Enrique Aranton

GERIZAL Y08
12045373

Jose Rizal (1998)

The 1998 film Jose Rizal portrayed the life of the national hero Dr. Jose Protacio Rizal
Mercado y Alonso Realonda. Of various literary pieces of Jose Rizal, the movie specifically
spoke about his two controversial and scandalous books of the time Noli Me Tangere and El
Filibusterismo. Highlighting more on the events of El Filibusterismo, showing what Jose Rizal
envisions for the Philippines in gaining independence from Spain. The main theme of the film is
to show the nationalism within Rizal, a love for his country no matter the odds he faced. Even
until death he still stuck with his ideals and love for the country, faltering to none.
At his young age, being taught by his mother, Rizal was rather a diligent son. Learning
Spanish, Latin, and Filipino shows the brilliance of Rizal’s mind in his youth. Entering Ateneo,
Rizal claims to have had the happiest memories in the school because of the way the Jesuit
priests taught and treated the students. The Atenian priests treated every student with equality
and respect, encouraging liberal thoughts and ideas on science and philosophy. All was well in
Rizal’s junior years. Up until he grew up and went to college to study medicine to help his
mother who is suffering from cataract. Entering the University of Santo Tomas, Jose Rizal finally
experienced the burning prejudice of the Spanish friars to the indios that studied there. He
encountered biases of the teachers and even failed because of his race.
The movie also marked Paciano, Rizal’s older brother, as a main character to Rizal’s
awakening of nationalism. Paciano lectured Jose about how the church dislikes their family for a
long time. Paciano also encourages Rizal to use the name Jose Rizal instead of the last name
Mercado in order to avoid discrimination from the friars at school. It is shown that Rizal’s older
brother is a revolutionary, willing to fight for the nation through bloodshed and violent means.
Whilst Rizal was in the prison awaiting for his trial, his defense attorney, Luis Taviel de Andrade
asked Rizal how he got the funds to go to Europe since the evidence shows that the family could
not afford to support Rizal living abroad. Dr. Rizal remembered how it all started when Paciano
told him to go to Spain to enlighten the minds of the Spanish people, to enlighten them of the
issues in the Philippines. Rizal got the funds through the revolutionaries.
Upon hearing the incident in Calamba, Rizal was enraged and started thinking about
violence and revolution, but soon suppressed it. La Solidaridad in Spain was published however,
through the years it became a greedy privatized organization. The newspaper company started to
be blinded in their cause and lost momentum leading Rizal to return home realizing that the
battlefield is not in Spain, but rather the Philippines. Upon entering the Philippines Rizal
established the La Liga Filipina, a reformist movement hoping to enlighten the minds of the
government and people around. This soon failed and later on Rizal questioned his contributions
to the independence movement since La Solidaridad and the La Liga Filipina flopped.
At one of the ending scenes of the film, Rizal contemplated on what he wrote in El
Filibusterismo. Where the plan of blowing up the House of Kapitan Tiago failed because Basilio
threw it out. There was meaning in that chapter. Rizal shows that Simoun was devoured by the
emotions and feelings of Maria Clara that brought Simoun to kill everyone at the party. This is
not the case. Jose Rizal is telling the people that starting a revolution must not be through feeling
of the heart, but by the critical mind. This is what Rizal wanted even until death. Education is the
tool for revolution.
There was also a scene where Simoun and Rizal talked to each other. Simoun asks why
did he end up like that? Why not make the motive of Simoun a more educated, critical and
mindful approach instead? It would have been a better ending to show and a clearer meaning
instead of hidden.
In my speculation, after being persuaded by Simoun to rewrite the chapter he began to
write the first chapters of his unfinished novel Makamisa. This book would be for the Filipino
people and probably contain ideals to rise up against the Spanish and retake the land that was
stolen by the Filipino. The Filipino that suffered and died in the name of Spain and not in the
name of the Philippines.
The conclusion of the movie shows that Dr. Jose Rizal died for the country not retracting
any of his ideals. He stood firm at the face of death and shot. He was shown to be a fearless man
that stood up against the Spanish ideology and stood up for the glory of the Philippines. Based on
the movie, Jose Rizal was a hero of the Philippines and a great intellectual that inspired many.
“Rizal became a product of his time and the society he destroys.” means that through Rizal’s
hardships and experiences with the Spanish friars and government he decided to expose and
make the people realize what the Spanish are doing. He is a product of injustice and
mistreatment of the Filipino people. He destroys the society by enlightening the Filipino people
that they are not the inferior race, that we are capable if not more capable than the Spanish in
intellect.