The demise of the great Filipino Actor, Fernando Poe, Jr. brought a decline to the Philippine movie industry. Not that he was the only real thespian among the stars of our times but he was the most bankable actor who can fill up the movie houses in Metro Manila to the rafters.
In many Muslim areas in Mindanao, an FPJ movie can cause a riot if the star protagonist is overwhelmed by the villains. He was indestructible and came out always the hero of the oppressed. For this he was considered the leader and the most influential movie star in his era. He made the Philippine movie industry alive in his lifetime.
A government study released last February 15, showed a declining output of movie production in the Philippines. Locally, produced movies shares 20% of the viewing public from 2000 to 2009. Last year, the National Statistic Board registered 78 local films were made with a share of 11% of the total viewers against the 102 foreign made films which generated 89% of the viewing public.
Filipino movie actors are great; many have been cast in the major Hollywood productions shot in the Philippines. They have achieved recognition in many international award bodies. Our locales are also great outdoors to film a war or adventure movies for worldwide distribution. The Missing in Action movie of Chuck Norris was shot in the jungle of Ternate, Cavite. The American Ninja adventure of Michael Dudikopf was filmed in Subic Bay and many others who came after. Platoon of Oliver Stone and the 4th of July of Tom Cruise find the rustic background of the Ilocos Region and the tropics of Los Baños in Laguna. All were Oscar award winning movies in the American gentry.
The greatest movie made in the Philippines by an American film maker was Apocalypse Now in 1973. The movie won Best Actor awards for Marlon Brando and Martin Sheen. It earned USD34 M in the box office upon its worldwide released in 1975 and continue to bring royalties to the stars and the producers. It established Francis Ford Coppola, as the greatest American film director and the film were shot in Pagsanjan, Laguna.
Now filming in selected Metro Manila major thoroughfares and the exotic islands of Palawan, another Hollywood production of the Bourne series is shooting, Bourne Legacy. It will feature Manila as Manila of the Philippines. This shows foreign producers confidence that the Philippines could make a movie sell to their million of audience in the world.
Why did the Philippine movie industry decline? Is it because of budgetary constraints that our local producers could not cope up the needed capital to produce a quality film. The Filipino films showing in the movie houses now are the comedies, Enteng Kabisote, the fantasy, Ang Panday and the run of the mills romance of Ann Curtis or the other young unknown actors that is made on low budget. How many have not seen these stars on TV or in the mall or supermarket road show promotions?
Is it the big budget requirement to produce quality and competitive movies in the Philippines that our producers are hesitant for fear of losing in the box office? Can the banking sector rescue the economies of movie production? Or are our stars have failed to act as role models to dignify public adulations? What are the guarantees that the industry will be revived?
There is the foreign competition of high budgeted films. There is the DVD industry that one can buy and watch a Hollywood top grosser in the comfort of our rooms. Modern technology brought the home theatre features of television and sensorounds making movie watching at home more realistic and traffic stress free. But of course, there is also the underground DVD industry that produces the cheap pirated movies that do not choose a client. A high government official in the President’s circle was even photographed shopping bootlegged DVDs.
The government has open up incentives to Filipino films through an MRCB Rating of A with a 50% tax rebate to the producers and a 25% refund to Rated B movies. It has established local film festivals in Manila and in many major cities of the Philippines where local movies are once bankable. But these are not enough to revive a declining industry where thousands of workers, artist and behind the scene crew men depend for their livelihood and subsistence. Government has to stipend up the development of more infrastructures in the tourism destination in the Philippines where movie production can be easily located. Local government units can be cinema friendly by organizing local film festivals to showcase the progress of their cities, unless they are hiding some skeletons in their closets.
Our country is a beautiful tropical paradise; a film production can even shoot an Adam and Eve film complete with the devil in serpent’s disguise. We have so many untapped location sites that our young students would love to discover and frolics in their dreams. Maybe for Pilipino films, to regain public interest, it’s the new scenery, the story line and script writing that needs to be abstract of our culture and our ways of life that would interest foreign nationals in the film market to watch?
But who would watch and dig interest to our stars if they continue to copy how the west dress up. Foreigners will be amused and it’s more fun in the Philippines if the Ifugao’s wear their G-Strings with a coat and tie. Who would hear our stars sing, if they continue to mimic the late Whitney Houston when they knew that they will never become one?
The world may love to watch and hear Pilita Corales belt “Usahay” or a Freddie Aguilar rendering “Anak” in a movie theme.
Ped T. Quiamjot is one of the brilliant columnists of a local newspaper in Cagayan de Oro City and currently the General Manager of Pryce Plaza Hotel Cagayan de Oro. His column talks on various issues and concerns affecting the business sector and tourism industry.
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