Heneral Luna: A Movie Critique

The film shows recognition to those people who fought for our country’s freedom, for those people
who lead and showed courage and bravery to protect our land, for those people who sacrifices their
lives. The heroes are humans too. Filipino like Heneral Luna is just a human who have courage to fought
for his fellowmen’s freedom as well as his country’s freedom.

The movie “Heneral Luna” revealed the richness of our history and who are the Filipinos during the
Philippine-American war .The flow of the movie is more on the main points of Heneral Luna’s Life. It also
reflects the current Philippine society. In fact, there are quotable lines that will portray some of the
situations today. For example,“Para kayong birheng naniniwala sa pag-ibig ng isang puta”, we can deduce
from this line that it is a reminder for voters who easily believe poiliticians’ flowery promises during
campaigns. Another is “Negosyo o kalayaan ? Bayan o sarili ? Pumili ka!”, we can deduce from this line
that this should be asked to people who steal from the national funds. One last is “Mga kapatid mayroon
tayong mas malaking kaaway kaysa mga Amerikano. Ang sarili natin .”, it reflects the undisciplined
behavior of Filipinos especially on road signs.

Actually, I’m not really a fan of history so, I don’t who General Luna is. I’ve watched other historical
movies before yet Heneral Luna was the only movie that left a mark on me. Yes, it is very worthy. It felt
like I’ve learned more from that movie than those days in highschool spent in learning Philippine history.
I had to vent my frustration on other things because the cliffhanger pissed the hell out of me.

My first impression on General Luna was like “This is the kind of leader that the Philippines need right
now”. I really adored him for his strength, his will to protect his country and his persistent on his beliefs.
He was positively insane, especially at the part when he charged at those armed American soldiers,
exposing himself to death. During those times, he almost gave up his life, attempting suicide using his
gun while hiding from their persuers. Yet, he continued to fight and live, even if it had crossed his mind
that it was all hopless. He have hope because it was his country, after all.

For a non history lover like me. Probably I view the movie as a boring one, but as I finished the movie, it
is a game changer .My likeness in history arise .There is the hate to Bonifacio and other Filipinos, and the
admiration to Heneral Luna. The film engage me to know the truth behind the murder of Heneral Luna
and if Bonifacio really killed him. The film engaged me to know more about our history, particularly the
life of unappreciated Filipino heroes during their fight for the independence from other countries. It is
also a call for us to stop the mistakes that are always repeated especially in the politics. Thus, this movie
makes the Philippine history interesting again.