The movie started with several questions. Bayaning 3rd world is a film that attempts to answer
questions about Rizal’s life that are uncommonly found in Philippine history books while
simultaneously investigating his influence on modern Philippine history like. Was the
reason why Rizal did not approve of the revolution was because he was not the one who started it?
Was he holding a rosary in his right hand when he was gunned down? And the biggest question of all
which will be the main topic of discussion in this paper: was the retraction letter of Rizal genuine or
fake? Retraction letter was about his withdrawal of all the things he said which were against the
Church. Could this be true? I think it couldn’t .In the movie ³Bayaning Third World,´ Doña Lolay and
Paciano believed that Rizal did not retract because it was inconsistent to what he believed in. I
knew this was an insufficient reason, but both of them were close to Rizal and I assumed they
already knew him very well by then. And what they saidreally made sense ± Rizal went abroad (away
from his family), wrote a lot of nationalistic poems, essays,and novels, joined several groups, sacrificed
his love life many times ± all for one main goal: to give justice and equality for the Filipinos. Did these
acts deserve retraction? No. Retraction was against Rizal¶s beliefs and based on the many
years of struggles to liberate the Philippines, to retract seemed to be the lastthing he
would do. His sisters, Narcisa and Trinidad, on the other hand, gave ambiguous,
inconclusivetestimonies. It was not clear whether they believed that Rizal retracted or not. As for
Josephine Bracken,do you really think Rizal would give up all the efforts he had done throughout the
years just for a woman?If your answer is no, then I¶m with you. Romance never came first in Rizal¶s
priority. This wasexemplified by his affairs with O-Sei-San and several other women, which did not end
happily because of Rizal is duty to the Fatherland. And if he really retracted only because he wanted
to marry Bracken, whydid he not do it earlier? Why would he retract only just hours before his
execution? Makes sense, right?When it comes to religion, Rizal had not been a good Catholic
(because he did not believe the practices of the Church), but this didn¶t mean that he was a bad
servant of God. He loved God. It¶s justthat he had his own way of showing it. His letter to the Malolos
women was the proof. There, he said thatuttering memorized prayers, singing religious songs, and
doing rituals were nothing when not done withall your heart. So, if Rizal really loved God, why was
there a need to retract, right? The friars were notGod. Documents, like the retraction letter, were
nothing compared to what Rizal really felt about our Creator.These are only my opinion about the
retraction issue. No one really knows about the truth. Butwhatever it is, it will not make Dr. Jose Rizal
less of a hero, because through his life, works, and writings,without any doubt, he deserved to be our
national hero

. The film emphasizes on the fact that most of the Filipino people only sees Rizal as our
national hero, our nation’s icon and not the physical reality of the man underneath it.
Throughout watching the movie, I couldn’t help but agree to what the movie is trying to
depict. I thought what I know about Rizal was enough to understand his life, works and
writing but it made me realize that we blindly revere him as our national hero while
knowing so little about him. Growing up, we were taught to regard him as our national
hero, being given positive facts such as the books he wrote, his feats and
accomplishment and how he died a martyr, to the point of blind veneration. Never had we
questioned the negative things he has done throughout his life. And that’s what’s this
movie is trying to present. Contrary to the movies which immortalized him as hero in the
silver screen, it wanted to show us Rizal the human and not Rizal the icon or hero. The
movie emphasized on myths/stories and arguments in which reflected upon will surely
create doubts about him. As well as questions, that will probably be left unanswered,
such as: Does he really deserve to be named our national hero? What would have
happened had he not died? And Did Jose Rizal retracted?
In the end of the film, no myths were proven and the questions raised were still not
answered. But even with those things in mind, I feel like the movie still did its part for it
has gave me a new sense of outlook and understanding on how I perceive Rizal. That I
won’t just describe to people his feats and accomplishments and how amazing he is and
to just regard him as our hero, but instead tell them to be the judge of him, to read more
about him and not just believe everything that we read and is spoken by people about
him, for all of us have different perceptions and understanding and in truth, we only know
so much. No one was literally there anyway to tell us all of the truth about him. Besides, it
is better to not revere at all than blindly revere someone.

After watching the film, I asked myself whether Jose Rizal would have wanted the fame
he has right
now. Along with the fame are cluttered stories and even different judgments. Would the
humble Rizal
like all of these? I don’t think so. His last words to his mom, Teodora, can attest to this.
He just wanted
a simple burial and no anniversaries. I think he even wanted to bury his living memories
with him.
Now, his memories are not just remembered but questioned. I pity a dead man, who
cannot even
defend himself from all the judgments thrown at him. If Rizal could just rise from the
dead and answer
everything or at least just The Retraction Controversy.

I like the film's approach in searching for answers for the controversy, bringing to life
important
characters in Rizal's life like Paciano, Fr. Balaguer, Trining, Teodora, Josephine Bracken
and even Rizal
himself to personally ask them about what really happened in Rizal's last few days.
Each character's
answers, [ understood are subjective or if not are from the different writings or diaries
found. After all
those effort of finding the truth about Rizal's alleged retraction, there has been no strong
evidence
that could put an end to it. Some believed he wrote that just to marry Josephine, some
says the
signature was forged, some says everything was just all invented by the Catholic
Church at that time
to erase to the notion of Rizal, mortal enemy of the Church, as our hero. Indeed, Rizal
buried with him
the truth about this controversy and we are left to believe what we want to individually
believe.

Reflection Paper on the Film: Bayaning Third World The film was actually very
intriguing because it was not the usual Jose Rizal film wherein everyperson
watching would know what was about to happen in each scene. It was completely
different. Thefilm discussed both the major and minor details of Rizal. It was an
attempt to portray Rizal in a differentlight, showing a different perspective of him
which is unfamiliar to the Filipino people. Rather than justsimply agreeing to what is
already considered as common knowledge about Rizal, the film did its best toexamine
every knowledge of him by carefully trying to remain historically accurate and at the same
time,uncover more details about him. The film basically revolved around the
question, “What makes JoseRizal a hero?”. It tried to answer the questions that
were vaguely explained in historical books anduncover the truth behind his writings
and actions when he was still alive