Heneral Luna is a movie starring John Arcilla as General Luna, and it is directed

by Jerold Tarog. The movie depicted some of the historical events during the Philippine

– American War. It is about the one man who wants to unify our country in order to fight

the Americans. However, most of the Philippine government cabinet members believe

that Americans have good intention and will not colonize our country. Until Americans

shoot Filipino troops in Bulacan, and they built bases in San Juan, Pateros, Pandacan,

and Intramuros, which part of Maynila. It was the start of how Americans colonized the

Philippines. However, most spleenful about this was that most Philippine government

cabinet members still believe that Americans have good intentions in the Philippines. Is

it for real for the Philippines or their interest?

The most significant individual in the film is General Luna. Gen. Antonio Luna

deserves to be one of the Philippine heroes. General Luna showed great bravery,

intelligence, and he also became a concept to our fellow men during and even after the

war. He holds superior power and might lead people to follow him. The final also

believes that nobody is above the law, even the very best ranking official or the

president. It was released in 2015 when the 2016 presidential election was

approaching. Gen. Antonio Luna's perspectives become standard to question the

candidates' qualifications from what I saw within the internet, and what I also thought of.

However, I also thought that Gen. Luna doesn't hear what the others think. This a form

of a decent attitude, but sometimes it may become terrible. He is a small amount

narrow-minded as a high ranking general as he lets his temper affect the entire

situation. "Our greatest enemy is ourselves," Gen. Antonio Luna said in one amongst

the scenes. This is often the main impactful line that affected me. Watching Heneral
Luna film makes me noticed how real Filipino ancestors defend and protect our country

from the Americans for our freedom—ranging from the never-ending disagreements

between the generals, right down to the impassionate soldiers' need. We cannot even

group ourselves in concert, but we hope for a victory, so ironic. I am not even surprised

when the Americans kid our foolish acts. At the end, not only Gen. Luna was lost and

was put in shame. Nevertheless, our whole country lost. The worst part of it, we did not

lose with the war, but we lost within ourselves. That is the most reason why we lost and

can still do so. We aim for a comfortable yet happy life, but we expect someone to try

and do it for us within the midst of another western invasion.

One of the historical events that happened in the film was the assassination of

General Luna. On that day, the Americans took advantage of that because Americans

know that General Luna was the one who punitive to their offense and their defense.

McArthur once said, "You lost your true general," and they are not the ones who killed

him but our fellow Filipinos who were traitors in their own country. That is true because

only General Luna and his comrades were honestly wanted the best for the Philippines

who were willing to die in order to protect our country, but President Aguinaldo afraid of

him because of his aggressiveness and being a short-temper, so Aguinaldo sent him a

letter saying that there will be new cabinet board members. General Luna was the one

who leads them. After they went to the said location, that is also his last day. According

to the historian, that specific letter was significant evidence that President Aguinaldo

was the man behind the assassination.

During the Philippine and American wars, men and women have different roles in

society. Men were the ones who will work for their family. Women were the one who
stayed in their houses and cares for children all day; they are also the one who was in

charge of household chores. Some of the children enjoyed and played outside, but

some were helping their parents at a very young age. It was way more different from

now because women's rights during those years were limited, and always man was

given more privilege than a woman. Those are the main points that I noticed while

watching the film.

The film's strength was it historical because more teenagers nowadays were

interested in this kind of film, but its weakness was being an independent film because

of its budget; some props were not as accurate as real equipment or weapons during

Philippine-American War. I will recommend this film to other students because it was full

of knowledge about what happened during the Philippine and American wars. It will give

you goosebumps because of its cinematography, sound design, and editing. Politics

and being patriotic was also discussed in this film.

After watching the film, I feel two faces of selfishness Filipinos got, as a Filipino

within the film. First, Filipinos are not selfish because Filipinos always choose family

than ourselves. Second, Filipinos are selfish when the time comes; we need to protect

our country. We do not realize that killing our Filipino brothers and sisters results in the

longer term's death of hope. I also wonder why we always have to choose temporary

unsure safety than our own country's permanent freedom. Suppose I were to settle on

between Bayan o Sarili. I will choose sarili because to be a productive and useful citizen

in your country. You wish to be responsible and sort within the smallest possible way

ranging from yourself. If you cannot win the temptation of evil, you will never be a

worthy citizen of your country.