How Movies Shape The National Psyche

My neighbors’ teenage son is named Nico. His parents got the name from a blockbuster movie many years ago. The couple so much admired the lead character, played by actor Steven Seagal, that they decided to name their boy after him.

Nowadays there are little girls named Darna and little boys named Santino. None of these little ones – the ones that I know of, at least – are able to fly the skies or perform miraculous deeds. They don’t even distantly resemble the personalities of their screen namesakes.

My friend calls his dog Braveheart. But, of course, the poor creature is no Mel Gibson.

There’s no question about how the movies captivate the hearts and minds of people. In fact, movies can shape the character of a nation. It can also be a reflection of that collective character. The art form is one instrument of art imitating life, and for life to imitate art. As such, movies have the power to make people keep their touch with their own selves and realities… or make them lose it.

When you watch Filipino movies today, what do you see? If not for the language used and the familiar faces of the actors, you get the funny feeling that they’re products of some foreign countries. You won’t see a hint of the genuine Filipino character in most of them.

Many of our films are neither American nor French nor Chinese, and yet they don’t seem to be Filipino either. The Filipino image reflected in our movies is so distorted to be identifiable as our own. But, in the first place, what’s the genuine Filipino character? — See? We don’t know anymore!

For quite a while, sometime back, according to a film historian, Filipino movies were mainly “action” movies — whether the action takes place out in some crime-laden slum district or on a bed that’s cushioned accordingly for the hot sexual calisthenics. Seldom were there films that carried in them fundamental Filipino values. In that period, the only Filipino movies there were to see were either pornographic, violent, or cheaply slapstick. They all looked and felt offensive to Filipino sensibilities.

What’s proudly Filipino in torrid lovemaking from the kitchen all the way to the rooftop? Or about a hoodlum that shouted, “Mga anak ng titing kayo!” then rolled over seven times while simultaneously exchanging gun fires with the police, before he finally came to what seemed like an epileptic seizure and then dropped dead? Or about a comedian baring his butt to show off a tattoo depicting the parting of the Red Sea?

Even the titles were crappy — “Kangkong”, “Pinya”, “Talong”, “Petsay”, “Mani”. You would think those were promotional materials for the government’s Green Revolution program. There had also been good ones that came out, of course, but only once in quite a long while. For instance, “Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Kayo Ngayon?”, “Oro, Plata, Mata”, “Ang Bagong Buwan”, and “Magnifico” were some of the films that made every Filipino proud.

The number of good Filipino films made in recent years easily gets drowned in the pool with mediocre works. You could hardly get the drift of our true national character by watching our own movies. And it has sadly been so for sometime now.

For one thing, our film industry has become a blind follower of the Hollywood cult. We can see the reason why. When most of the box-office hits are Hollywood films, we think that Hollywood must be doing it all right. Thus, we embrace the Hollywood way as the ultimate standard not only for our films but for our own culture, as well.

We must understand, however, that the Hollywood style is primarily a reflection of the American experience. American films are so because that’s what they know life to be. Besides, with the whole world for their market, they have huge production budgets that allow for expensive visual effects and other technical frills. They flaunt what they have or can afford to do.

The Filipino film industry isn’t blessed with as much resources that Hollywood has and, therefore, can never impress the world market by the Hollywood way. In the first place, we are Filipinos not Americans — we must take pride in who we are. We don’t need to be copycats of other people.

We have our own unique character. Our sense of loyalty is almost unbreakable. We are non-confrontational; we have our own diplomatic ways of settling our disputes. We smile and talk our differences over. And our disagreements often vanish in the cover of tactful gestures. We remain courteous even when interacting with our adversaries.

Our sense of hospitability extends almost to a fault. We sometimes get ourselves in debts just so we could accommodate our visitors well. We sleep on the floor while our guests take our beds. And we had no problem with that — until some foreign wisdom made us question the practice.

We were glad to have brown skin, naturally tinted for protection from the rays of the tropical sun. Then we saw those pale-skinned Hollywood sirens in the movies. Our women now spend hard-earned money on skin-whitening products, while the western beauties we adore spend fortunes trying to get some tan sunbathing on our beaches. 

Aside from tampering with our complexion, we dye our hair, lift our noses and clothe our bodies with fashion that our grandparents would have regarded as either indecent or ridiculous. The Filipino man used to come to the home of his lady, to court her in the presence of her family. Now, our teenagers display their romantic intimacies in public.

When we face the mirror today, we see a stranger. We have lost the sense of what or who we really are. And yet, we love the caricatures we’ve become.

We certainly need movies that bear snippets of the good Filipino character. The Filipino who is peace loving, perseverant, forgiving, God-fearing, decent, law-abiding, socially concerned and proud of his own identity. And that, I’m sure, our filmmakers are very capable of doing.

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