A Reaction Paper

On
Bayaning Third World
Directed by: Mike De Leon
Bayaning Third World opens with a prologue; we see cut-to-cut stills from an elementary
school textbook featuring various Philippine national symbols. It ends with a frame that says
National Hero Jose Rizal.
The narrator introduces two main characters a director and a screenwriter
brainstorming on a Rizal film project. It becomes clear that this is a meta-film, a film within a
film. The two filmmakers embark on an investigative research to explore the cinematic potential
of Rizals biography. We see a series of eclectic flash-cuts as the filmmakers review the
omnipresence of Rizal in Philippine culture. Rizal had been canonized as a saint by folk
religion, memorialised in the one-peso Philippine coin, and revered as a demi-god by filmmakers
and historians. In addition, the national heros name had been used for every imaginable purpose
from naming streets to funeral homes.
When the writer suggests a commemorative Rizal film for the Philippine centennial, the
director dismisses it as tawdry, as though Rizal could be sold like a deodorant. The filmmakers
rummage through Rizals life and zero-in on a controversial document which allegedly contains
the heros retraction of his writings, his renunciation of freemasonry and his full submission to
the authority of the Catholic church. They are suspicious, believing the retraction to be out-ofsync with Rizals character and convictions. The film then blurs space-time boundaries as it
sends the two filmmakers on assignment to interview the key characters surrounding the heros
life. Rizals mother Doa Teodora; siblings Paciano, Narcisa and Trining; his love interest, the
Hong Kong-raised Irish woman Josephine Bracken; and Jesuit fraile Padre Balaguer all give
testimonies of various shades of grey.
The filmmakers finally come face-to-face with the man himself and they are frustrated
that he does not provide the answers they need for their film project. The two filmmakers end up
with as many questions as they had in the beginning. 3rd World Hero reaches its open-ended
dnouement: Rizals formidable body of work, and, indeed, the witness of his life as an
exemplary nationalist, will continue to interrogate the validity of the retraction document.
I find the movie impeccably made and astoundingly thought about. It is one of those
movies which you can rarely see sold in the markets and produced by filmmakers.
The life of Rizal as shown in the film is not as great as one might think about. And the
point raised by the indie film is that of an unusual stand wherein it has been shown that Rizal is
not all greatness at all. The film is an eye-opener to the Filipinos who always believe and hold
Rizal with great respect. It showcased the side of the national hero that is usually not portrayed in
when his life is shown.

The film made me realize that Rizal is still a man who makes mistakes and who falls
down and make bad decisions in life. It has showed me something fresh that I never knew
before. It made my study of Rizal a whole one because before I always believe that Rizal is one
who seems to be flawless and a meticulous man but because of the film it made me see that dark
side of the national hero.
Submitted by:
JASMINE GARCIA
BSE 1-B
Submitted to:
Mr. Christian Cuaderno Linsangan
PI Instructor