at the end which was torn up, in flames and dirty, it represents us Filipinos back then, chaos struck our country not just the invasion of the Americans but the chaos between us fellow Filipinos we turned on against each other. Third, was the Spolarium shown in the movie crafted by Juan Luna, though in the original frame there were 3 roman soldiers being dragged, in Heneral Luna there were only 2 being dragged two of which were Luna and Paco, also may I just commend how they emphasized that scenario, they presented it in slow motion to let the audience feel the sorrow and heartache of how cruel and treacherous our countrymen were. Fourth was when Rusca surrendered when he ran out of bullets, I reckon he gave up so he could live to tell the tale of Luna’s bravery and great love for what is right and for our country. Lastly, when Heneral Luna and Paco’s coffins were being carried I noticed that the soldiers had red on them, Aguinaldo’s carriage had red curtains, and when someone is dead you shouldn’t wear red because it symbolizes that you are happy, then when he was interviewed he said that he did not have anything to do with Luna’s death but the question is “Why wear red?”.

I consider Heneral Luna as my all-time favourite Filipino film! I actually got to see this film twice with my friend, same day, to tell you a brief story about my experience; my friend and I were about 10 minutes late so we had the seat V17 and V18, when we settled down, we unfortunately were seated next to a group of teens who were annoyingly really loud, we couldn’t hear a word said in the movie especially me I have difficulty in hearing when watching TV or a film so we decided to get the 5pm screening and headed for the book fair at SMX. Praying that the second time’s the charm we went and sat at the patron area left wing, although there was a couple behind us that were talking a bit loud it was fine we managed to pull through it, we ended up in tears in some parts of the movie especially the part of Luna’s death and the reviving of Spolarium in the film. When we finished the credits and the teaser I remember saying this to my friend “this movie will be a hit!” I recommend this to everyone, well maybe to those of free minds or of right age. Congratulations to the film maker and director! A job well done for producing such an awesome and knowledgeable film.

By Beanca Navarro