Continuing on with the Guy and Pip craze that had gained local popularity during the Dekada 70's is this flawed masterpiece of which potential had been horribly rushed. I watched this classic for the first time during my vacation in Tacloban on the PBO channel, and since this was a Tirso Cruz and Nora Aunor film, compelled me to watch this.
The writing for this movie was stable and progressive from start to the third quarter of the film. The plot from that range utilized dilemmas, conflicts, and scenarios in balanced proportions, albeit some laziness and hastiness in some parts of the film. From the difference and discrimination of classes, to rivalries, to bitter relationships that spirals down to dramatized tragedies, and failed romances. The typical Filipino drama.
The denouement was the downfall of all that was realistic. In that climax, in the aftermath of the shocking discovery of the relationship between Anselmo Junior and Maggie as siblings, both separated sister and brother, who cannot accept that realistic fact choose to end their lives as a somewhat bastardized style of a Romeo and Juliet type of death, by driving their car off a promenade, killing them in an explosion. And after a short scene of grieving over the deaths of their children, the movie ends with the titular characters, Anselmo and Magnolia finally marrying together, recognizing their love for each other as they should have from the beginning.
The real tragedy here is that the writers had come to this terribly decided conclusion in order to attempt a heartbreaking climax that is both insensible and unrealistic. The children could have taken a supporting role in the story by doing something in order to mediate the bitterness between their separated parents. But instead their character developments were laughably wasted in a fundamentally unrealistic, mushroom cloud.
However, the movie was saved from utter criticism thanks to Aunor and Cruz's emphasizing and dynamically-spirited performances. Not to mention the supremacy in veteran actress Gloria Romero's performance as the tyrannical landlady Dona Martina. I can't say much about the actors.
I have yet to watch the newest television series reboot and find out for myself if the plot has been refined to a more constructive and progressive polish.
The writing for this movie was stable and progressive from start to the third quarter of the film. The plot from that range utilized dilemmas, conflicts, and scenarios in balanced proportions, albeit some laziness and hastiness in some parts of the film. From the difference and discrimination of classes, to rivalries, to bitter relationships that spirals down to dramatized tragedies, and failed romances. The typical Filipino drama.
The denouement was the downfall of all that was realistic. In that climax, in the aftermath of the shocking discovery of the relationship between Anselmo Junior and Maggie as siblings, both separated sister and brother, who cannot accept that realistic fact choose to end their lives as a somewhat bastardized style of a Romeo and Juliet type of death, by driving their car off a promenade, killing them in an explosion. And after a short scene of grieving over the deaths of their children, the movie ends with the titular characters, Anselmo and Magnolia finally marrying together, recognizing their love for each other as they should have from the beginning.
The real tragedy here is that the writers had come to this terribly decided conclusion in order to attempt a heartbreaking climax that is both insensible and unrealistic. The children could have taken a supporting role in the story by doing something in order to mediate the bitterness between their separated parents. But instead their character developments were laughably wasted in a fundamentally unrealistic, mushroom cloud.
However, the movie was saved from utter criticism thanks to Aunor and Cruz's emphasizing and dynamically-spirited performances. Not to mention the supremacy in veteran actress Gloria Romero's performance as the tyrannical landlady Dona Martina. I can't say much about the actors.
I have yet to watch the newest television series reboot and find out for myself if the plot has been refined to a more constructive and progressive polish.
