It’s been a busy week for movie watching. I also saw Lino Brocka’s Orapronobis last Wednesday. Now here’s a film that I had no idea whatsoever how it’ll turn out. All we knew going in was that Lino Brocka directed it, and Phillip Salvador and Bembol Roco were in it.

I didn’t know what the word Orapronobis meant exactly. (The international title “Les Insoumis” means Fight For Us?). It was about a group of vigilantes in the post-Edsa, Cory Aquino-led era of the late 80s. The vigilantes claim to be established by the people, for the people’s protection against the rebel left. But they choose no one in their cruelties: peasant, innocent citizen, suspected rebel. The vigilantes are being coddled by people from the military.

It’s a film heavy with political implications, but it doesn’t suffer character conflict and story. You have a clear sense of what the film is about, who these people are and why we should bother knowing how things turn out for them. (Interestingly, the military guy here is also played by Joel Lamangan, as was in Hesus, Rebolusyonaryo.)

Wonderful performances by everyone. This film has Phillip Salvador in his pre-trying hard to be an action star mode. I think the body of work he came up with before his action star (and Kris Aquino) phase was much more interesting. Witness the Phillip Salvador in Karnal (which contains my favorite decapitation scene and full blown Oedipal conflict), Jaguar, Bayan Ko and Ang Tatay Kong Nanay. He gave more effective performances in them as an actor, as opposed to the affected acting he sported in his heroic, swashbuckling latter incarnations, imho.

Also, my friend Astrid and I are trying to figure out two more things:
A. In which film did Bembol Roco start to be credited as such and not as Rafael Roco, Jr?
B. When did he turn bald?

We have this theory that once he lost his hair, he ceased to be Rafael and started to be Bembol, and then simultaneously started playing the supporting actor, evil guy roles he has now been relegated to playing. Can somebody out there clear this up?

[Another check with the Imdb reveals that he was credited as Rafael only in some films, like Maynila and Merika, and then just as Bembol in the next. Also, there is a Fritz Lang movie called American Guerilla in the Philippines, aka I Shall Return. The summary goes: American G.I.s help against invasion of the Philippines. Doesn't that sound familiar?]