Pitch of the Day : Nardong Putik Remake

Shamelessly ripping off this regular feature 'coz I've got enough time to waste. Game?

The Dark Knight Meets Silence of the Lambs Meets Balibo


Poster of Orig. Version, 1974


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Terror

by Carlo Cielo

Political suspense thriller. A deglamorized, gritty, no-holds-barred take on Leonardo Manecio a.k.a. ‘Nardong Putik’, a true life bandit rumored to have wielded a magical amulet, who sowed mayhem in the Phil. countryside from the late ‘40s onwards, culminating in the notorious Maragondon massacre of 1952.

Informed by contemporary post-911 reality; ‘Terror’ dispels convenient myths and perceptions about vigilantes in general, portraying them as sinister, selfish nihilists who are more often subject to social/political forces than being beyond them. Nardong gets used by members of the establishment and the police to perpetuate their sick barbarity onto the public.

This also depicts how people like him would often be seen as divine & heroic by battered and superstitious Filipino masses, because it is the easiest thing for them to do so...

Narrative would carefully set-up the incidences and actions, the maneuvers and double-dealings of the various players, suddenly culminating in the knifing of the police chief, the mayor, and several policemen in Maragondon, Cavite. Should go on a bit from there, I suppose, as we see him meticulously plan several attacks for the next few decades.

Then, a post script about his eventual arrest in 1971, where it becomes clear that not only does he gain public sympathy, but also aids in the political rise of the one who led the operation against him; that particularly overzealous public servant becoming governor from 1979 to 1995, furthering the system which gave rise to the likes of Putik in the first place.

Flash forward to current times. Holding Nardong Putik’s amulet which got passed onto him in some way, a highly-decorated general tries to shield himself from human rights litigation, by running as governor in an undeclared province. Film ends. ( This part is fictional, but is inspired by actual news… )

****

My intent is to put the original 1970's Ramon Revilla Sr. starrer through the prism of our contemporary, far meaner times. Peeling away the folkloric touches, taking away the mysticism, into presenting these type of characters and events as we would understand them now - informed by Jason Ivler road rage & police shootout, reality TV, and the Ampatuan Massacre. Meaner. Grislier. Crasser.

Perhaps an argument can be made about how Nardong Putik represents another time with a different set of values, a different moral system, different sensibilities, and it would be inappropriate to cast his story in the light of today's more blatant predation. Nonetheless, I feel this should be effective means with which to expose the actual barbarism and lumpen brutality of his agenda and methods, which aren't in line with genuine struggle, and is still all about avarice.

And Nardong's aim to share this avarice with the less fortunate doesn't make his story a relic of a bygone era, despite the current 'anti-poor' climate. Rather, it is reflective of the parasitic system of patronage that lingers on and continues to produce class thugs to this very day. Its undercurrents of superstition and longing for corrupt Messiahs making the potential film more immediate.

That's it.