Patron

This is quite simply Dante Varona's best film. A close second would be 1982's Hinahamon Kita with the late Eddie Fernandez. Early in his career, Varona made a name for himself by performing various death defying stunts and acrobatics. Out of all the new breed of action stars emerging in the late 70s and early 80s such as Lito Lapid and Rey Malonzo, Varona is the most charismatic and authentic.

In the movie, he plays a hardened cop who execute criminals without the benefit of judge or jury. His character in the film is a perfect specimen of what we'd call an antihero; one who has a twisted sense of dispensing justice through the barrel of a gun. Varona's role here is obviously patterned after rightwing, neofascist action heroes Dirty Harry, Paul Kersey and Mad Max.

Acting-wise, Varona is a great example of a minimalist actor as he doesn't use a lot of unnecessary gestures and movement in expressing emotion. This "less is more" technique works a lot to his advantage; even in his scenes of dialogue, he is able to convey more genuine emotions such as hatred or anger with his effective method of under-acting (As an aside, maybe the poster boy for commendable under-acting in Filipino movies would be veteran actor Bembol Roco). In a way, physical actors like Varona don't really "act" but adapt their own personality into what they portray on screen.

The movie is also masterfully directed by Jose "Kaka" Balagtas, who ranks among the great directors of classic Filipino hard action movies. This film is one of his first directorial efforts and his gift in staging scenes and sequences is pretty much evident in every shot. The narrative and pacing of the film also doesn't lag or get stuck in lethargic pretense but flow smoothly at a natural and organic pace. To see how good Balagtas is as a director of action movies, you should also definitely check out his other early film, Punglo...Bawat Hakbang, starring the late Roy Alvarez.

There is a reason though on why I only give the movie 5 stars. The first has to do with the film's cinematography which seems too drab and dull for my personal taste; the color scheme and screen resolution resemble those old FPJ and Rudy Fernandez movies from the late 70s. My second and main complaint with the film is its disappointing final act and action sequence; Varona is just jumping around and using a puny handgun in the last climactic set piece. He's supposed to go all out with big guns blazing while spilling buckets of blood. Instead, we have a very clumsily choreographed gun battle in which Varona's time to showcase his badassery ends up becoming a dud, which is just too bad and is a wasted opportunity.

In conclusion, Patron is a highly enjoyable and entertaining action film, but its final act leave much to be desired. On a more positive note, it also represents Dante Varona in the best shape of his career, at a time when he was at the top of his game. For that alone, action afficionados should absolutely go check it out.