KINGFISHER SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND FINANCE

HISTORY 12: The Life and Works of Jose Rizal

 
Name: BENITEZ, Jewel Ann Q.       Date submitted: 30 January 2020
Block: Blk 6 (2nd Year)                                                                Rating: ____________
 
Reflection Paper on:
Jose Rizal
Director: Marilou Diaz-Abaya
Produced by: GMA Films

The 1998 film produced by the Filipino entitled Jose Rizal opened our eyes for
the tyranny of the Spaniards. I’m quite amused that Filipinos have done such great film,
and I never knew it, just now, until I met the Rizal subject.
To start describing the life of Jose Rizal represented in the film, I firmly noticed
that innocence of a youth. When you are young, everything seems perfect and beautiful,
and everything is spoon feed— until you’re old enough to spit the bitter truths. The
harsh ruling of Spaniard friars. I would also quite notice the ironic role of the priests in
the film, where they are supposed to be stewards of God, but no. I would like to disclaim
that, it’s not God that lied, it’s the church. I would also like to give praise the artistic
cinematography of the film which adds “Filipino feels” as norm says. The child beaten
by the priest is also to commemorate how Filipinos struggled just to live in their own
land. In a nutshell, the life of Rizal (his early childhood) depicts the start of the historical
treason in the Philippines.
Based on my reading and class discussions, I can say that the film represents
what we call the term “the fall of patriarchy”, where the patriarchs (Spaniards) is being
thrown down for justice and equality, or for the common good of greater number. The
film represents of how much can you sacrifice for the future of this land where your
mothers and great-great grandmothers lived and carried in their wombs the blood of
being Filipino. The film is more than just a film where it awakens the viewers to spark
fire when colonialization is not necessary. It seeks camaraderie from Filipinos, not to be
scared, to fight for honor and glory. It represents everything that is sacrificed for what
we have today. The freeness, the calm— everything that we are tasting today is priced
for thousand blood that poured during historical phenomenon.
 On the other hand, the film that seeks to answer in my own opinion is— “How
much are you willing to fight for today?” Today— and by that I meant us. Can we do the
same thing to what our heroic ancestors for us? I think, the Philippines is divided today
and by that, we are not ready for any colonialism that may occur. Judging by the past
events, Filipinos aren’t united— and we are all fighting to each other. We are all
speakers, but we don’t have listeners. I thing the film reminds us to unite, like sturdy
blocks of walls glued to each other to defend against calamities that might occur. The
film conveys the horrors that might happen in the future if the present generation stops
fighting. We should still continue to fight for the oppression, not only limited to
colonialism, but today’s oppression of the China, the discrimination of the LGBTQ
community, the poverty, the corruption— you name it. These are the things that we
should fight, but are we all willing?
The last but not the least, my own reflection based on the film is that, we are all
slaves of something that matters to us. Rizal is the slave for his loved country that he
died for it. We? As individuals, we can answer uniquely. Some people are slaves of
fear, some are slaves of money, some for power— some are slaves of hunger for
knowledge, some are ignorance, some are slaves of love and some are slaves of
nothingness. The film made me realize that the things that we are willing to sacrifice is
the cost of the love to what is important to us. I’ve like to end with the statement I’ve
read in Facebook, it says, “Nak, makinig ka. Hindi tayo lumalaya, lumalawak lang ang
ating kulungan.”