AGUILA
Eddie Romero, 1980
Arguably one of the best Filipino films ever produced, Romero's epic tried to tell snippets of our nation's history as seen through the life and times of a family patriarch. Played by no less than FPJ himself, the part required him to age from a young orphaned child into an octogenarian recluse, and offered him one of the richest roles in his distinguished career. Playing alongside him is an equally big-name cast,the likes of Christopher De Leon,Amalia Fuentes,Eddie Garcia,to name a few.
The story and screenplay,like most of Romero's oeuvres,is it's main draw: quite profound and compelling, despite a long running time,and touched on many subjects that remains relevant to this day: greed and corruption,immorality and religious hypocrisy,heroism and star-crossed loves,naive idealism and sexual liberation,the search for the true meaning of life. I haven't seen enough of Poe's large catalogue of films, but I'm sure not one of them features the highly-esteemed actor as,at one point in this film,a philandering husband.
The project's big budget also showed in its very good production values,and with credits like Mike De Leon as cinematographer and musical score by Ryan Cayabyab, it won't be suprising.