Long after her husband’s death, Imelda Marcos has been an iconic figure in the Philippines and abroad. Known for her extravagant lifestyle, she is often considered to be the Philippines’ equivalent of Marie Antoinette. With a supply of a pair of shoes a day that lasted for eight years, she was infamous in the United States and abroad for her extravagance and life of excess after late husband Ferdinand’s downfall.
According to many accounts, her glamorous persona has remained a double-edged sword throughout her life. Raised in the south of the Philippines, despite living a relatively marginalized childhood, Imelda Trinidad Romualdez came from an aristocratic family and courted controversy throughout the Philippines as a beauty queen in contention for the 1953 Miss Manila crown as she and another contestant were chosen to represent Manila in the larger Miss Philippines Pageant. Her singing talent, combined with her stunning beauty and gregarious nature attributed to her becoming the most sought after by diplomats, politicians, and businessmen which included her future husband’s opponent Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino. Following her marriage in 1954, Ferdinand viewed Imelda as an untapped resource in his political arsenal.
Unlike many of the wives of world leaders, Imelda was instrumental
not only in inflating her husband’s image domestically and abroad, but as a key
component in policy making, foreign diplomacy, passing legislation, and the
completion of several projects which included a controversial game preserve and
wildlife sanctuary on Calauit Island which displaced thousands of indigenous
people in the 1976.
In thisLos Angeles Times article posted November 7, Justin Chang reviews The King Maker, Lauren Greenfield’s recent documentary on Imelda Marcos which captures a glimpse of the controversial Filipino icon in a less flattering light than Romana Diez’s Imelda (2003), an earlier documentary on the former first lady.
The King Maker opened in Los Angeles and New York for a limited engagement and presently airs on Showtime Television Network in the US.
It has been over 30 years since viewing Apocalypse Now in its entirety. I was 12 going on 13, sitting in my bedroom, watching the film on an old Sony 13-inch Sony Trinitron television manufactured around the time of the film’s production. Lacking a remote control, the television could only be adjusted manually through to separate UHF and VHF dials. Unlike the UHF dial which needed fine-tuning, with just a few clicks, the number seven on the dial framed the orange glow of the light illuminating from behind the dial. the unseasonably cool temperature made it seem like back-to-school time was near, even though the ample sunlight that extended well into the evening suggested otherwise.
Strangely, the film was broadcasted during a time slot crammed between the evening news and prime-time network TV, usually reserved for overlong infomercials. Unlike other films of its magnitude, the airing was not backed with a “network-television-debut” lead-in, nor was there an”interruption-of-regularly-scheduled-programming” announcement, it was simply presented by ABC’s Buffalo affiliate, WKBW with little – if any – introduction.
Watching the edited-for-American-broadcast-television version on the small screen was still enough to capture my attention as a preteen and has left a lasting impression to this day. From the visually-stunning opening montage featuring jungle palm trees set ablaze by napalm bombs from above to the parting words of Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) in the final scene, the pacing, editing, and cinematography had my face glued to the tiny screen throughout.
Last Wednesday night I had the opportunity to see Apocalypse Now: Final Cut in the more appropriate, cinematic setting of a roaring-twenties-era, single-screen theater. Though I missed the 2001 Apocalypse Now:Redux version, which flew under my “must-see radar” at the time, I reserve a seat in advance, spending my Wednesday night celebrating the 40th anniversary of the film’s original release by viewing Coppola’s cinematic masterpiece again for the first time on the big screen – the way it was intended.
The opening scene of the film appeared bolder and brighter than I could recall properly proportioned in an infinitely wider aspect ratio along with several of its most iconic scenes, however, unlike the original release, the film’s theme and plot veered off course momentarily with the scenes featuring French expatriates seemingly lost in time, who stayed behind following France’s withdrawal in the mid 1950s.
Like a history class lesson plan gone awry, Apocalypse Now: Final Cut not only attempts take on the “journey into the madness of war,” consistent with the Joseph Conrad novella Heart of Darkness, but meanders into different subplots, themes, or objectives which blur the viewer’s focus from the movie’s central theme and plot. Though historical accuracy and authenticity cannot be under emphasized in period pieces such as Coppola’s Vietnam-war-era odyssey, the scenes featuring the chance encounter with French settlers living on borrowed time in the land they once knew as Indochine seemed like a misguided lesson in history which hindered the film’s continuity and narrative.
Following the death of “Clean” (Lawrence Fishburne), Captian Willard’s (Martin Sheen) crew is accosted by French soldiers left behind after the french withdrawal a decade before. The soldiers soon realize that Willard and his crew members are American troops and lead them to an estate of a French plantation family. It is at this point the film veers off coarse when Willard engages in a conversation with the displaced family on Vietnam’s colonial past under French rule over dinner.
The French plantation sequence seemed composed of footage edited long after film post-production that was intended for a sequel left unfinished. In addition, film’s thematic continuity apparently was interrupted further with subtle nuisances such as a change in the music score which Francis Coppola may have hastily composed and produced himself without father Carmine’s input, after his death.
Overall, Apocalypse Now: Final Cut was a captivating full-speed-ahead cinematic experience derailed by the French-plantation subplot, making what once was a captivating non-stop journey into the darkness of war come to a screeching halt two-thirds into the film for a lecture on French colonialism in Vietnam. Despite the Redux and updated Final Cut’s attempt to boldly go where no American-motion-picture production has gone before, into the depths of the region’s pre-Vietnam-War past, the plantation sequence seemed nothing more than an a self-defeating, cut from the action or “wind from the sails” of an otherwise exhilarating narrative and plot that flowed as smooth as the river waters featured throughout the film. Had the sequence been featured in Blu-ray format, it would have been suitable for supplemental viewing before or after watching the original cut in its entirety, however, spliced within film’s second and present-day cut seems out of place, making Apocalypse Now: Final Cut a minor disappointment on the big screen but more appropriate for private viewing by home-theater film aficionados.
