Spanish Rule Case

SUMMARY:

At the beginning of the film, the condition of the Philippines under the Spanish Rule was briefly revealed; the Spaniards were very abusive to the Filipinos. The film contains some scenes which depict portions of “Noli Me Tangere” and “El Filibusterismo”, which are the novels written by Dr. Jose Rizal based on the true situations of the Philippines during his time. The Noli Me Tangere has the main character named “Crisostomo Ibarra”, which Rizal considers as himself in his novel. Crisostomo Ibarra has the vision of change in the kind of situation the Philippines have during that time. In the El Filibusterismo, Ibarra turned into a rebellious man and Rizal named him as “Simon”. The film also showed the famous “tearing of the cedula” by the members of the “Katipunan” lead by Andres Bonifacio. The “Katipuneros” idolize Jose Rizal and consider him as their inspiration to fight for the Philippines. Paciano, the only brother of Jose Rizal which is also a half older than him, was being nailed in his finger, forcing to reveal the secret operations of his brother.

One day, Jose Rizal was interrogated by the Colonel forcing him to admit that he is a part of the Katipunan, because they were using Rizal’s name. Rizal was put in prison in Dapitan and he remembered the significant things that happened in the past years of his life, including his childhood. He remembered the day when Paciano told him that he witnessed the brutality of the Spaniards through the execution of the GOMBURZA. Another interesting memory is when his mother, Teodora Alonso, told him the story of the moth; the young moth died because he did not listen to his mother when she told him not to go near the fire. Teodora Alonso also wanted to instill this lesson to his son, Jose Rizal. At Rizal’s early age, Teodora Alonso was arrested because of the false accusation given to her. He remembered how he grieved when his mother was caught by the Spaniards. He also remembered the day when his brother, Paciano, accompanied him in Ateneo Municipal, his older brother required him to use Rizal as his surname because their surname, Mercado, was under the suspicion of the Spanish authorities during that time.

Jose Rizal was given the chance to defend himself against theaccusations thrown to him. He chose Luis Taviel de Andrade from the list of lawyers given to him, because Andrade sounds familiar to him. Rizal and Andrade had a rough conversation the first time they met. His lawyer was informing him of the accusations given to him by the Spaniards. They say that he did not have the debt of gratitude to them, and that he is heretic and filibuster. While they were having their conversation, he remembered his days in University of Santo Tomas, where he studied Medicine, and a huge discrimination between Spaniards and Filipinos occurred. While he was in UST, he joined a secret group of Filipino students