2019 is off to a great start as popular streaming service Netflix brings to its roster of available films, the epic film adaptation of the life of one of the youngest Filipino generals of the Philippine-American war, Gregorio del Pilar in Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral.
Played by ace actor, producer, Paulo Avelino, the movie picks up from where the hit historical film Heneral Luna left off–following the assassination of Gen. Antonio Luna and trails the rise to power and eventual demise of the man who behind the Battle of Tirad Pass.
More than the depiction of the life of its titular character, the movie articulates on our notions of what constitutes a hero–and how a misplaced idolatry skews judgment and sense of principle. Tarog navigates the humanity behind the man called in history books as hero and comes up with a fully-realized individual with faults and foibles but whose love for the nation served as an inspiration.
This serves as the third film from TBA Studios to be picked up by the video-streaming platform. The other films, include Birdshot by Mikhail Red, and Heneral Luna, the first of the historical epic films in Jerrold Tarog’s trilogy. Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral was screened in cinemas last September 2018, produced by the Globe Studios and Artikulo Uno.