Here's the thing: I didn't hate this movie.
It wasn't as bad as I expected, and not the type of bad I thought it would be.
Well, there were vestiges. Mark Meily's condescending treatment of the masses is sprinkled all throughout ( they're either victims, traitors, or background detail ), as is his historic contempt towards the Philippine Left. You may even sense that he doesn't believe in the Filipino's ability to win freedom, much less independence.
That is if one bothers to read into it. And I'm not sure it's worth the effort. It was done wiht such 'distance' and 'ambiguity' - a.k.a. indifference - that it can be taken in any which way. It might even seem like a provocation.
Same thing with his treatment of Aguinaldo. While ER Ejercito doesn't exactly bungle his job here, he doesn't shoot for the stars either. His performance is so uptight that it flatlines, with very little space for unintentional laughs. In fact he's so wrapped up in his own celebrity, that the filmmaking steps all over him. Meily puts in so much surrealisms in his story, that he starts to appear like an unreliable narrator; a delusional madman at worst, since a lot of those surrealisms aren't particularly successful. They are so atonal, and so out of place, they're a realm all their own. They look ridiculous that way, sticking like a sore thumb from the otherwise textbook approach of the film.
But at least he's not excessively glorified. He's not the military superman like some of his apologists would allege. Rather, a lot of his successes were achieved by an undue advantage : he was a part of the establishment already. You can see how Tikoy Aguiliz ( who was supposed to direct this ) could have taken off with that.
Plus, Andres Bonifacio looms like a titan in this picture. I don't remember any other Filipino film that gives him this level of stature ( well, besides 'Supremo', which I haven't seen ), other than a whiny nincompoop, or a laughingstock. Instead, he's treated with reverence here, even by ER's Aguinaldo, as the unequivocal leader of the Revolution, whose shadow the Katipuneros struggle against. So much so, that his fate feels like a bad omen that dooms their very enterprise. Even as it's never spoken of again, explained away like bad trapo PR.
In fact, if there are historical figures that come out of this clean, it's the Macapagals : both former president ( and father of jailed ex-president Gloria Arroyo ) Diosdado Macapagal, and the Macapagal who put the bullet in Bonifacio's head - who doesn't put the bullet in his head here. Not to draw conclusions, but Mark Meily did mock the anti-ZTE-NBN protests in his show 'Camera Cafe'. Make of that what you will.
And that's the thing : Some good, some bad. The Americans are frightening in this picture. The San Juan scene is harrowing in its simplicity, easily one of the best staged historical recreations in Philippine film. Christopher Deleon also gives I think his finest performance as the fascist Antonio Luna, where he's a character and not Christopher De Leon. There was a point where this could have really provoked debate, and made people discuss their revolutionary history.
But all that was undermined as soon as Nora Aunor shows up in the picture. Trust me when I say that her appearance is pointless, jarring, and unnecessary.
Still, we should be glad that films like this get made that isn't yet another Rizal movie.
I'm giving 'El Presidente' 2.25 out of 5.
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