Ten Life-Changing Films

(Published in the Philippine STAR, p. Q-2, 10 Oct 2010.)


I have been asked to come up with a list of ten films that inspire change. All for the greater glory of mankind. This forced me to think then if I should enumerate the standard, feel-good, awe-inspiring movies that will make you want to change the world after watching it. There are lots of those, of course, like Schindler's List, or Gandhi. But then these are films about people who caused change. Inspiring though I'm sure they were, the films themselves did not really inspire the change. What I am looking for is the cinematic equivalent of Noli Me Tangere, a film that has actually caused change, and not simply a film about causing change.

There are some films that I would want to include here, but although they have caused change, those changes were not for the greater good. One example is The Godfather, a case of life imitating art imitating life. Modern day mob practices were actually inspired by this movie, with several high-profile mob bosses claiming to be huge fans of The Godfather. But since it’s about organized crime, which is a bad thing, it does not make it to this list.

And since this is just a straight-up enumeration, I will not be ranking the films. This is, after all, not a Top Ten list; just a list of ten films that have caused change. And for a semblance of order, I shall list the films in chronological order, from the earliest to the latest.

Bagets (1984)

I did not want to complete this list without mentioning at least one Filipino film. Fresh from the shackles of martial law, Philippine cinema finally gives the Filipino youth a chance to stretch their legs. Bagets gave birth to the matinee idols of the eighties, influencing everything from fashion to speech, and it has actually succeeded in making youth-oriented movies very popular at the box office, unlike the serious adult-oriented films of the seventies.

The Passion of the Christ

Nothing says Catholic more than Good Friday. And nothing says Good Friday more than The Passion.

We all have Mel Gibson to thank for that, for if it wasn't for his obsession for dead languages, we might never have had this work of art. Mel Gibson has created this cinematic technique, which I have dubbed "effective realism", which utilizes the original language of the dialogue in a historical narrative. So when you make a film about Hitler, it has to be in German; if it's about cavemen, it has to be in grunts; and if it's about Jesus, it has to be in Aramaic. Good luck.

The only drawback with using a dead language is that none of the actors can really speak it. This goes for Monica Bellucci (who plays the stereotypical slut Magdalene), Maia Morgenstern as Mary, and Hristo Jivkov as John, and heck, even for the rest of the Apostles. Even Jim Caviezel as Ieshua does not sound convincing. Their Aramaic sounds forced, unnatural, and their vocal stops indicate that they know the phonetic delivery, but they have no idea what it means. Hence, they cannot improvise. But anyway, who wants to improvise in Aramaic?

But the Romans, that's a different story. Hristo Shopov is effective as Pontius Pilate, and his Latin does sound convincingly authentic. But again, using dead languages may have more downs than ups, so unless you've got very talented speakers, this movie must fail in this category.

But suspend your disbelief and you should be fine, for this is one of the best Jesus Christ movies I have seen in my life. The cinematography is haunting, the make-up is excellent (how bloody did Jesus get?) and the special effects are first rate. I mean, how do you exactly scourge the Son of Man to within an inch of his life without really hurting him?

The only thing I found distracting was the use of Satan as a poetic device. Mel Gibson might have been a little too literal, assuming that his audience might need a nudge in the right direction. But actually, Mr. Gibson, the audience is smarter than you may think, and we don't need a Satan to show the good-evil dichotomy. But his efforts are laudable, and for this movie alone, he gets a pass from Saint Peter to enter heaven when he dies.


Rating: Four stars.