III. Things That Make You Love And Hate Heneral Luna (2015)

by Unknown 10:52 PM 1 comments Heneral Luna Reflection

To be very honest, as a person who is not really into history, I really enjoyed watching Heneral Luna. For your information, Heneral Luna (English: "General Luna") is a 2015 Filipino historical biopic film depicting General Antonio Luna's leadership of Philippine Revolutionary Army during the Philippine-American War. Before, I don't even know much of the people who played a big role in the history of the Philippines besides Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Aguinaldo. And I am really ashamed to tell you that. Cause as a Filipino, I should know more about my own country's history to be able to love it deeper and to be more proud of it. I can honestly say that the reason why I am now more informed about the Philippine History because of my first term in college. We had to take that subject and honestly, I didn't like it because I don't like history, but my professor has so much passion in teaching history. It is just hard not to listen. The way he teaches is like he is telling a narrative story and he shows us videos of Xiao Chua, who is

a history professor as well and a historian. I wasn't really planning to learn that time. That is how much I am not into history. I just want to pass the subject, but as time passes by, my intention changed. I am really glad that I learned a lot.

I just learned about Antonio Luna just recently. And if you are wondering why I watched the movie when I am not into history, well that is because of my curiosity. The production (is that how you call it?) of Heneral Luna visited our school and they talked about the movie. After that, they showed us a trailer which is a cliffhanger that triggered my curiosity more. So to be able to satisfy my curiosity, I watched the movie with my friend. So, today I will talking about the things that make you love and hate Heneral Luna (2015) based on my experience.

Let us start with the positive things.

Things that make you love Heneral Luna:

1. It triggers something on every Filipinos' heart. It triggers a sense of realization and nationalism to the people. Filipinos, in general, tend to play the blame game all the time. They blame the growth of the economy on the government alone. They blame the government for they are poor because they expect the government to supply their every single need. They blame the current president for the problem he just inherit from the past presidents. They blame the current president that his ways are horrible and the past president, who they used to blame and bash, is better. They just keep on blaming. Another is that, sadly, Filipinos have a crab mentality. Even way before as we have seen the movie. Aguinaldo was afraid that Luna might steal his position which Luna is capable of, but he wouldn't for his intention is to give freedom to the Philippines.  Aguinaldo surely saw how great Luna was, that why he decided to kill Luna before he could even go higher that than what Aguinaldo expected. Another bad attitude of Filipinos is lack of nationalism. As shown at the movie, Filipino businessmen care about their businesses than the freedom of the country and the lives of many Filipinos sacrificed. They betray fellow Filipino in order to protect their business.
One of the powerful phrases I heard from the movie is "Hindi ang Amerikano ang ating mga kalaban, kundi ang ating mga sarili" (Our enemy is not the Americans, but our own selves). It is a single phrase that covers a lot of things. The movie is like telling me/us that it is not too late to change. We don't have live up the "traditional attitude" of the Filipinos that we know of. The battle that we are talking about here is not just the physical battle, but the battle of the mind; how we think produces how we act. By battling with our own individual minds, every individual can be the best they can be which can produce a better nation. It's not right to blame the entire nation to a single person because every single individual makes up the nation.

2. Sense of Humor. The jokes were really easy to reach, but not predictable. This makes the movie alive, amusing and most importantly, not boring.

3. Characters. The characters were amazing because each character represents the characteristics of the majority of the Filipinos. It's easier to relate or understand where they are coming from and it's easier to reflect on ourselves to change for the better. If you know that you have a crab mentality, which I know you wouldn't admit publicly, you will be able to see the result of a situation if you're working on pulling people down.

When it comes to the things I hate about it, there is only one.

Thing that make you hate Heneral Luna:

1. Not being too realistic. I think this most apply to the part where they slaughter Heneral Luna. He was shot and stab a million times, yet he can still stand up and utter sentences. I am not really against it, I mean if it is just for entertainment, why not, right? This is just my personal opinion about it.

If you have seen the movie, you can comment down below your thoughts and idea about the movie, I would love to read them. AND if you haven't seen the movie, you should. Really. You're really missing out a lot.