Sunday, June 15, 2014  The Many Faces of Jose Rizal  Belatedly,
for our Independence Day, an old post: When I wrote this I'd
already seen most of the Rizal films that had come out (all
except for Mike de Leon's Bayaning Third World (Third World
Hero, 2000)), and put everything in the following perspective:
The Many Faces of Jose Rizal  The Philippines has long been
obsessed with Jose Rizal--writer, poet, artist, intellectual,
doctor, educator, martyr. Two of the earliest silent feature
films made in the Philippines dealt with Rizal--La vida de Jose
Rizal (The Life of Jose Rizal) and El fusiliamento de Dr. Jose
Rizal (The Execution of Dr. Jose Rizal)--and Ramon Estella made
a three-hour version in 1956: Buhay at Pag-ibig ni Dr. Jose
Rizal (Life and Loves of Dr. Jose Rizal). Rizal's two novels,
Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo were adapted twice: the
first time in 1915 and 1916 respectively by Edward Gross, the
second time in 1961 and 1962 respectively by Gerardo De Leon,
arguably Philippine cinema's grea