INTRODUCTION
Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral is a historical film directed by Jerrold Tarog.
The life of Gregorio ‘Goyo’ del Pilar, one of the youngest generals during the Philippine-American War, who fought in the Battle of Tirad Pass. He was loved by everyone, mostly girls and he was the president’s favorite.
The movie was screen played on 5th September 2018.
SUMMARY
Characters:
Plot:
The setting of the movie happened at different places in the Northern region of the Philippines during the American Colonial Period around 1899.
The story begins after the death of General Antonio Luna. During that time, Gregorio del Pilar or simply Goyo have assigned a mission to capture General Luna, dead or alive. General Alejandrino, a friend of general luna was mistakenly assumed to be general luna.
During a five-month break from combat, del Pilar and his unit, including his older brother Julian and his best friend Vicente Enriquez, was tasked to capture former aides-de-camp, Manuel Bernal. They soon locate the place where manuel was hiding through his brother, Angel Bernal, the younger brother of Luna’s former aides-de-camp, which they forced to admit where his brother was hiding. They located Manuel hiding with Don Mariano Nable José’s house and torture him into joining del Pilar’s military troop. When Manuel refuses because of his loyalty to General Luna, they killed him.
During fiesta, they celebrated Goyo for becoming the Major-General of Pangasinan after completing his mission. Meanwhile, he had his personal struggles where the words of Manuel Bernabe keeps on playing in his head.
At the same time, goyo started courting Remedios Jose, the beautiful daughter of Don Mariano.
Gen. Alejandrino was sent by pres. Emilio aguinaldo to Manila to negotiate with General Elwell Otis and General Arthur MacArthur Jr., who reject his proposal.
The filipinos was caught off guard when the americans invaded their territory. The filipinos started a long walk to the north part of the philippines to escape the americans without food and water as they are not welcomed at the places they stopped over.
Goyo soon received a letter from Remedios that inspire him. As they arrived at Mount Tirad, general Goyo devises a delaying strategy to buy Aguinaldo time to escape. Together with García, they created trenches were dug along the route of the mountain.
The next day, the Americans came and unable to make a defense but a filipino traitor help them find the secret path leading to the top of the mountain. By that, filipinos was quickly overrun, killing a lot of filipino soldiers.
Goyo, returned to the place where he read the letter of remedios but he was shot by the americans and died.
After knowing the death of del pilar, the filipino soldiers quickly surrendered.
Aguinaldo is captured by the americans effectively ending the war. He is held as a prison and he was visited by Manuel Quezon.
Mabini on the other hand, was exiled where he wrote how Aguinaldo failed as an ineffective leader of the Philippines. While, Remedios receives a letter from del Pilar.
At the ending, Joven is rescued by Kiko and Eduardo. It shows Aguinaldo in 1935 and his running mate, watch as his presidential campaign posters are replaced by those of Manuel Quezon’s.
ANALYSIS
What i like about this movie is that even though i’ve watched it for about three times, I still got the same feeling as how i felt the first time watching it.
The cinematography was absolutely on point plus the color grading on each scene makes the movie different from other typical filipino movies. For me, every scene was given a quality time, attention and effort while making it so to be honest, there’s nothing to be disliked on this movie.
I’ve learned a lot of lessons watching this movie not only on the history part but also values and wisdom. The famous saying, “Being a hero came with making a lot of sacrifices because with great power comes great responsibility” while the movie breaks the stereotyping that all heroes are perfect but instead the movie shows that heroes are human beings to, they make mistakes and have flaws.
The remarks of each character during the movie has a lot of teachings. The line that struck me the most was Apolinario Mabini’s line“Kaya na ba ng mga Pilipino na marinig ang katotohanan ng hindi napipikon?” his line emphasize on our immaturity as a nation.
Moreover, watching the film made me tear up as i felt melancholy when the filipino lost the battle at tirad pass and the emotions being shown by the actors when goyo died really had me struck.
Furthermore, i also like how each character played their roles very well as they deliver their lines with emotions. I like how Paulo Avelino (Goyo), Carlo Aquino ( Vicente Enriquez), Rafa Siguion-Reyna (Julian del Pilar) acts. It show their great chemistry making the acting more natural.
The ambiance and set where they choose to shoot makes the film better. The scenes feels like you are there with them when it happens in 1899. The official sound track used added a spice in the movie. The set design and costumes was great showing the efforts of the production team when making them. So shout out to the production team for creating this beautiful masterpiece, you guys deserve more recognition!
CONCLUSION:
I highly recommend everyone to watch this movie. You will learn how filipino stand for their dignity and principles during the american colonization and how they lost the battle. You will gain a deeper knowledge about our history that we as a filipino should know. The values that you will get from this movie can be applied on our country up to this day. I hope filipinos can learn from this, to choose the right leader who will stand for country effectively and so by that we can finally see a progress in our country. After watching, it will make you discern on how patriotic you are as a person. So overall, this movie is 10/10.
Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral 