Third World state of affairs
May 6, 2005 | 12:00am
These days, everyone plays the critic. Through text messaging or online forums, one can voice out their opinions without fear of censorship about whatever it is that they feel they should let the rest of the world (in reality, maybe only a circle of less than 10 people) should know. These idoru-critics are our answer to the Pauline Kaels or Cahiers du cinéma of the past and it is truly democracy at work. Now, if only most of them could actually write…
Although bad writing did not come about with the invention of the computer or the Internet, it just seems that there’s a lot more of it polluting the air, opinions armed with little more than three adjectives and an attitude. (Lester Bangs, anyone?) With the advent of cyberspace, it has also become easier for would-be critics or reviewers to cut-and-paste references from Busby Berkeley musicals or "Third-World cinema" and pass it off as their own. A truly sad state-of-affairs.
Not to say there haven’t been wonderful surprises in the form of truly thoughtful and entertaining blogs or an exciting anarchy of views tossed about in the exchange. It’s just becoming more tedious to wade through most of the sludge that’s out there.
Addressing the growing influx of "kids of a new generation armed to teeth with mini-DVDs, laptops that are foldable editing suites, cell phones that take video, cameras that shoot like film," one blog lamented that 90 percent of it "sucks." What of course the writer of that observation didn’t note was that most of it sucked anyway even before the technology was available to the consumers. Guess he, like us here in the print media, is merely lamenting the fact that before we had very precise targets for our criticisms. Now, just like a million Agent Smiths, they’re all around us. And their numbers are growing.
This was one assessment of Ato Bautista’s Sa Aking Pagkakagising Mula sa Kamulatan that arrived via text messaging after the film’s premiere last week. Although many of us would disagree, one can see why it would provoke such a response.
Visceral, passionate and seething with contempt, the film follows the downward trajectory of a number of no-hopers, misfits and thugs of an urban community into a hell so hot it must be existential. (Or just parts of Manila.) With lots of profanity and perversion, it’s sure to raise hell with our moralists while raising something else for those who daydream of being sodomized by Lito Pimentel.
The negative reactions against the film are probably due to its content and the amoral tone which Bautista employs throughout. Many were shocked at the brutality in the film and the fact that its implications are not confined to the proscenium arch with the filmmaker in the wings doing a post-modern jig singing, "That’s entertainment!" Bautista leaves the viewer to fend for himself, not bothering to beg any sympathy for his characters and showing none to the guilty parties.
Of course, this may be the film’s main weakness as well: The script’s structure is uneven and shaky so as to bar any emotional attachment to any of the characters, not allowing us any space to gain a real foothold on their psyches nor them on our affections. It might be the filmmakers’ objective to confound us even at this level, forging a cinema not of heroes or anti-heroes but of no heroes.
Some may charge Bautista of employing shock tactics but really there is nothing in this film that you don’t see daily on TV Patrol. The only difference would be that the filmmakers on this one have talent and a sensitivity lacking in sensationalistic broadcast journalism. Even if the characters here inspire no sympathy they are not mere statistics.
The director’s minimal aesthetic, the verisimilitude of the actor’s performances (particularly Ketchup Eusebio in a career-making performance) and the script’s acute use of the vernacular all add up to make up a compelling film that distinguishes itself as the true heir to Lino Brocka’s legacy (rather than most of the poverty-exploitation crap being peddled in festivals abroad the past couple of years).
Watch this film and watch the credits especially – those are the names that will push this brand of Philippine cinema in the years to come.
Gweilos Bar and Restaurant is at 109 Carlos Palanca St., Legaspi Village in Makati or Gweilos Eastwood in Libis. The Gweilos Hour Night is tentatively set on May. 14 and acts like Try The Extra Special and That Epic Reggae Set are slated to play.
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