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dynngbrtn-blog · 7 years ago

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GOYO: Ang Batang Heneral

I still remember the day me and my friends watched a film vividly depicting emotions such as love, trust, loyalty, patriotism as well as hate, betrayal, power and sorrow. It was September 14, a typical friday night when we decided to watch this movie entitled, “GOYO: Ang Batang Heneral”. This movie is the sequel of Heneral Luna which is also similar to GOYO but instead, it tells us about the story of a man and, at the same time, a well-known General named Antonio Luna and his courageous fight against the Americans which ended with tragedy. GOYO: Ang Batang Heneral might be your typical historical film where the main lead kills the enemy with his powerful sword of justice and end with a happily-ever-after, but no, Paulo Avelino who played the role of Gregorio Del Pilar in the movie told me how flawed protagonists also exists. All the characters and the whole movie, itself, would show everyone how, as ironic as it seems, the love power can easily dominate the power of love.

GOYO: Ang Batang Heneral is all about a general by the name of Gregorio Del Pilar which is also known as Goyo who, at such a young age, became a well-respected and powerful general. He was a man who was willing to fight for our country but, in the movie, we can see that most of his actions was dictated by his loyalty to President Emilio Aguinaldo who, we can say, was a puppet to the aliens colonizing our country. As the story goes on, we can see the flaws of the protagonist specially with his seemingly playful encounter with women and how he lacks sensitivity during war which paid its consequences at the end. I also noticed how some of the characters would always remind him of who he is, the eagle.

Moving on, Philippines during that time, experienced peace that’s why the Filipinos became very complacent. The real thing here is that our fellow country men wanted to have their own sovereignty, their own government which is why they took hold of American hostages in exchange for that, but the Americans won’t let them because they wanted the Philippines to surrender. There were certain lines by Apolinario Mabini which explains the whole situation of our country. To summarize the story, at the time of the Filipinos complacency the Americans attacked, and we all know how little and weak we are compared to the them. This event lead to the escape of President Emilio Aguinaldo and the search for soldiers while being followed by the Americans.

When they reached Ilocos Sur, they knew they had to fight and they did which lead to the so-called “Battle of Tirad Pass”. At first General Gregorio Del Pilar’s troop was at an advantageous point compared to the Americans until someone, who was shockingly a Filipino with the same blood running in the veins of the soldiers fighting for our country, leaked information to the Americans on how to get on the top of the mountains without being noticed by Goyo’s battalion and the rest was a history full of tragedy. Filipinos died including the young General Gregorio Del Pilar and President Emilio Aguinaldo decided to surrender to the Americans, in the end. As the story comes to its conclusion, we can see the sorrow and grief of Goyo’s friends and family. Philippines, then, was conquered by the Americans during the rest of President Emilio Aguinaldo’s years that passed and we were never the same again.

After I finished watching the film, I felt kind of betrayed and sad because all throughout the movie we can see how power dominated the love for our country, how one Filipino sacrificed the lives of their own country men, and how the movie depicted that our enemy is not really the Americans nor the colonizers but ourselves. Looking at the brighter side, I loved every part that showed the patriotism of the Filipinos, someone whom I can say is a defender of justice, a saint willing to sacrifice his life for the love of the country but too bad nobody is willing to listen, what’s a good shepherd if the herd is beyond the shepherd’s rationale? All in all, the movie left me hanging and anticipated even more. The mixed emotions that I felt was unimaginable. I give a thumbs-up to the writers, the cast and everyone involved in the film because if it weren’t for them I wouldn’t have a much clear understanding of the history of the Philippines since I’m not a fan of history books that’s why whenever I got the chance to watch historical films, I grab it.

To end this, GOYO: Ang Batang Heneral and all other historical films showed how my own country was molded by prophets who visualize our society that our own country are full of puppets, how people are killed without justice and then be blinded by phrases such as the “I shall return” of an alien from another soil, how this land of the brave, hidden in the spring of gold was under the power of foreign soil for so long. On the other side of the coin, I can say that what I’ve stated in the above sentences is as clear as water and as true as God’s word but it is also true that people can kill our men but never our ideals, each and every one of us can be dead in the war we’re waging on but they can never erase our history and existence.

#EAP #GOYO #ReactionPaper

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