Ocampo, Jessa L.

18-52888
Master of Arts in English

JOSE RIZAL (1998)

(FILM ANALYSIS)

The 1998 film entitled “Jose Rizal” starring Cesar Montano as Jose Rizal is written by
Ricky Lee, Juan Lana, and Peter Ong Lim and it was directed by Marilou Diaz-Abaya, a multi-
awarded film director in the Philippines.

The film “Jose Rizal” is a biographical film showing the entire life of our national hero,
Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda who known for his nick name “Pepe”. He was
born in Calamba, Laguna on the 19th day of June 1861. This film reflects various aspects of his
life as a son, brother, friend, lover, writer, propagandist, doctor and finally, a hero that urge
people’s desire of revolution through his powerful heart, mind and hand in writing. In his young
age, he shows intelligence and curiosity about the abusive government of Spaniards in the
Philippines. His brother Paciano witnessed how cruel were the Spaniards for reigning and
abusing our fellowmen in our own land when Father Burgos sentenced and put to death, because
of that he was forced to send Rizal to different countries to study and to start a reform through
his writings. He made his brother’s eyes opened in the serious illness of our country. Through his
powerful hands, he wrote and published the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, which
helped the Filipinos to be inspired in seeking reforms under the dominions of Spaniards in our
country. He inspired the “Katipunan”, most especially Andres Bonifacio to awaken their heart
and mind and to seek for reforms, they tear their cedulas as a symbol of an end of their ties to
Spanish and as a start of revolution. The friars then discovered their plan of uprising and they
accused Rizal as the cause of this, the Spanish forces interrogated his older Paciano to gather
information about the uprising in the country, but they remained firm and braved for what they
are fighting for. As a revenge to his family, they accused his mother of attempting to poison her
sister-in-law and she was imprisoned for almost two years and in order to protect Rizal, Paciano
advised him not to use “Mercado” as his last name but “Rizal” instead. But then, Rizal exiled
and accused as a traitor and Signor Luis Taviel de Andrade was became his Defense Counsel.
Signor Taviel, believed that Rizal’s writings were not an art, but a propaganda and because of
Rizal’s deep love for our fellow Filipinos and our country, he defended that all they wanted are
just an equal rights with the Spaniards, as well as proper recognition as a Filipino through a
peaceful reforms. He also founded the “La Liga Filipina” in Manila after having a
misunderstanding between the members of the organization of La Solidaridad in Spain where
innocent people were imprisoned because of illegally possessing the books of Rizal. He again,
exiled in Dapitan where he met Josephine Bracken, a love of his life. During his exile in Dapitan,
Monsignor Nosaleda felt uncontented and he wanted Rizal to die, he ordered Governor General
Blanco to execute Rizal, but he refused to do so by that reason, Nosaleda terminated Blanco and
Spain sent the new Governor General, Polavieja to grant his wish.

When the mock trial unreels, Taviel is all set to act as the prime advocate for his client as Rizal
himself is about to give an earth-moving speech to defend his honor and address his countrymen.
Meanwhile, the Spanish authorities have worked out the vast political machinery to ensure a
guilty verdict. Rizal was charged for being a leader of the revolution and he was sentenced to
death. On December 30, 1986, he was fired at Bagumbayan, Manila. His family and our fellow
Filipinos mourned for his death. His death caused the revolution to spark despite of his
disapproval, Filipinos joined the uprising and we achieved our independence on the 12 th day of
June, 1986. Rizal died with dignity and honor for his country. He died as a hero. This film
portrays nationalism and patriotism. It also shows an exemplary talent of Filipino writers,
directors and producers who produces such extraordinary film featuring historical events that
narrates our history most particularly, the life of a hero, Dr. Jose P. Rizal. It is excellent that they
were able to make the viewer see themselves in the past, the series of still photography makes the
viewer believed that we are in to reality, especially the scene of the time of death of Rizal. The
Director, Marilou Diaz- Abaya shows an incredible vision about the vivid life of Rizal before
and what was really happened during the Sapanish colonization. She made a visually dazzling
film and a well-mounted biography of a Filipino hero. Through her directory, it depicts that it
may not be the best film that the Philippines has to offer, it was an stepping stone in excellence
of the local film industry. No doubt, that the film has been screened and ran in competition in
different film festivals worldwide and included in the Official Selection for Panorama in the
Berlin International Film Festival (1998) and also won 2nd runner-up in the Audience Award of
the Toronto Film fest and the Chicago International Film Festival. She made the character of
Jose Rizal strong as portrayed by Cesar Montano, a versatile Filipino genius who becomes a
nationalist and martyr for seeking political and social reform in the film, Montano gave justice to
the film and gave great interpretation of tragic history in the Philippines. He made the viewer
feel what Rizal’s felt before his death, his acting is quite remarkable. This film shows
transformation of characters from an attorney into a friend like Fabregas who transform from
attorney into a friend with believable ease and tenderness. Joel Torre, who plays Chrisostomo
Ibarra, the main character in Rizal's novel, is both tragic and fearsome. Pen Medina plays
Paciano, Rizal's elder brother, with adequate conviction. In some part, the film is inconsistent in
the acting department, the Gardo Verzosa's Andres Bonifacio has an unconvincing acting, he
doesn’t show a strong stance on his character, but some character turned into different artists,
they revealed a magical personality that is not common to other film, like Gloria Diaz, who
portrayed as Rizal’s mother. Though there were some confusing terms in the script, especially
the used of Spanish and other languages that Rizal’s known, it will not totally revealed in the
story but the good thing was, characters still maintain the concept of the story that was based on
the true story of Rizal’s life. The cinematography of the story helps to create an atmosphere of
magic appropriate for a legendary role as a hero. Technically, the cinematic aspect of this movie
was excellently magnified in every scene. It offers a well-defined music and a superb script
which makes every line vital and supportive with each other. The only problem is the fighting
scenes of the Katipuneros with the Spanish soldiers. The intention was to illustrate how the
Filipino courageously fought for their freedom and make it appear that they are winning but
what’s odd with these scenes is that Filipinos with itak overpowered the guns of the enemy
easily. Some Spanish soldiers seem to wait for them to be slashed to death well in fact you could
see that they could have the ample time to pull the trigger, I don’t know if it’s the acting of the
soldier that has a problem or what, it somehow lacked realistic fights though it was supported
with the right costumes and props. Although, there are some problem in Filipino film when
talking about the visual effects, in the film when the lamp exploded, the effects was not fully
polished, but when talking about the music and sounds used in the film, it was appropriate and
made the scene intense as it is and good thing about this film, the characters portrayed total
masculinity and femininity and did not show any scene that can be an issue of gender sensitivity
to the viewer. It was a great pride of Filipinos having this kind of film that shows patriotism,
nationalism and heroism. And as related to Communication Arts, it features how the traditional
form of communications flourished during the old times, especially in the Propaganda
Movement wherein Dr. Rizal used his writings to urge the Filipino’s desire for revolution. He
used his writings as his weapon for a peaceful reforms. Also, during that time, their powerful
medium of communication was writing, as we can see in the film, Leonor sent a letter to Dr.
Rizal to tell him that she will going to marry another man. Writing during that time was so
important, though it was not writing alone but also the heart and mind of people that takes the
revolution, it still played a very important role in mobilization and spreading information to
awaken the heart and mind of the people. Writings of Dr. Jose Rizal was the key that unlocked
our freedom. He died a hero. He died with dignity and I am proud that I am a Filipino.