TIMBAL, MERRY GERALDINE A.

OCTOBER 2, 2022
GRADE 12- ASTUTE

Dekada`70
Summary
Dekada 70 is film approximately the lifestyles and experiences of
the people throughout the previous President Ferdinand
Marcos’ term, wherein it's far the time that the
primary Martial law become declared. The film is targeted on the story of
the situation that the Bartolome circle of relatives, in which Amanda
Bartolome and Julian Bartolome are the parents of  (5) children named
Julian “Jules’’ Bartolome, Isagani “Gani” Bartolome, Emmanuel “Eman”
Bartolome, Jason Bartolome, and Benjamin “Bingo” Bartolome,
have confronted and skilled inside the hands of the Marcos government at
some point of his repressive dictatorship. Because the martial regulation in
the Philippines commenced, the lifestyles of the Filipino
have modified because of the challenging events and scenario that
the authorities have performed that made the human beings all
through Marcos regime struggle, in
which it became their source of energy to turn out to be an empowered
Filipino so that it will fight for what's right.
Their eldest son, Jules, on the other hand, began to witness
protests against Martial Law and was drawn to it. He then joined in
rebellious acts against the government, but he kept it a secret from his
family at first. Amanda discovered Jules's secret when she saw some
unruly papers involving Jules. Although the family disagreed and feared
losing Jules, they accepted his decision to join the rebels. Jules joined
forces with Emmanuel, the family's third sibling. Emmanuel wrote down
what Jules had to say about the government. However, Jules was arrested
by police shortly after becoming a political officer. Gani, the second son,
enlisted and joined the US Navy. Despite disagreements with his brothers,
Jules who was very patriotic and nationalistic, did not want Gani to enlist,
but Gani insisted on a higher salary as a member of the United States Navy.
Gani, accidentally impregnated his girlfriend before joining the navy, forcing
him to marry her despite the fact that their marriage did not work. Jason,
the fourth son, was Jule's favorite. Jason is a cheerful adolescent who
brings joy to the family during difficult times. But Jason died because
police officers killed him unjustly. Benjamin, the fifth son, was a middle-
aged teenager who had no idea what was going on around him.

Because of all the bad luck in their family, Amanda's forced her to plan
on being separated from her family and alone. However, Benjamin informed her
mother that there was no need for their family to split up because Jules was
about to be released from prison. In 1983, the Bartolome family followed Ninoy
Aquino's lead and joined the rebels in their quest to finally overthrow the Marcos
regime. Ferdinand Marcos was successfully deposed in 1986, as Corazon Aquino
sought to succeed him.

Reaction Paper
Mr. Chito S. Rono directed a film adaptation of Lualhati Bautista’s
book Dekada 70 focused on the difficulties faced by middle-class families during
the Marcos era. I recently watched a political and historical film titled, my eyes
were opened to the plight of certain Filipinos during the “Dekada 70”. The martial
law era in the Philippines is its darkest period. I’m a huge fan of Vilma Santos who
portrays Amanda, a mother and a wife who is incredibly loving, supporting, and
kind. In she was torn in this movie between the predicament of her family and
that of her country. She’s got encountered many difficulties trying to safe her
family, and her oldest son started getting involved in joining such anti-regime
organizations and joining the NPA was the worst. Gani, however, is their second
child joined the United States because he was more concerned about other
countries than his own. Eman their third child, has developed into a writer of
illegal writings critical of the government. While their fourth son, Jason, was
murdered by cruel and dishonest police officers, while the youngest among them
was innocent the entire time they were under martial law.
Their diverse viewpoints served as obstacles to maintain their family’s
unity and wholeness. The film demonstrates how essential the circumstances of
the Filipino family were and explains how independence was, how corrupt, how
strong the government was at that time, and how undervalued women were.
“Dekada 70” only illustrates the reciprocal tie between the family and the
historical figures in our history. I’ve second-hand seen how the characters interact
with society and gender discrimination. I have only just observed how dedicated
and courageous they were to express and insist their worries. As I watched this
movie, I learned about the characters individuality, love, various political ideas
and have also become aware of the difficulties that women face, as demonstrated
by Ms. Vilma Santos character showed me that while she cannot be an ideal wife
and mother, she may try her best to. She has demonstrated that she will support
and protect her family at any costs and in any challenging circumstance. Family
will always come first to her no matter what, especially when a brutal regime is
involved. The film covered both feminist and autocratic rule. Whereas Julian
forbade Amanda to work because he believes he is more superior and that only
he has access to all. It illustrates how discrimination against women was prevalent
at the time and their lack of aptitude for such tasks. It disregarded everyone’s
right to self-expression and infringed the rights of every woman to go through the
proper legal channels to receive fair justice, yet the movie also allowed me to
witness the brutality of the government’s abuse of power caused those who had
previously tortured for saying or acting in a way that was critical of the
government, and their rights were categorically violated just because of that
single sin.
The movie has thought me the value of family, a mother and a father
who choose to set aside their issues as a couple for the sake of their children. It
thought me that no matter how different their perspective will be, they will
always be still a family who needs to stand for each other through extremity of
life. If I will be asked about this dark history of our country, I’d rather not to be in
that situation because there are so many ways to build disciplined citizens and a
well-organized nation. I think, we can do it in a moral way where rights will never
be deprived again and where humans will be treated as human and not an animal.
I don’t want to be in any situation where this dark history will repeat itself.