A provocative take on our nation's history - ****1/2

Heneral Luna is a somewhat loose interpretation of an era that is emerging to be one of Philippine's darkest in political history.  It is a story that needed to be told in this time of economic struggle and political ambiguity.  A story about a man who refuses to play politics in pursuit of absolute freedom.

In 1898, the Spaniards gave up the Philippines to the Americans as an execution of a Treaty that was made in Paris.  The Philippine revolutionary government led by President Aguinaldo is at first at a quandary as to the intentions of the Americans until an incident that led to the killing of Filipinos by American troops triggered the Philippine-American war.  This movie is about General Antonio Luna, the commander of the Philippine revolutionary army that led that war.  Though he is a brilliant strategist and a brave soldier, his plans were often foiled by non-compliance of troops loyal to the President.  He led the army like a dictator often embarrassing soldiers who do not even come up to his own standards.  This earned the ire of some quarters that presumably led to his death. 

The general lived a short career as leader of the Philippine-American war, there were probably very little material to work on to produce a full-length film unless the story included his life in Paris being amongst the Illustrados, but that era was only touched on briefly.  So watching the movie was a bit of a stretch because it spent a lot of time on some details that have already been established.  The script needed a little consistency, for the most part the characters were speaking in the contemporary language and at some point they become sort of classical, though this may be a style that the writers employed, I thought that flaw was a little distracting.

The texture of this movie in terms of visuals does not differ much from other period films trying to portray the 19th century until you see the flashbacks.  The movie used a couple of devices to regress back in time using animation and creative camera movements.  The biggest strength of this movie is the performance of John Arcilla as the General, his is a determined portrayal and an undistracted attack with each scene.

This is an important movie with a relevant message.  It is thought provoking and iconoclastic.  It tries to tell you a different version history, a version that you probably didn't want to know and it challenges your idea of a hero.