Apocalypse Now: Final Cut is available in remastered 4K on Blu-ray.
Forty years ago this week a film based on the Joseph Conrad novella Heart of Darkness (1899) was released in cinemas across America. Shot in the Philippines, Apocalypse Now was a film adaptation that changed the story’s setting from the waters of the Congo to the Nung, a river that flowed through Vietnam and bordering Cambodia. Instead of going on location which would have been inconceivable at the time, the film was shot almost entirely in villages, cities, and towns throughout the Philippines’s northern-most island of Luzon.
Gone awry, the production was often delayed due to factors ranging from typhoons to the preparedness and physical condition of cast members. Over budgeted, director/producer Francis Coppola struggled to find funding to complete the film. Initially budgeted at an estimated $23 million, filming in the Philippines was slated for completion after five months, but after a series of setbacks, the five months of shooting expected for completion tripled, causing production costs to mushroom almost $10 million over budget.
After then-A-list actors such as Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, and James Caan turned down multiple offers to play protagonist Captain Benjamin Willard, Coppola and his casting crew went with Martin Scorsese’s old standby, Harvey Keitel. Ill-suited for the role, Keitel was dropped in favor of lesser-known Martin Sheen which further delayed completion. Troubles continued as Sheen suffered from a cardiac arrest and sets were destroyed as Typhoon Olga swept through the Philippines. After Sheen’s recovery, the up-hill battle continued when legendary actor Marlon Brando arrived on set for his role as the disenfranchised deserter Colonel Kurtz 200 lbs. overweight, with little knowledge of the script, anticipating a multi-million-dollar payday for under a month’s work.
Filled with several of the most memorable scenes in motion
picture history, Apocalypse Now was
one of the most visually stunning films of the 1970s. With Vittorio Storaro as cinematographer, footage
shot for the opening scene depicting the napalm-induced mass defoliation of
trees was shot in the midst of a conflict between Marcos’ regime and rival insurgents
within Luzon’s jungles.
The small fishing town of Baler, located 120 miles northeast of Manila in Luzon’s Aurora Province, was the landscape used to shot classic scenes such as the famous “Ride of the Valkyries” helicopter raid and introduction of Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore (Robert Duvall). The surreal scenario of bombs and gunfire pouring down on troops as Duvall’s character attempts to mix warfare with a little ‘R&R’ gave the film a unique perspective on war while the helicopter raid scored by the stoic music of Richard Wagner unsettled moviegoers at the film’s time of release.
When Brando arrived in the Philippines, film production brought crew and cast members 58 miles south of Manilla to the town of Pagsanjin in the province of Laguna. “Time was money” as Coppola’s newly-founded production company Omni Zoetrope agreed to pay Brando an astronomical million-dollar-a-week salary. Initially intended to be shot in Iba on Luzon’s west coast, due to inclement conditions, the “Kurtz compound” and “illuminated bridge” featured in key scenes were recreated in Pagsanjin and on nearby Magdapio River while members of an indigenous tribe known as the Ifugaos were selected as extras.
Commemorating the 40th anniversary since the film’s release, Apocalypse Now: Final Cut is currently showing in cinemas across America for a limited engagement.
This article posted Thursday, August 15 on UPROXX by Steven Hayden examines the significance of this cinematic masterpiece and the impact it has made in present-day film making.
Schindler’s List was a film based on the true story of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who employed Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland during WWII. Directed by American motion picture icon Steven Spielberg, Schindler’s List was a big-budget film backed with the all the “American-muscle horsepower” typical of a Hollywood film: music originally scored by John Williams, an internationally-renowned cast featuring Oscar-winning cast members such as Ben Kingsley, and cinematography shot with cameras valued equal to the price of a modest-sized home.
The “list” was comprised of over a thousand people detained in concentration camps, selected for work in Schindler’s enamelware and ammunition factory. Though many often consider Schindler to be more opportunistic entrepreneur than altruistic humanitarian, names listed on the historical documents were also lives spared from extermination camps such as Auschwitz. Presently, over 8,000 people trace ancestry from the Jews rostered for work in Schindler’s factories.
Where Oskar Schindler made history with a list, former Philippine President Manual Quezon made history with a game. During WWII, Manuel Quezon regularly played card games with foreign dignitaries and businessmen from around the world. Some of the dignitaries the president dealt hands with Quezon included the likes of Jewish businessmen and then-US-General Dwight D. Eisenhower. During these card games, commanding general of US forces in the European theater, Eisenhower brought to the attention the plight of the Jews. Compelled, Quezon devised plans for a Jewish diaspora to the Philippines.
Starring Raymond Bagatsing, Quezon’s Game is arguably considered a Filipino equivalent to Schindler’s List with the former Philippine president as focal point. Directed by Mathew E. Rosen, this ABS-CBN Star Cinema production was budgeted meagerly, valued at $500,000 compared with Universal Picture’s Academy-Award winning production estimated at $22 million in 1993. Released the end of last month in cinemas across the Philippines, Quezon’s Game is causing a buzz throughout the nation.
This Rappler.com review originally posted Sunday, June 2, gives Oggs Cruz’s take of the biopic currently showing in cinemas across the Philippines.
