BALASI, JEWEL EMERALD C.

The Marcoses’ trademark mediocrity and tainted brand identity appear to have priced them out of
serious political power for the time being. However their resurgent cynicism and corruption paved the
way for Rodrigo Duterte the quasi-fascist strongman president who is shown contemptuously tolerating
the Marcoses for what they could still do for him. At first glance, it appears that will be a black-comic
portrait of entitlement similar to Greenfield’s 2012 film The Queen of Versailles. In fact, it is more than
that. Or maybe she knows and doesn’t care, and she knows that her outrageousness appeals to a
certain segment of her (large) fanbase. But it’s truly stomach-turning when she gives banknotes to poor
little children on the street and, when taken to a children’s cancer hospital, Madame Marcos winces
with disgust at their poverty and suffering and says to aide, “Give me some money to give away.” At
their peak, the Marcoses converted cash intended for road schools and so on into jewels painting and
prime Manhattan real estate, while striking brutally at civil rights, using detention. Benigno Aquino, their
rival, was imprisoned, exiled, and eventually murdered, and his widow Cory, was later murdered.

Calacuit an island of dying animals in the Philippines, exists in its current state due to Imelda Marcos’s
unchecked opulence. She wanted non-native animals in the Philippines, and officials were bribeb to
make that happen. It’s a perfect symbol for insidious, egocentric, blinding greed because it’s the kind of
landscape-altering thing that people with power and wealth do without thinking about the
consequences. Lauren Greenfield, our best filmmaker when it comes to documenting the ultra-wealthy
in films like “Generation Wealth” and “The Queen of Versailles,” returns to this island several times in
her excellent” The Kingmaker,” recognizing how its almost haunted nature symbolizes the ghosts of the
past of the ultra-wealthy.