Cariño, Mark Daniel D.

September 14, 2019

BS CPE 2-2

Birdshot
(A Marxist Criticism)

Filipino movies always take the less priority status in every movie theatres in the country.
It is been like that for the longest of time. These movies are always undermined by the same
people who share the same ethnicity, language, and history. It is always the foreign films that
catch the attention of many people. For me, there is nothing wrong with watching these foreign
films but we have to support our local films just as much as we support the films of foreign
countries. As being objective, foreign films are ahead of local films in terms of diversity of story,
production, and techniques. Most Filipino teleseryes and films for the past many years shares the
same plots like love story, revenge, love affairs etc. These kinds of plot somewhat always catch
the attention of the madla wherein fact there are many local films produced that have much more
unique, beautiful stories. We are not behind foreign films anymore, we just have to give chance
for the right films to shine.

Birdshot is a Filipino film released in 2016 directed by Mikhail Red starred by Mary Joy
Apostol, John Arcilla and many more. It is a movie that surrounds Maya and his Father, Diego, a
caretaker of a land surrounding a Sanctuary for animals and two Police investigating a missing
Bus case. It starts with Maya learning how to use a gun to hunt with guidance of his Father,
Diego that wants her to be self-relying when it matters the most. Maya in being young and wants
to prove something, shot an Haribon( Philippine Eagle) in the sanctuary that is considered illegal.
Simultaneously, Policemen Domingo and his partner Mendoza investigate a case of missing bus
along with its passengers that was going to Manila. Later on, they crossed paths to each other
when the Policemen were given the chance to investigate the missing Haribon which is the one
that Maya shot. As the story goes on, the story goes much deeper than just Haribon being shot. It
depicts an example of Police Brutality, Injustices that happened on the farmers fighting for their
right on Lands and many more.

With the story of the film being set, I will go deeper in analysing it in line with the
concept of Marxism. According to this, forms of literature or arts are created with a story that has
its own idea, or purpose or experiences that reflects a true story happening in our World. The art
or the literature shows the true intent of its creator and how outside factors like his/her
surroundings influence him in doing the art. According to this concept, forms of art and literature
reflects the struggles of classes in our society. They also reflects materialism and pursuit of being
wealthy. Marxists also said that artists create their respective forms of art as a product of their
respective era, the conditions and the existing ideologies of that era. I believe that every art that
was created or to be created has a deeper meaning and for us to understand it, we have to really
dig deeper in studying the Artist’s circumstances.

One of the scenes in the movie is when Policeman Domingo found out that ten farmers
are one of the missing passengers as he continued to investigate about the missing bus and its
passengers even though his superiors told him to stop. This particular circumstance really reflects
one of the most complicated, sensitive problems in our country that goes back beyond a long
time ago, the struggle between Landlords and Farmers whom I believe deserve more respect
justice than what they are getting. Oppression on our Farmers is really a problem in this country.
Solving the continued suffering of our Farmers because of abuse of their Landlords should be a
priority to our Government. But the very Government that they should count on to be on their
side, was the one that continues to ignore their cry. This week our Professor in Filipinolohiya
gave us a chance to watch a documentary about Mendiola Massacre which show footages of the
Rallies that our Farmers and Workers organize to send their protest about abuses and problems
versus their Landlords. They demand reforms that ensure their rights on the very Lands that they
farming. As the organized rallies became violent, Policemen who took an oath to protect the
citizens of this Country including the Farmers and Workers use their guns to the Protesters and
killed 13 innocent lives that just fighting for their rights. The same happened in the Film, the
Policemen in their town, although not showed directly, are accomplices in the crime of the death
of the 10 Farmers whose bodies are showed at the end of the Film buried in the soil. It is a
gruesome reality that our Farmers have to experience even today. That scene really shows how
disgusting and cruel the Government and Landlords treat our Farmers. They even use the Police
power to protect their self-interests in which I can say the most prominent topic in today’s
Administration. Policemen breaking the rules they ought to implement for money or other self-
interest things.

In the movie, we can infer the between what justice is given to worker class versus the
upper middle class people. In the movie, Policemen are free to wave around their gun point to
people even though they did not have a right to do so because of lack of evidence and warrant.
They freely use violence in their investigations just because they have the ability to do so and no
one wants to interfere and stand up for that very wrong thing because they might be in danger or
worse be killed. On the other hand, rich people are being protected, apprehended carefully. That
is the truth of our Society. They don’t care about you unless you have the “status” to be cared
about. At the end of the film, I am glad that Maya’s Father stood up for her to be protected even
though that scene was really sad to watch. A Parent died in front of his Child who he just wished
to protect in the Lands that he taken good care of. I see the movie as a Protest or more accurately
to say a depiction on the injustices experience by the minority in our country and it is a cry that
should be heard not just the Government but also us fellow Filipinos.