"Dekada '70" By Lynna

The film that we watched in class was about a family who lived in the Philippines and that lived through the Martial Law when it was declared by their president, Ferdinand Marcos. This family had 5 boys, of which all sons had different characteristics. Their father was a business man and their mother was a house wife. This family got caught in the middle of the tumultuous decade of the 1970's. It details how a middle class family struggled with and faced the changes that empowered Filipinos to rise against the Marcos government. It is the story about a mother and her family, and the society around them that affects them. It is a tale of how a mother becomes torn between the letter of the law and her responsibilities as a mother.
The eldest son, Jules, had a normal upbringing. He became exposed to radical reading material and regularly played activist songs on his guitar as a teenager. While in college he regularly complains about the government's abuses such as putting the interests of the United States above Filipinos, or numerous forced disappearances attributed to the Philippine Constabulary. Eventually he becomes a guerrilla or freedom fighter, and joined the communist New People's Army. His parents didn’t accept the fact that he wanted to become an anti-Government winger but eventually accepted his decision. “Gani”, the second child, grew up with ambitions of becoming a sailor in the United States navy, and became the family's cream of the crop. They are Catholic, so it was important that he was married before he sleeps with a girl. When his parents found out that he got his girlfriend pregnant, they insisted that they got married. So they did. The third brother arguably provided himself with the most secure future. "Em" lived the same life as his elder brothers, and eventually as he attended college became influenced too by activist and freedom groups. Second youngest, Jason was their mother’s favorite. Jason was a typical teenager. He joined rallies to make noise, not express a message. Jason’s character was this happy-go-lucky demeanor that provided his parents with a well-needed dose of happiness. Unfortunately, he dies in the movie. The youngest son, “Bingo” functions in the story mostly as an innocent child.
I enjoyed the film. It was very interesting and the characters played their parts really well. I liked the mother’s role. Although she was not accepting to most of her children’s decisions, she comes to accept their choices in life. She is a mother of a middle-class family who has five young sons, making her the only female in the family. From the beginning of the novel she already has reservations about her role in the family, as a wife, a mother and nothing more. She represents a vey strong woman.