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| Quezon (2025) Official Poster | © TBA Studios |
Disclaimer: This feedback is purely from my own interpretation of the movie Quezon (2025).
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At first, I was like “’Yon na ’yon?” when Quezon ended.
Maybe it's because not a lot of open warfare is going on. Maybe because I know that the intellectual debates here are all talk.
I felt underwhelmed by the movie despite its pompous and glam splendour in the visuals and execution (which I love), but only to realize that, it's a movie that pretty much grows in you as seconds pass by. When you take the time to reflect on it, everything starts to make sense--it's worth a rewatch to go back on those realizations that will suddenly click upon reminiscing about them.
I’m not a fan of film/scene sequence and a few of the transitions, but for me, the musical choice, timing, and scoring is genius--metaphorical even. Like La Cumparsita (a Tango music) playing in the scenes that seem to imply that it takes two to tango--in relationships and in politics. And I laughed in theater at the impeccable timing when Hallelujah played.
About the Story
(Warning: Spoilers)
In Quezon, we saw up to what lengths our hero can go through just to attain his goal--our country's independencia. Until one last thing was left for Quezon to do in order to reach his goal--to be the country's president.
Quezon successfully achieved power, because he sacrificed two things that Heneral Luna and Hen. Goyo could not--honesty and loyalty.
Hen. Luna wore his heart out of his sleeve, way too much, which caused his demise. Meanwhile, Hen. Goyo didn't know how to put limitations on his loyalty (blind loyalty) which had cost him his life.
Manipulated votes and third party issues seemed to be only used as instruments for the movie to emphasize on his issues of dishonesty and disloyalty--traits of a chameleon.
Quezon--being the chameleon he was--never promised his loyalty on anyone (in politics and in his relationships). At the same time, he didn't show his actual emotion about things and instead, used sensationalism and others' emotions to attain the outcome that he wanted to achieve.
But, these factors happened to be also his weaknesses.
He had been dishonest about his capacity to run the country (in regards to his health condition), wearing himself out to incapacity to reach the finish line of the long journey to Philippines' first Republic government; and he seemed disloyal to his cause (the country's complete independence) because of issues about term extensions (for the country's independence and for his presidential term).
This is Quezon's biggest mistake--from how I interpret the movie--he probably knew it takes two to tango yet he can’t live up to it. (Cue in, La Cumparsita.)
He wanted to stay in power because he probably thought that it was only him who was truly committed to achieving our country's independencia. He could not trust anyone else but him to get this job done, and he wanted to see things through until the very end. But unfortunately, carrying everything upon his shoulders instead of passing it forward to Osmeña or his protege (Roxas) and trusting them to prioritize the independence of our country had just put an additional toll on his health. He never lived to see the first republic of the Philippines.
For me, the best scene in this movie is the theater scene. The makers of the movie seemed to make sure that that scene of Joven and Rusca watching Quezon's election campaign movies parallels with us (the audience) who are also watching Quezon's movie in actual theaters. This helped me get more into the shoes of Joven, making Quezon's confrontation with him feel like not entirely directed to our fictional journalist character, but to us--that we are Joven.
The scene got more intense when Joven, who seemed to speak for all of us, confronted Quezon and the way he deals with politics; and when Quezon talked back--it was totally the end of me. His ‘real talk' crushed me.
Despite Joven (or us, the audience)'s criticism of Quezon, Quezon's character in the movie had perfectly defended himself from all these criticisms by slapping us in the face with (non-verbatim) something like:
“T*ngina mo ka. Ang lakas ng loob mong mang-criticize sa aming mga bayani, e, may participation ka rin naman sa mga nangyayaring katarantaduhan sa bansang 'to. Nasaksihan mo ang kasaysayan, pero anong nagawa mo para sa bansa? Ikaw rin ang dahilan kaya naging gan'tong klase ako ng tao, ng pulitiko. Para makuha ang participation ninyong mga Pilipino na ipaglaban ang bansa, gusto n’yo ng benepisyo o kapalit muna bago tumulong--ayuda, negosyo, koneksiyon, libangan--kaya namayagpag ang kultura ng nepotismo, korapsyon, powertripping, agresyon, at mga pa-party para lang makuha ng pulitiko na katulad ko ang suporta ninyo sa layunin ko na makamit ng Pilipinas ang independencia. Unfortunately, tinanggap ninyo ang ganitong sistema ng gobyerno, kaya kailangan kong makisakay rito para lang makamit ang independencia."
His sentiment suddenly reminded me of Antonio Luna having to be violent to get people's participation to fight for Philippines (e.g. punishing Janolino and his group for not backing up his group during a fight), and Hen. Goyo partying left and right so people will adore him which equates to gathering more support for the revolutionary soldiers. (Note that this comment is based on the earlier Bayaniverse movies--Heneral Luna and Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral).
At ang sakit-sakit ng real talk ni Quezon kasi may katotohanan siya. 😭 He seemed to emphasize as well that it takes two to tango (cue in La Cumparsita), that, yes, the government and the politicians operate in the country, but running it was not their lone prerogative--the citizens had to actively participate in it too.
But how? Kung tayo mismong mga Pilipino ay hindi alam ang meaning ng kalayaan? (Independence). Kalayaan na bang matatawag kapag nakakakain ka? Kalayaan na bang matatawag kapag nagagawa mo anuman ang gusto mo kahit may matapakan kang iba? Kalayaan na bang matatawag kapag puro mga Pilipino ang nagpapatakbo sa bansa?
Ano ba talaga ang Independencia?
Despite the movie, seemingly bringing M. L. Quezon's failures to light, his character had definitely defended himself from all those criticisms during the theater scene. We saw a movie that reminds us that our heroes are also men with faults, and that it takes two to tango.
So if you think Quezon should be villified for being too ambitious and two-faced, without seeing how we--citizens--inspired how politicians behave in ways just like that then . . . it's time to learn some accountability, maybe?
Because . . . it takes two to tango. 💃🏻🕺🏻
Again, cue in La Cumparsita.
