Dapitan served as Jose Rizal's home as he was exiled in Zamboanga. The movie Rizal in Dapitan depicts the four fruitful years he spent in the area and showcases some of his life's struggles though these can be considered to be minor than the challenges he has faced before his exile. He became a teacher of boys who proved to be worthy of his apprenticeship; became a farmer, this is from winning the lottery and buying 16 hectares of land; an engineer, helping the people of Dapitan to construct a dam; and became a father of a stillborn baby. He faced challenges, there was despair but there were also great joys as Rizal stayed in Dapitan. The movie mirrors his life and gives the Filipino people a glimpse and snippets of what occurred to him as he stayed in Zamboaga.
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| Tikoy Aguiluz at the Cinema Manila International Film Festival (source: https://entertainment.inquirer.net/files/2011/11/Tikoy-Aguiluz-Nora-Aunor.jpg) |
Rizal in Dapitan is directed by Amable "Tikoy" Aguiluz who has an established reputation in the Philippine film industry for his award-winning works in cinematography, directing, producing and screenwriting. The cinematography was under Romy Vitug and Nap Jamir who are renowned cinematographers and dominated the film industry from the 80's to early 2000's. The cast included Albert Martinez and Candy Pangilinan who are regarded as premier actors together with Jaime Fabregas and Amanda Page. This set of team was highly regarded for forming a solid combination for the project, as expected. Despite this set of people working together, there are evident observations that do not bring out the proper essence, flow and expected outcome feeling in the movie.
Laying my own personal observations and standards on filmography, the flow of events and the sudden transitions of each scene were quite rough. This may be due to the pattern of the sequence of the real events that had happened that was followed by the scriptwriters, making the majority of the movie seem as a compiled version of different minor events. If I were a foreigner or someone with no background of Rizal whatsoever, I would also feel that the film is a series of events that has been made to fit together. The camera angles were utilized well and in each scene, ratio, dynamics, contrast and focus can be observed, which I appreciate. The cinematography was very fitting and dynamic all throughout the movie which is why I give my respects to the ones responsible for it.
Jaime Fabregas, Candy Pangilinan greatly made impact in the movie, despite having minor roles, because the sheer rawness of their characters were neatly portrayed and artistically performed. The ripples of emotion of the scened they were in worked in symbiosis with the exchange of lines with Rizal. Albert Martinez is a good Rizal character yet I could not help but compare him to Cesar Montano who proved to be the most fitting actor to play Rizal. Albert showed Rizal's major qualities yet I sense a lacking in compatibility with the character he was into. I cannot lay my finger it but I think it is on Martinez' comfort of him delivering his lines that I think are the most essential, the missing ingredient to properly show the needed timbre of emotions. Amanda Page as Josephine Bracken did not have any Irish accent which I was looking forward to, and the way she played her part seems to be unnatural to her making the whole setting off. She and her part did not meet half way to really excavate the rawness of her parts and scenes.
In modern day terms and from my own perspective, with the hype that the movie was given of, the end product didn't meet the expected output. It was not a bad movie, it was just a little bit underdone for my taste, yet even so, I still appreciate the uniqueness of the style and flow that the movie had. It was like, it was almost there, to the Greatest Tier of movies, yet the compatibility of all the characters, production team, directing group, did not live up to what was expected as a collective project. The movie gave me an overview of what Rizal's life was in Dapitan and gave me feelings on things like contentment, sharing knowledge, doing service, loving, trusting and pursuing what is right with a tad bit of being realistic.
Laying my own personal observations and standards on filmography, the flow of events and the sudden transitions of each scene were quite rough. This may be due to the pattern of the sequence of the real events that had happened that was followed by the scriptwriters, making the majority of the movie seem as a compiled version of different minor events. If I were a foreigner or someone with no background of Rizal whatsoever, I would also feel that the film is a series of events that has been made to fit together. The camera angles were utilized well and in each scene, ratio, dynamics, contrast and focus can be observed, which I appreciate. The cinematography was very fitting and dynamic all throughout the movie which is why I give my respects to the ones responsible for it.
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| Fabregas as Father Sanchez with Martinez as Rizal (Source: https://www.clickthecity.com/movies/a/4414/on-our-shelves-rizal-sa-dapitan) |
In modern day terms and from my own perspective, with the hype that the movie was given of, the end product didn't meet the expected output. It was not a bad movie, it was just a little bit underdone for my taste, yet even so, I still appreciate the uniqueness of the style and flow that the movie had. It was like, it was almost there, to the Greatest Tier of movies, yet the compatibility of all the characters, production team, directing group, did not live up to what was expected as a collective project. The movie gave me an overview of what Rizal's life was in Dapitan and gave me feelings on things like contentment, sharing knowledge, doing service, loving, trusting and pursuing what is right with a tad bit of being realistic.
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