Dy, Winnie GERIZAL Y11

Reaction to the film: Bayaning 3rd World

The film is a documentary about two filmmakers who investigated the truths and controversies
surrounding Jose Rizal’s life, works and death by speaking with different people in his life such as his
mother, Doña Teodora, his sisters, Trining and Narcisa, his brother, Paciano, Josephine Bracken, and
Father Balaguer. At first, the film demonstrated the large amount of value society has placed on Rizal
since the early times. To question this, the main issues raised in the movie are Rizal’s Retraction Letter,
which Rizal allegedly wrote to proclaim his Catholic faith and withdraw all his works and writings that
were against the Church, as well as his opposition to the Revolution. The issue as to whether Rizal
married Josephine Bracken was also relevant to His conversion to Catholicism because of the sacred
sacrament of matrimony. In the end, the filmmakers confronted Rizal and concluded that as long as the
Philippines exists, he will continue to be our national hero.

My general reaction to the movie is that the process of investigation was a clever way to explore
Rizal’s heroism. With the rise of Netflix shows with mystery themes, I believe that having a modernized
and faster-paced version of this format of learning about Jose Rizal holds great potential to effectively
educate the youth of today. This is important because for the majority of my life, I submissively believed
in all that was taught to me, so it is only through this course and film that I am being encouraged to
question my previous beliefs and form my “own Rizal.”

Regarding the issues raised, I have a number of reflections. But, before anything else, I would
like to point out that most of the discussions rely on Rizal’s letters and other writings. I would like to
imagine Rizal as someone who is as human as his readers are, which means that we cannot expect him to
be a hundred percent consistent in everything he says or writes. In today’s terms, we cannot expect the
emails, messages and posts of people to be absolutely consistent. He may be an intellectual, but I am
certain that some of his writings resulted from emotion. This means that we have to consider the mood
and situation that he was in when he was writing—those of which may have only been temporary.

In my opinion, the Retraction Letter may have been an impulsive decision that he made because
he knew that he was going to be killed anyway. To better understand it, I would compare his situation to
how, when we feel cornered, we end up saying or doing things that we do not mean. Therefore, I believe
that whatever he wrote before the Retraction letter still holds true. If we were to compare the works that
he spent his life writing with a single letter written the day before he died, I believe that one letter cannot
immediately change the whole story. I acknowledge that there is a possibility that he did change his mind
last minute because he realized that there was nothing to lose, that he would rather die being married to
his love than not. However, it does not render the rest of his words and actions, such as his sentiments
about the Church, invalid.

Another issue in the film was Rizal’s manifesto to the Filipinos in December 1896. As I read it, I
observed that he seemed full of emotion and defensive about his involvement with the Revolution. He
stated, “[Reforms] which come from below are irregularly gained and uncertain (para. 4)” and “I do
condemn this uprising which dishonors us Filipinos and discredits those that could plead our cause (para.
5)” (Constantino, 1970). I admit that he was harsh and insulting, but, again, his aggressive denial may
have stemmed from his instinctive fear of dying. Even though Paciano mentioned that he was ready to
become a martyr, he was only human. He could have realized too late that he would rather live and
perhaps, also spend the rest of his life with Josephine. Furthermore, if it is true that he disagreed with the
violent methods of the masses and preferred reforms to come from above, I believe that there is truth to
his statements. First of all, Rizal is an intellectual, so it is only natural that he would use mind over force
to respond to the issues of society. I, for one, would prefer fighting for any advocacy through diplomatic
ways than physical force. Second, I would like to compare his situation with a hypothetical situation
wherein a population of students feel oppressed by their school administrators and would like to demand
for change. The wise response, in my opinion, would be to seek reforms from above because as students,
they are powerless. I would like to view Rizal as a strategist who plans to take a step back first—let the
Spanish government do the work and possibly change things for the better before the Philippines can be
separated from it. In fact, this speculation is aligned with his abrupt conversion to Catholicism. It is
possible that from exile nearing his death, he started shifting his methods to instead try to be on good
terms with the Catholic Church with hopes of influencing those in power to make reforms that will benefit
the Filipino people. This is also supported by how Josephine, whom Rizal loved and allegedly married,
would usually be seen at the Cathedral speaking with a Spanish friar and was accused by Rizal’s sisters to
be a spy sent by the friars. Though it may sound absurd, it is not impossible for Rizal and Josephine to
secretly plan something.

Overall, just like any other story, there are multiple possibilities and questions that we cannot
answer with regards to the events that led to Rizal’s martyrdom. Not unless we know him personally, we
do not have certainty as to the intentions behind his words and actions. I appreciate that the film allowed
its viewers to explore Rizal’s heroism and helped us articulate our own reasons for believing certain
things. I like that the film chose to end with the conclusion that even though there are a lot of unanswered
questions and different perspectives towards Rizal’s heroism, we each have our “own Rizal” and it is up
to our individual choice whether he is our national hero or not.

References
Constantino, R. (1970). Veneration without understanding. In Dissent and Counter Consciousness,
125-145. Malaya Books, Inc.
The paper must be atleast 700 words long,
560 80% reaction/insights/reflection and
20% summary and
must employ proper use of citations and attributions; APA system/style.
May be in Filipino or English.