Heneral Luna

Better late than never...

Heneral Luna opens claiming that this is a fictionalized biopic of one of Philippine's most important historical figures, Antonio Luna, for the sake of getting the modern audience into the history's bigger picture. In spite of being more intense and surprisingly humorous, the movie stays loyal to what this figure truly stands for. The war is brutal, over-the-top to bring up for visual flare, and their serious situations being often treated as sincere satires. How the film executed these ideas are just brilliant, it gets larger-than-life without feeling outlandish, towards the heart of defending the nation worth fighting for.

The film is all about justifying their quote about the real enemy of this war is themselves. Although we see warfare with both the Philippine and American army attacking each other, this battle is basically the secondary concern here. The real detail of this war is how many soldiers chickening out from the battlefield and some officials wanted to work with the Americans. But of course, their real goal is independence; the movie makes a punchline out of those who aren't helping out, those who are just running away and those who are just isn't fond of Luna's aggressiveness. The film doesn't glamorize the character of Luna, either. Though his intentions are right, his rage could get out of hand which puts most of them off. But that also indicate that winning this revolution deserves more discipline than what they got.

Back to the fact that this is taken a lot out of creative liberties, the movie fills this history with vast amount of sense of humor and violent panache. The violence is, again, over-the-top. At times it gets pretty symbolical, specifically the climax. The humor is clearly just satirizing to those characters who aren't being helpful and those who are afraid of facing Luna's rage once more. And when it's not trying to pull off any sense of levity, we just get to see the story flesh itself out more in the sidelines of its history and other characters.

The filmmaking is stunning, slick and stylish. The production looks pretty neat. The movie is paced nicely even at times it's layered to different events, but puts itself together consistently. The acting is beyond impressive; specifically John Arcilla as Antonio Luna. He brings a genuine humanity, and at the same time, a really compelling sense of madness, which terrifically lives up to the complexity of its subject. The supporting also lends real gravity and even delight on screen, but it's Arcilla's show and that's more than enough of a worth seeing performance through out.

Maybe some quibbles I could point out; maybe how the enemies are portrayed felt like they're written to be campy villains and maybe just one punchline in the film that felt like it belongs to a comedy skit. But again, these are quibbles and they can be debunked, even by myself. The former can be forgiven since they're technically not the main villains of this ordeal, while the latter is just a single scene and obviously designed to keep shaming the cowards at the battlefield. Anything else, there is so much to love in Heneral Luna. It's great, not only because it's humorous and visually interesting, but it's also a two-sided argument towards its history, not based on praising, but actually by criticism. Yes, this is a war movie that gets brutal, but the movie focuses on a meatier and more challenging side of the ordeal. And it pokes fun at some unwise decisions the people behind this war make, but what matters is the intention of its subject unable to die while he's still standing. Otherwise, it's just an ultimately entertaining film that exceeds expectations. Truly recommended.

I don't usually patronize historical movies/dramas as they could be biased depending on how the directors/writers/producers would like to portray the "heroes" in it, but HENERAL LUNA is different!

Hen. Antonio Luna wasn't portrayed as a mere hero without imperfections, but instead a human being who wasn't afraid to gain naysayers for the sake of Inang Bayan's "real" independence. You will admire him, hate him, disagree with him, sympathize with him...surely, these emotions are not enough to describe I how felt while watching the movie. John Arcilla, without a doubt gave life to Hen. Luna's character (all actors/actresses in the movie, actually).

Kudos to the director, Mr. Jerrold Tarog and everyone who made this masterpiece possible.

Watching this was worth every penny spent!!!

My review is about my personal view and belief about my understanding in history of my own country I believe Aguinaldo is hypocrite and those shrine they built in kawit are useless what for as a reminder of him being hypocrite.

He is also responsible for Anders Bonifacio death it was clear and until now this way is clearly happening in our country the love of the politicians to serve their self ,their own interest is the main reason why most of Pilipino people are poor.

It might sound personal but this movie might be serve as one of the eye opener that history repeatedly reveals the truth and I wish 🤞 we could learn and wake up this kind of nightmare.

Words cannot describe my satisfaction with this film and the only way to review it is through personal experience. There are pacing problems and disappointments in terms of the props such as the weaponry used by both sides, but given the film's tight budget, it has managed to portray these battle scenes with epic proportions combined with the score being obviously inspired by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. The atmosphere of the entire film is portrayed beautifully, it shows the political machinations and political infighting when the battle scenes are not present, for the entire point of view is based upon Luna and his allies. Still, if you are either a history buff or just an average movie goer, this film is spectacular and it deserves to be one the best films of the year if there are any formal awards as such.

Antonio Luna was a man of turbulent complexity. Honorable, patriotic, dignified and principled he was at the same time arrogant and hot-tempered who did not hesitate to resort to violence. "Heneral Luna" is a well-done cinematic depiction of the man's life as a soldier as his country faced its greatest crisis yet witnessing the birth pains of its genesis as a nation after centuries of colonial rule. Veteran actor John Arcilla does a solid portrayal as the nationalistic and combative general who treads the murky and complicated paths of war and politics. Fine battle scenes and period uniforms add color and pageantry in this well-acted melodrama. Although Luna's youth could have been featured to give the film more fullness and completion what is shown is satisfactory. Watchable and entertaining, this is a showcase in the ongoing progress of Philippine cinema and a good tribute to one of its greatest and most compelling heroes.