Film analysis
History of Southeast Asia
JERRY C. GUPIT JR
ROY M. PARAGOSO
Insular Southeast Asia
Alaala: A Martial Law Special
This movie was directed by Adolfo B. Alix Jr. and Rember Gelera second director,
writer Bonifacio Ilagan, Marissa Flores SVP for news and public affairs, Nessa Valdellon
FVP for public affairs, and Joy Madrigal program director. The movie was all about the
declaration of martial law the effect of being an activist and the consequences of the
person who will refuse to follow the rule of the government, for us the movie only played
by those who encountered negative effect during the administration of Marcos.
For us they come up with this tittle alala during the martial law, because they wanted
to remember the history of worst government under Marcos administration, the movie is
quite good in terms of the plot and setting they used very compatible areas and location
in order for them to compare the actual martial law and the movie. We see some issue of
this movie first the character used by the author of this movie was only those people who
are victims of torture during martial law and it is also quite political because some of those
director is came from the very democratic institutions like UP and La Salle. In order for us
to remember all the things during martial law we should try to look some of provinces and
areas in the country if everyone is affected by the worst government. But this movie is
intended only for those who experience torture and negative effect during the time.
For us the main purpose of this film is to share the worst experience of some people
during the martial law. It is only the worst side of the government shows in the film, that’s
why for our own opinion this movie is intended and people can relate this if they
experienced the same thing with this people. The major theme of this movie is portraying
some happening during martial law and the nature of being an activist. The movie was
very historical but sometimes it contradicts our understanding as a student of history
because we really don’t know the exact happening during that time, and for us there are
some ideas and opinions in the movie that is bias and not accurate to our personal
learning during the time of Marcos. We think it is quite difficult for a young man to
understand this movie specially those people who didn’t take history degree.
In summary after watching the video we understand that this movie is the message of
the country that will not happen again. We think the movie is very important specially the
future leader of our country will not make the same mistake. The weakness of this movie
when you are Pro-Marcos you won’t agree the setting of this movie. For us the people
who shared their Idea in the movie is they focused only what is the worst thing happen in
the country during this time, for us they wanted to brainwash people that Marcos reign id
the most worst history in the Philippines in fact economically today our country is more
than worst compare to Marcos Time.
Amigo Full Movie
This movie was directed and edited by John Byles, John Sayles' Amigo is set during
the U.S. incursion in the Philippines in 1900. It's a familiar tale, but the setting is different,
and Sayles tells it with his usual cinematic vigor and attention to small detail. It will appeal
to audiences interested in well-told history, and the film should be of great interest to
educators as a way of imparting the everlasting tragedy of such conflicts. With much of
the dialogue in Spanish, it also should travel well. With Spain and the U.S. at war, the
Philippines declared itself an independent republic in 1898. American troops moved in
and the conflict in the Philippines lasted longer than the Spanish-American War. Cattle
are slain, fields ruined and curfews imposed; anyone who helps the rebels will be shot.
Meanwhile, the rebels issue their own demands that mean anyone who aids the enemy
also will be executed. Just like the locals in Afghanistan and many other places, the
villagers are caught between a rock and a hard place. Sayles depicts the young U.S.
soldiers as a rough and tender mix, with most having learned to demonize the enemy
even as the Filipinos they meet turn out to be friendly and cooperative. Tension mounts
as the rebels gear up their attacks, violence increases, and the village leader is caught
between conflicting obligations. The main purpose of this movie was to trace the history
of some part of the Philippine during American- Spanish War and to give information to
the people of the Philippines and its young generation knowing the history and the worst
happening during the time.
The movie over all is very good and the quality of the movie was interesting, music,
videos, location, and venue was realistic Filipino quality. Also the film was symbolized
Filipino courage, strong, and has one principle to be a patriot in one country. For us this
movie was based on the real happenings during American- Spanish War in 1900, as a
history students we understood that this movie was very historical in the sense of contents
and interest of the films. The movie also implemented very accurate and realistic
happenings and they used very compatible equipment’s comparing the past and the
movie itself.
To sum up the movie has a very specific content like location, specifically the movie
happened only in San Isidro it means not the entire Philippines. This movie is more
effective we think in the area where the incidents and story really happens. But for other
some areas of the country they cannot relate the whole movie. For us as a history
students the weaknesses of this film was the availability of American High quality actors
because they used very young and not experts of military tactics actress so the movie is
not quite serious in every situation. The best thing in this movie was the Director used a
very expert’s Filipino actress and veterans in historical films, they acted and played like
Filipino people during the American-Spanish War in 1900.
Movie Analysis
(Mainland Movies)
Title: 1968 Tunnel Rats
The movie entitled 1968 Tunnel Rats was produced in 2008 under Boll KG
Production Company and Distributed by Kinostar Vivendi Entertainment. This movie
released on May 31, 2008 in Hoboken International Film Festival (HIFF) with its duration
lasted for about 1 hour and 36 minutes. The movie called 1968 Tunnel Rats was directed
by Uwe Boll and he also wrote it together with Dan Clarke. The main Characters of this
movies was Michael Pare as Sergeant Vic Hollowborn, Wilson Bethel as Corporal Dan
Green, Mitch Eakins as Private Peter Harris, Jane Le as Vo Mai (the Vietnamese woman
who killed a lot of american armies) etc. This had become a box office that raised to
$35,402 Million. We might ask what is Tunnel Rats? Is that a literal tunnel?
