I would like to think that when I watch a historical film I would feel elated that our heroes and heroines despite their weaknesses, vulnerabilities and humaneness, would be depicted as champions of our need for independence and sovereignty.
Unfortunately, sometimes my desire do not get satisfied that easily. There is a tendency for some film products to delve on the weaknesses, rather than the larger-than-life existence of our martyrs.
It is difficult to face death every day, not to be sure if you will still live the following day. That is the constant sword of Damocles that any military or police officer faces. Ask anyone and they will answer you in that way.
Hence, I prefer to have a more sympathetic view of our martyrs especially on celluloid because we, as filmmakers, are relaying to them our past, the heroic struggles of the defenders of our independence. Every medium has that obligation to instill in the young audiences the need for them to aspire for something higher than their everyday existence, like their struggles with their dota (a computer game), their celfone's slowness to connect, their computer applications, their needs for popcorn and soft drinks while watching the movies, etcetera etcetera, such preoccupations becoming the centers of their attention so that they need not face the realities of life.
Do you get me, Folks? Reliving the past to our young generations now and tilting the films to making our martyrs as "too human, too sexually weak to the other sex, etc" will only drive them away to seeking quick self gratification. This could be a dangerous path for them to follow because these youths will be our future leaders, and where would they take us?
Now how should we deal with the foreign invaders on celluloid? Should we show them as matter-of-fact military men, of course, who had been commanded to conquer our country? Not only that -- conquest has inner motives. And the intentions of the Spaniards, the Americans and all other invaders were to scour our land of her natural resources for the satisfaction of the needs and increase the wealth of their own people, their own countries. There is no such thing as everything is equal in times of war. No, there is always that heavy emphasis on the question of "what will this conquest give me?"
I think this is where militaristic films fail most of the time. They focus too much on the war and violent scenes instead of showing the systematic and scheming ways by which all such militaristic maneuvers have been planned, and that is to ransack the natural and human resources of the country.
Hence, let our films depict as many self-sacrificing individuals in the name of liberation, but let us not forget that we must uphold the dignity of our people and our land. We inherited this land from the Almighty and as Macliing would say, "How can you say that you own this land when it will outlive us?"
Yes, let us have more heroes and heroines on the screen and celebrate their sacrifices.
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