To put his fears to rest, Bonifacio and Luna had to be sacrificed. The erstwhile gobernadorcillo of Kawit simply could not rise above his parochial fears to the demand of being the president of a nation, thereby losing sight of the greater ideals that he had set out to serve. Against Mabini’s better judgment, Aguinaldo allowed the anti-Luna elements to multiply, setting the stage for the assassination of the general he most (but wrongly) feared as his rival for power. Thinking like a political warlord of our times, he glossed over the lack of discipline among Cavite generals and troops and tolerated the insubordination of Captain Pedro Janolino, because he believed that the only loyalty he could count on was that of his fellow Cavitenos. In Luna, the present plays out in the past, and we get to understand how the country has been betrayed by its leaders over and over again.Īng one of those leaders was Emilio Aguinaldo, whose commitment to the cause of independence was marred by his obsession with protecting, consolidating, and expanding his hold on power. Such a revelation cannot but resonate with contemporary Filipinos who have witnessed the shameless turncoatism of their political leaders from 1946 to the post-2016 elections period. Just as the novel to contemporary audiences perhaps is the revelation that the struggle against the Americans was much weakened by the factionalism among the leaders of the revolution, with a minority composed of Mabini and Luna absolutely dedicated to the ideal of independence, being undermined by a majority of wealthy entrepreneurs who thought nothing of switching loyalty from Spain, to the Republic, and then to the US to protect their own interests. In a society that continues to enthrone family as the supreme institution, the thought that family is also the principal obstacle to our unity as a nation is an unsettling epiphany that is much needed in our times. Practicing what he preached, Luna allowed his brother Joaquin to languish in jail to atone for the drunken brawl he caused because of a woman. In another, Luna uses a stick to drive out relatives of officers who occupied the train that was supposed to transport much-needed troops and ammunition to Bataan. In one scene, Luna lashes out at the ilustrados who refuse to go to war with the Americans because it would be bad for their businesses and their families. Rocha, and Jerrold Tarog articulates its most important insight, that in the struggle to defend our independence from the American invaders, “we (Filipinos) are our own worst enemies” because we cannot think beyond the narrow confines of clan and family.
Through this engaging narrative, the screenplay of Henry Francia, E.A.
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Heneral Luna was food for the eye, the brain, and the heart.Ĭovering the period from around 13 August 1898 to 5 June 1899, the screenplay merges fact and fiction to flesh out the character of General Antonio Luna, General-in-Chief of the Philippine armed forces, as he is defined by his efforts to transform the scattered military units of the revolution into a professional fighting army for the Republic, his conflicts with the vacillating Emilio Aguinaldo, the opportunistic ilustrados, and undisciplined soldiery, and his tragic assassination in Cabanatuan.
Such reception seemed to have been warranted by a script that offered some very sharp insights into Filipino society, and by the superior quality of its direction, acting, cinematography, and editing. In the last half century Heneral Luna has emerged as a cinematic phenomenon, not only for its budget (at 80M plus, one of the biggest in recent history) but for the tremendous reception it got at the box-office, with shows extending to many weeks as word of mouth spread like wild fire and eventually earning an unprecedented gross income of P 240M when it closed. HENERAL LUNA: APPRECIATION AND RESERVATION
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