The Movie 1968 tunnels rats are referring to the American and Vietnamese soldiers
who undergo a hard training to performed underground searching for enemies' camp to
destroy. Additionally, this movie was based on real events during 1968 Vietnam War and
there's no questions how and why they came up with this movie title. As to describe the
plot and setting, there was a group of US military who are well-trained in terms of
searching the enemy inside the tunnel who came from different places and background
of life and came together just in one mission. They a had time to know with each other in
just 1 day and night and on the next day they begin to do their mission by exploring the
Viet Cong's tunnel network at Cu Chi located in Vietnam, some armies are ordered to go
inside and the most unexpected tragedy are destined to happen, the tunnel they entered
are already occupied by the Vietnamese Armies and also it was predicted by the
Vietnamese what the US armies going to do. This was the beginning of their story and
their fate.
The main purpose of this film is to showcase the nationalism and patriotism of an
individual for his country. On the other hand, it projects the reality that history is a full of
traumatic events, unending war whose innocent people are sadly involved and in the end
there's no victory to be celebrated since we are all loss of this inhuman events. Since this
movie is all about cruel killings, we can conclude its theme as "survival and escape" as
you can observed from the very beginning up to its end the US Armies who entered into
the tunnel are determined to escape from the enemy's attacked which are the Vietnamese
soldiers. This movie was really thrilled and it surely caught the interest of many people.
As the story rolling, we both felt sorry of the both parties because at the end of the story
they helped each other from being trapped and there was no way to out.
We think that young people who love studying history would really love this movies
because this is based on factual and in fact, tunnel rats (armies) are really existed and
according to the history a lot of tunnel rats were died during Vietnam War because of
snake bites inside the tunnel. The thing we love about this movie is that it depicts the real
events and the actors who played their roles are convincing, the music background gives
more thrill as well as the cinematography conveyed a message and most of all the flow
of the story is not scattered that made you focus on watching. However, the bad side is
that it shows bias because it is an American centered movie and it looks like Vietnamese
are the antagonist that might apply in studying history.
For the sum up, after we watched the movie, we remembered Abraham Lincoln's
famous quote saying "There's no honourable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There
is nothing good in war except its ending". It reminds each and every one of us the
importance of peace around the world and this kind of horrific war should not happen
again.
Title: Nhung Nguoi Viet Huyen Thoai or "The Legend Makers"
Nhung Nguoi Viet Huyen Thoai or "The Legend Makers" is a kind of movie that
would gives us a food for our thoughts. This is another History War movie that happened
in Vietnam way back in 1960's during Vietnam War, (Vietnam Vs. US) and after seeing
this movie it puts us into many realizations in life. The movie entitled The Legend Makers
was released on January 10, 2013, Directed by Bui Tuan Dung under Vietnam Feature
Film Studio and this is an award-winning movie (The Golden Lotus for the best movie in
18th Vietnam movies festival). The issue of this movie occurred when the demand of gas
in the southern part of Vietnam referring to battlefield was urgently increased. Under the
Leadership of General Dinh, ( one of the main characters) gasoline armies had to face
various difficulties, challenges and dangers just to construct the 5,000 km pipeline
running from north to south under the attacks to US.
Unimaginable kind of evens had experienced by the residents everytime the US
armies fell bombs into their land. There were many innocent people who died and the
time came that everything happened became a normal scenario. They had face death
everyday and those people who live in the place has nothing to do. The purpose of this
movie is to reach out to the all people that no matter how deadly the situation would be,
Vietnamese are always ready to die for what is right and what belong to them as a
Vietnamese. Moreover the theme of this movie are; Honor, Duty and Heroism. Many
soldiers are died because they are fully committed and they show passion in their
profession. As what Nghia (Truong Minh Quoc Thai in real life) said, "I'm a soldier; it's my
job, Im not a killer", this line shows something that they are not just a soldier whose
destined to be a killer to his foes but rather a protector for his country. Also this movies
portrays heroism because Nghia chose to served his country to be a soldier despite of
the aggressiveness of the enemy, he set aside his marriage and studies.
Women and children were not supposed to be involved in any kinds of violence but this
movie shows Women are holding war equipment and children saw this horrific events that
should not at the very young age. Despite of its serious theme there are still funny
moments for the viewers to have a break from being serious on watching this movie.
Technically, it was very good to watch because the background music are very
appropriate that added more thrills and emotions, the cinematography is also good and
we didn't see so much acting in it because this movie is more on action, bombing and
shooting and we can say that actors in this movie are doing great job. Since this is based
on facts about history movie, we think that a lot of young people would appreciate this
movie after they finish watching this.
Generally, we learned a lot and this mirrors the realities if we allow wars and
hostilities children will not have bright future and it would implanted in their minds that
killing and destruction are normal in oder to survive. Children should live in a peaceful
community and nurtured with love and all people deserve to live in a peace place in which
we live with our rights and use our rights to develop our society to have a better life
because at the end of the day we are all human being who shared the same species.
