A Dangerous Life

I was an NBC-TV field producer during the events depicted here, Mr. Busey describes events where I was the only foreign journalist present, and the scenes of the snipers in the broadcast tower shooting at us (we were taking cover behind a beer garden barbecue pit full of charcoal ash), the soldiers coming in around us, the snipers being shot from a nearby building, the priest and squad of soldiers lowering the snipers' corpses down across the setting sun: My camera team and I shot that. My god, what a day.

It's a shame the nuns kneeling in front of the tanks are poorly acted. The real thing...

I watched the original mini series, and as I have been in close contact with many of the Marcos victims, found the original series an excellent depiction of what happened there. Sadly the film was butchered to the point of near unrecognizable, when it released its condensed version that is now on DVD.

I am sure the Marcos family loves the new version as compared to the original series, it practically removes most of the hideous history that was part of the original film. It was fiction, but an excellent depiction of what really happened, I am referring now to the original 3 episode series.

I have seen this mini series thrice. I must say it's much more fictional than factual. Although Ruben Rustia was awesome for his role as President Ferdinand Marcos (he received a Best Actor award), none of the other actors/actresses were convincing, including Gary Busey. Maybe Anti-Marcos people would disagree otherwise, but I'll give this mini series a 2/10 score. Sri Lankans substituted for Filipinos? There's one obvious goof in this movie. When Air Force General Sotelo landed his helicopters at Camp Crame, you can notice in the background the moving traffic along E. Delos Santos Avenue (EDSA). During this so-called EDSA Revolution, the only vehicles on EDSA are some military and news vehicles.

I watched the actual events unfold in the news on TV. For those four days, I was glued to that TV. Although this movie was not totally factual, I enjoyed watching it and felt the emotion and energy of the story. The first time I watched it, I was tearing near the end. But that soon stopped when I noticed that the actors portraying the Filipinos in the street were NOT Filipino! What a disappointment. To viewers who can't tell the difference in appearance between a Filipino and another Asian, it's not so bad. But for a Filipino who happens to be taken by the emotion and tension of the scene in the movie, it was such a disappointment. Overall, the movie was good. It adequately portrayed the message of the whole People Power Revolution and what it was able to accomplish...

This is quite accurate for the time. As a G. I. assigned in country I watched these events unfold. As the future brother-in-law of a national reporter, I had slightly more knowledge than most.

There are many nuances of the time that may only be grasped by those who actually lived through it. Secret Police who answered only to the regime, Marcos' televised declaration that there would be no "snap" election just weeks before the announcement that there would be one!

The inflation was nearly as rampant as the corruption.