Love of country like no other

(Editor’s Note: Until end of January 2007, My Favorite Movie will feature only movies shown during a Metro Manila Film Festival from any year. Contributions must not exceed two and a half pages, short bond paper, double-spaced. We don’t return rejected articles. Published ones will be paid accordingly. E-mail your pieces at [email protected].)

The author is a guitar player, an NBA fan and a movie buff. He is the proud father of a four-year-old boy, whose drawings have been published in Kids Only magazine.

I got interested in watching Marilou Diaz-Abaya’s Rizal when a neighbor excitedly proclaimed that he played a bit role in the film.

Rizal gave me extra knowledge about our national hero. I learned that as a young man, Rizal never backed off from fist fights whenever love for country was mocked and smothered. It’s good to know that our hero packed the power of a Manny Pacquiao during his much younger years.

I consider this film a cut above other Rizal films mainly because of its commitment to details. No stones were left unturned to ensure that the scenes would come out as realistic as possible.

I was pleased to see a squad of guardia civil that were Spanish looking. I was awed by a scene showing the façade of an old Malacañang Palace. I was impressed by the eloquent Español spoken by Jaime Fabregas and Subas Herrero who played opposing lawyers during Rizal’s trial. But then I also have to admit I almost fell off my seat when a German-speaking Cesar Montano came out more like Hitler rather than Rizal.

It is great seeing Cesar shelve his action star image in order to bring life to our national hero’s ideals. And it is far better to realize that everyone else in the cast – from Gloria Diaz as our hero’s beloved mother to Pen Medina as Rizal’s brother Paciano – did a sterling job.

Equally commendable were the performances by Gardo Versoza as Andres Bonifacio, Jaime Fabregas as Luis Taviel de Andrade (Rizal’s defense counsel), Joel Torre as Crisostomo Ibarra and Monique Wilson as Maria Clara. The rest of the cast put their hearts and minds into making the film a masterpiece, including our neighbor who played the role of a kutsero, even if he did not utter a single word.

It is understandable why Rizal was loathed by his enemies. He never allowed Spanish arrogance to get in the way, even when he was still a student at the University of Sto. Tomas.

In one scene, a Spanish student was bragging in class about the Spaniard’s superiority in height, much to the delight of the professor, a Spanish friar. Rizal retorted, "If height was the only reason why the Spaniards are superior, then why has Spain lost some of its colonies to natives who are shorter?" This of course elicited a roar of laughter from his Pinoy classmates, much to the chagrin of their professor.

Some people would say they would rather be a philosopher and a coward than a hero and a fool. Well, I’m sure Jose Rizal did not intend to be a hero and he was definitely not a fool. He just could not help but voice out his grievances over Spain’s many abuses.

Rizal only serves to remind us of this gallantry just in case we have forgotten, that a century ago, there once stood a Filipino who proved to all his fellowmen that love for country knows no boundaries. Not even death.