Reader Response Criticism on Jerrold Tarog’s Heneral Luna

One of a kind! Heneral Luna, a wonderfully crafted Filipino authentic biopic movie by
Jerrold Tarog; depicting General Antonio Luna’s administration in the Philippine Revolutionary
Army throughout the Philippine-American War. The movie enlightened us about what happened
in the past, which Filipinos didn’t know what General Luna and his troops did before.
The movie was set during the Philippine-American War in the late 1800s following the
life of General Antonio Luna, one of the most brilliant soldiers in the Philippine history. General
Luna showed great leadership to our country making him the only one capable of leading us to
independence at that time. But behind his good intention and kindness, some of his fellow co-
soldiers, politicians, and businessmen didn’t like the way he was running things. The general’s
bravery and viciousness led him to death when he was murdered by the hands of his fellow
Filipino soldiers. His brutal death still remained as a puzzle up until now, and the mastermind
was never put to justice.
The movie is truly an eye-opener to everyone. We don’t have any idea how hard our
Filipino heroes strove just to fight for our nation. But the filmmaker was able to indicate how
difficult it is to fight for the liberty that we seek for our Mother Land. The movie also describes
how unfair and rotten our government is. We saw how powerful leaders can be but powers are
often misused. Also, the movie mirrors the current state of our society. In fact, the line “Mga
kapatid mayroon tayong mas malaking kaaway kaysa mga Amerikano. Ang sarili natin” denotes
Filipinos as narrow-minded people in which they tend to pull down others who are doing better
than them, the so-called crab mentality. In addition, the excerpt “Negosyo o kalayaan? Bayan o
sarili? Pumili ka” targets most of the officials in the government today who prioritize their
personal interests over the good of the country. It is truly horrible that corruption and treason
were evident before, however, what is worse is that these awful kinds of stuff are happening up
until now. Moreover, the movie Heneral Luna is truly a well-written masterpiece, it is not the
typical historical film that is boring, uninteresting, and looks like a documentary film. It was a
historical film, yet they used simple words instead of using deep Filipino words. Also, the people
behind the movie had thrown some great humor and made it not too poetic so the generations
were able to relate. On the other hand, they should have had a warning at the beginning of the
violence, blood, and explicit language in the movie because it is quite disturbing. Furthermore,
John Arcilla really gave justice in portraying the role of General Luna. He was able to show how
strict and fierce the general has been historically known to be. However, there is not much to be
said about the rest of the cast. Each artist portrayed his or her role successfully, however, none of
the others stand out. Not that the other performances are bad, it is just none were able to keep up
with the intensity of Arcilla’s Luna. The flow of the story is great but the pacing is too fast to
really bring the pieces together. Because of this, there are some scenes that are unclear and
incomprehensible, thus leaving the audience bombarded with many questions. Just like its
ending, it was unclear, nonetheless, being unclear brings forth the audience to make and
visualize their own finale based on their own perceptions. All in all, Heneral Luna is an excellent
masterpiece. From it beautifully written script to the well-crafted cinematography, no wonder it
is blockbuster hit that will be forever in the history of Filipino movies.
Indeed, this is a history that comes to life. People, especially students must watch this to
learn more about history which is not enough by just reading a book. Heneral Luna is not just a
movie, but it is also a wake-up call to everyone that the actions we did in the past gravely affect
our future. There is a huge chance that what happened in the past might happen again in the
future. Who knows? History repeats itself after all.