"JOSE RIZAL--- A TIMELESS HERO"

By: Marian Carpo

Considered as our national hero, Rizal has been a subject in every aspect of our life including art, and film making is no exception to that. The life of Rizal was definitely interesting and extraordinary that is why filmmakers did not hesitate to make it into a movie, among of these are: Jose Rizal (1998), Rizal sa Dapitan (1997) and Bayaning 3rd World (2000).

“Jose Rizal” was a film by the U.P. Graduate and London trained director Marilou Diaz-Abaya. Among the three movies this is the most famous and critically acclaimed depiction of Rizal’s life on the big screen. If you want to see our hero during childhood growing to a man up to the moment of his death, this is something that you should watch. It focuses chiefly on Rizal’s life as a child, a student, a lover, a propagandist, a writer, a doctor, a son, a brother and an inspiration to every Filipino during the Spanish regime. Excerpts from his novel, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo was displayed on a black and white color styled format which separates the audience from the real world that Rizal was living in. What’s amazing in the exhibition of the novel within the film was that it’s as if those scenes were actually taken out very effectively from the books and feels so real.

The different life stage of Rizal was not thoroughly delivered consequently, that is why there’s a lot of flashbacks and instantaneous jumping of scene from this year to that year. It’s a little confusing but if you really delve into the movie there is a “present period” scenes where all the flashbacks and excerpts of novel were inserted. It’s the time when Rizal was imprisoned in Manila during 1896 where he had a lawyer by the name of Taviel and had a trial up to his execution day. The insertion of flashbacks and other notable scenes (added period) outside the present period was justifiably executed. They give way for the “added period” with a reason which has a connection with what Rizal was saying or thinking at particular time in the movie.

Before the so-called present period came upon the screen the director did a good introduction to the major characters and the world (real and novel) that the audience will about to see in the film. She introduced Rizal, next is the novel world, the Katipuneros, The Spaniards (Government and Church), and Rizal’s Family. The main starting point of the story was when Rizal was arrested and was marching with soldiers in Intramuros.

Technically, the cinematic aspect of this movie was excellently magnified in every scene. It offers a well-defined music and a superb script which makes every line vital and supportive with each other. The only problem is the fighting scenes of the Katipuneros with the Spanish soldiers. The intention was to illustrate how the Filipino courageously fought for their freedom and make it appear that they are winning but what’s odd with these scenes is that Filipinos with itak overpowered the guns of the enemy easily. Some Spanish soldiers seem to wait for them to be slashed to death well in fact you could see that they could have the ample time to pull the trigger, I don’t know if it’s the acting of the soldier that has a problem or what, it somehow lacked realistic fights though it was supported with the right costumes and props. Putting aside that trivial fighting flaw, “Jose Rizal” was considered as the biggest blockbuster film ever made in the history of Philippine cinema bagging over 70 local and international film awards.

In the movie “Rizal sa Dapitan”, it centered however on the life of our hero during his 4-year stay in the remote area of Dapitan as exiled by the Spanish government. Its director Tikoy Aquiluz emphasized Rizal not as a hero but as a well-educated and talented man: an engineer, a doctor, a teacher, a sculptor, a scientist and many more. Here, we could see Rizal living a simple life as a normal yet a detained person who had a love affair with an Irish woman by the name of Josephine Bracken. The interpretation of his exile in Dapitan here was good and something new for the audience to see since most of people only knew Rizal as a hero. The lighting condition and framing was notable but it won’t give you the same technical quality that “Jose Rizal” had since this film was not highly budgeted. There were a few instances where the quality of the video changes into something dark and unclear then goes back to its original state after a while.

In Mike De Leon’s “Bayaning 3rd World”, he made an entirely different movie about Rizal. It is not a biopic film that tells the story of Rizal but more of like a documentary film on a total black and white scale that investigates the mysteries of our hero’s life. Based on modern times, the protagonists here are two filmmakers that are obsessed with doing a film about him. What’s exceptional about this movie is that the unnamed filmmakers has scenes where they actually interviewed Rizal’s mother, brother, sisters and other characters who in reality are already dead. It projects an exaggerating yet a dramatic way on how the filmmakers were able to acquire information regarding the different controversies in the life of our hero. This is another way on delving into Rizal’s life in an investigator’s perspective where a different cinematic element was incorporated. It is a complex film that talks about how Rizal became part of our culture and how we see him more as a famous icon rather than something much deeper than that.

The actors who played Jose Rizal in the films mentioned above all won an acting award: Cesar Montano (Jose Rizal), Albert Martinez (Rizal sa Dapitan) and Joel Torre (Bayaning 3rd World).These movies truly deserve to be viewed since it gives a diverse perspective of who Rizal is. He may already be dead but he will continuously live within the hearts every Filipino as a timeless man we all consider as our National Hero.