One good biopic deserves many more

John Arcilla as “Heneral Luna”

After the “sleeper” success of “Heneral Luna,” historical biopics have increased in popularity and visibility on local movie screens.

The hit film’s overwhelming success has encouraged its producers to shoot another heroic biopic, this time on Gen. Gregorio del Pilar.

The new film’s hero was even younger than Luna, so the potential blockbuster about him, still megged by Jerrold Tarog, should be even more popular with young and young-adult viewers.

Another biopic that has done exceedingly well is “Felix Manalo,” which won top honors at the Famas and Star Awards.

Even more pertinently, the film about the founder of the Iglesia ni Cristo has been viewed by SRO audiences, not just here but internationally.

It has even established two official Guinness World Records, for “Largest Attendance for a Film Screening” and “Largest Attendance for a Film Premiere”!

Viewers who haven’t watched “Felix Manalo” yet will be able to do so this month, because the PBO movie channel has acquired the rights to telecast it as a Pay TV attraction. Visit PBO’s Facebook page and Twitter account.

PBO can be accessed on Cignal Digital TV channel 41, Sky Direct Channel 20, Sky and Destiny channel 60, etc.

“Felix Manalo” topbills Dennis Trillo (as the INC founder), Bela Padilla, Lorna Tolentino, Joel Torre, Mylene Dizon, Snooky Serna and a host of other veteran stars.

After the Luna, Del Pilar and Manalo biopics, we would like to see the production of historical films on other outstanding and inspiring Filipinos, like the young gerilya fighters whose World War II exploits have been powerfully recalled and dramatized in the TV documentary “Unsurrendered,” produced by Philippine Veterans Bank.

When we watched the movie docu, we wished that it could be done again as an action-drama for the big screen.

We were impressed by the fact that the WWII heroes were all still in their teens and 20s, and feel that the larger film audience, which is substantially made up of young people, will empathize with and get inspired by their tales of wartime courage in a really big way.

Other biopics should be made on some of our national artists. Nick Joaquin has already been given his due in this wise in Sari Lluch Dalena’s “Dahling Nick,” but a biopic on Amado Hernandez and Atang dela Rama should also delight and inspire movie audiences.

Producers should ride the incipient wave of popularity that has already been set in motion by recent biopics, for Filipino film viewers’ sustained enrichment and empathetic enlightenment. One good biopic deserves—many more.