Honor Thy Father: A Film Review

           Erik Matti’s “Honor Thy Father” displays number of themes that reflect Philippine society today. From the title itself, one can already derive the theme of respecting one’s own father as the whole film centers around how far a father will go to be able to protect his family. In fact, as the film progresses, it becomes more and more evident that John Lloyd Cruz’s character, Edgar, loses his morality to be able to keep his family safe. In relation to family, the theme of forgiveness is also shown when Edgar comes home to his province and finds out his father died. His mother comforts him by saying that a parent can forgive anything.  Moreover, the theme of hypocrisy is highlighted through the corruptness  of the Church of Yeshua and as well as the crab mentality of Kaye’s friends as they partook in the ponzi scheme since they mistook it for a legitimate business to be able to get fast cash. In addition to this, the film also tackles on the issue of social class which could be seen between Kaye and Edgar as Kaye, his wife, comes from a family of means while Edgar comes from a family of miners. Kaye tells Edgar that it is fine for him to visit his province as long as he does not bring Angel, their daughter, with him which perhaps reveals Kaye’s stigma to his family’s lifestyle that Edgar himself is not exactly proud of. In connection to social class, the theme of power comes into play in the film through the police not being able to do anything for Edgar and his family as one of the people who Kaye’s father victimized was Mr. and Mrs. Bernardino, an influential  couple whose car sports a number eight plate therefore revealing that at least one of them is a politician.

            Despite the numerous themes that can be found in “Honor Thy Father”, I think that everything ties up together fittingly. In terms of the dominant theme in the film, the one that stood out to me was the hypocrisy of the Church and of Kaye and her friends. Firstly, the Church where the bishop (Tirso Cruz III)  stays is depicted not as a humble house of Yeshua but rather it resembles a wealthy man’s gated mansion with guards in black patrolling the area. In the later scene in the film wherein Edgar apologizes to the bishop for choking him, we see a graphic match as there are guards in black inside the house as well. The presence of these guards reveal that the bishop is truly a very important and powerful man if he needs that much security. Moreover, if one were to observe the planes of action in the scene, we not only see a woman dressing the bishop from his clothes down to his shoes but there is also an array of pastries and cakes in the foreground of the shot. All of which display the hypocrisy of the Church as it shows the lavish lifestyle that a rich man would ideally lead as compared to a humble follower of Yeshua. Additionally, they always encourage the churchgoers to donate money for the building of the new Church however when it came to Edgar and Kaye’s situation, the bishop refused to give back Kaye’s father’s donation even though it was seen in the earlier parts of the film the tight shots of wads of cash in each person’s hand which was emphasized through the racking focus that the filmmaker utilized. This can make one think about how much money the Church generates every week on top of the generous donations of the affluent fellow churchgoers of Kaye and Edgar.

            As for Kaye’s friends, their actions and behaviors display hypocrisy and crab mentality. Hypocrisy was shown when they sing songs about asking for the forgiveness of their sins in Church however they were quick to turn against Kaye and Edgar because of the money that they invested in Kaye’s father’s business that turned out to be a scam. They disregarded the friendship altogether and completely forgot about virtue and ransacked the house of the couple which could allude to the issue of social class and how being wealthy and a frequent Churchgoer does not equate to being a good person nor does it exempt one from committing sin. In this scene, we see another graphic match in terms of camera movement as the camera pans similarly to how the ransacked house of Juancho Buenavides was shown which begins the foreshadowing of their fate. Furthermore, crab mentality was displayed as early as first parts of the film wherein Kaye tells her friend to cook fried chicken and filmmaker provides the viewers with a tight shot of the dish. One will be able to see the people hurriedly getting more than one piece of chicken at a time which leaves Angel to snack on some popcorn instead. Also, Kaye tells her friends that she won’t force them to invest unless they still were not contented with their salaries. Finally, one can juxtapose the songs of forgiveness that her friends sing in Church and the words of the bishop that fades away in the soundtrack to the low framing height shot of her friends cursing their names in the court meeting. In a country with people who are mostly Catholic, this scene is powerful as it questions if we are the same people outside the Church.

           All in all, I think these themes were relevant because they were the external factors that propelled Edgar to take matters in his own hands. He realizes that there apart from family, there is no one they can turn to for everyone else is preoccupied protecting their own interests almost  as though they were people reduced to animals to live for survival. This, I think, is very reflective of the Philippine society today. If anything, it reminds me of another film, “Heneral Luna”, which emphasizes the message that the Filipino’s sickness is the too much love for his family to the point that all sense of community and “pagkakaisa” is gone. Moreover, the film’s plot in itself allowed all these themes to be integrated seamlessly which makes “Honor Thy Father” a film that has parts which reinforce and support the development of one another to form one coherent whole. Personally, I think that the film could have done away with too much long duration shots especially when the brothers were mining their way to the Church. Although it may allude to the issue of hard manual labor that endangers Filipinos today or the poverty or lack of technological development in terms of machinery in the country, it was a subplot that they could do away with. Regardless, the film fittingly ties all the issues it wants to raise subtly enough for them to complement and aid the development of the overall story. In my opinion, I think it is a film deserving of being classified as beautiful as it conveys a timely and important message that should be promoted to achieve consciousness in the masses.