Topic: Marilou Diaz-Abaya's JOSE RIZAL (1998): Love it or hate it?

[R2]

Guys, what do you think about this film?

[oggsmoggs]

much overrated.

[rse]

I hated it when I saw it in the theaters.  I was probably expecting too much because it got a lot of awards and was a box office success.  The much ballyhooed digital effects were amateurish, some of the building walls look like cardboard papers.  Cesar Montano was totally miscast and hearing him speaking Spanish was plain painful.

I have it on DVD and I might need to see it again...

[gearhead000]

hate it when i saw it. overrated, and if i may add... pretentious.

[Noel_Vera]

It's necessary. We needed an epic, foursquare, conventional Jose Rizal films (this and Gerardo de Leon's Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo) before we can have the less conventional versions--Gerardo de Leon's Sisa, Mike de Leon's Bayaning Third World, and my personal favorite, Mario O'Hara's Sisa. Construct before deconstruct.

Not a big fan, but I do admit this much, it's an important film.

[keating]

I wonder if Aga Muhlach went with the Rizal project with Mike de Leon at the helm. After Mike walked out on the project......it became a very different one still with GMA Films producing it.

The total cost of JOSE RIZAL was already equivalent of 3 or more projects for a Filipino film during that time.

[Noel_Vera]

Was not going to happen. From what I hear, De Leon hates working with a big budget. And he reportedly didn't enjoy working with Aga. From the sound of it, I think everything turned out for the best.

[rse]

I don't see Aga as Jose Rizal.  He's too "tisoy" and baby-faced.  I don't know if Mike de Leon has done any "epic" films.  It would have been interesting to see how it would've turned out...

[jcranma]

Since there are hardly any Pinoy epics around, I rate "Jose Rizal" as above average for now. Ideally, the film would just garner at best a 3* out of 5. While Montano was quite off the mark when speaking Spanish, it horrifies me to think how Muhlach would have fared.

@Keating
What's the typical budget for a Filipino film?

[Noel_Vera]

Actually Jaime Fabregas' Spanish was better than Montano's. I think a film has problems when it's not the hero but the hero's lawyer who gives the best speech in his defense in the movie.

[jcranma]

Jaime Fabregas also did an excellent job in Eternity where almost all the actors who spoke Spanish could have improved their way of speaking.

[R2]

The film was quite a treat at the time of its cinema release (way back in 1998, people were in a patriotic mood,celebrating the centennial of Philippine Independence). Very high production values; my fave shots were the paintings of Resurrecion-Hidalgo filling up the movie screen.
But I really hate the staging of the Noli & Fili scenes. They were so vulgar, gone are the subtleties of Rizal's novels.
The film was really contentious when it was shown, I remember Diaz-Abaya writing to the Inquirer to defend her film.

[nibblerizer]

the film was confusing to foreign viewers. they will not distinguish between scenes from noli/fili and the life of rizal, unless they read the books or know about them. they should have color coordinated. sephia for noli/fili scenes, black and white for boyhood/in the past rizal, and color for lawyer & rizal scenes. More editing works should have been done to make the movie fast pace or they should have scrutinized the screenplay much further. It looked like they've rushed it and did not consider viewers who have no idea of the history of the philippines and rizal.

[keating]

@Keating
What's the typical budget for a Filipino film?

Today indie films range from P3M below depends on the cast and crew. For a standard Filipino film it could reach P5M up.....during the time of JOSE RIZAL.

For avant-garde films like ORO PLATA MATA, it was price tag at P2.5M back in 1982 but it looks like it was made at P5M up. You can actually see where the budget went through. It's like a time warp during the Japanese occupation when you see the film. I can't see that in Abaya's JOSE RIZAL.

ONCE UPON A TIME P8M in 1987. Eddie Romero's AGUILA I believe was made P6M in 1980.

[Noel_Vera]

Nineties films had somewhat different sized budgets.

Jose Rizal was estimated at P150 MM. Some of that was Centennial money though. Average budgets at that time where anywhere from ten to twenty million.

Tikoy Aguiluz's Viva films were at the low end, or ten million; Rizal sa Dapitan was roughly eight; Bagong Bayani cost around five. Star Cinema movies cost upwards of twenty to twenty-five; I hear Sa Pusod ng Dagat was around twenty-five.

The pito-pito were roughly 2.5 or so million. Sisa was around three million; so was Pangarap ng Puso.

[keating]

Abaya's SA PUSOD NG DAGAT was a big flop during its time. Some says it was her homage to Bernal's NUNAL SA TUBIG.

[Noel_Vera]

Homage? I suppose.

[AICRAG]

Liked it for the accuracy of Rizal's stand as compared to Bonifacio's.  Most of my friends always thought the opposite of what was shown here. 

Fabregas was the highlight of the film.  GREAT acting!  If not for him I would have thought this was the Rizal version of Montano's "Ligalig"       (on the context of how I enjoyed the film hehehe)