I heard it from my usual press sources last night and it came as a total shock.
This is really, really bad.
On monday, my picture will be flashed on National TV and my story will be told to all...
Adrian : The only Idiot in Manila who has yet to see Spiderman 2
Everyone, absolutely, everyone has watched it. My friends, co-workers, our maids, our drivers, the janitors, the taxi drivers, everyone. Heck, I thought i even heard it playing in the background while the Iraqis were threatening to chop of Angelo Dela Cruz's head. (Now we know why they love masks that much.)
Damn, i need to reactivate my social life. I realized that the last film i saw in a theater was... (drum roll) ... The Return of the King!
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Not that i miss it of course.
I have been retreating to my ivory tower the past few weeks, foregoing the usual weekend gimmicks and instead, (besides bloghopping and posting random comments on random sites)viewing the massive amounts of DVD backlog I've been accumulating from my almost kleptomaniacally impulsive purchases.
Granted, most of the films i've watched so far could be barely classified as masterpieces (btw- Do Not, I repeat, Do Not buy Starship Troopers 2), im quite happy with the selections so far. In fact, most have actually given me a lot of ideas and inspiration.
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Another boring lesson in history
Over the past few weeks i've watched some "historically accurate" films like The Patriot, Braveheart, Gladiator and The 300 Spartans. It made me realize how much we really have understand our history so we dont repeat it.
Interestingly though, the only subject which I absolutely detested besides Filipino back in school was History. This was partly because most of my history teachers were nerdy bookazoids who had no presentation skills whatsoever. In fact, the only stuff i actually remembered in our highschool history class was that the world-record for the most number of "Noh?"'s per hour was being held by our own history teacher. Not sure if she got a prize for it though...
The other reason i hated history class was that it was based on Rote learning. This meant, that instead of us picturing the actual events that happened, realizing the sacrifices and the brilliance of the past generation, and making us remember that we stand on the shoulders of giants... they focused on making us remember stupid trivia such as "What happened in June 21, 1745?" or "What was the name of Andres Bonifacio's second cousin's son-in-law's nursemaid that helped the katipuneros in their Pampanga campaign?".
Damn useless crap. My brain just kept rejecting that junk. If it weren't for my luck with multiple choices and my magical 4-sided die, i'd probably have flunked ALL of my history tests.
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The 300 Spartans (1962)
Forget Troy and the greatest war fought over a single woman. Forget Achilles and his BradPittian Invincibility. There's a greater yet lesser-known hero in Greek history named King Leonidas who made his name in the battle of Thermopylae. Apparently, there was a film about it and it's conveniently available via my pirate friends in Makati Cinema.
I first heard of the 300 spartans in The Last Samurai when Tom Cruise brought it up in a discussion with Katsumoto. It was basically King Leonidas and his Three Hundred Spartans against, get this, TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND Persians. Again, 300 vs 200,000. Notice the difference in the number of zeroes. (Some Greek historians contest that the number was 2.6 Million persians. Wag na kayo. Sobra na yon.)
At first glance, it was truly of mindboggling odds of almost 700 to 1 (Trivia: The restaurant scene in Kill Bill 1, The Bride killed or maimed 57 assailants and she was a bloody mess afterwards.)
But it was a very narrow pass, and there were other greeks as well defending that pass (Athenians, Thespians...etc) totaling to almost 4000. Apparently, since the Spartans were seen as the Greek's main defense and did most of the killing, they were most credited for holding off the attack.
Then again, they didnt win that battle. They just held them off, wave after wave, for 10 days (probably more if they hadn't been betrayed) while the rest of the unified Greek armies prepared the bulk of the defense. In the last two days, they were down to less than 300 spartans and around 1100 other greek soldiers.
Then, they were betrayed, outflanked and soon dead to the last man.
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Weird.
While watching the movie, i was secretly wishing that we could have had something like that in our history.
Andres Bonifacio, bolting from the revolution at the last minute, seemed like such a wimp compared to Leonidas of Sparta or the Gladiator-General Maximus. The KKK didnt decisively win the Spanish revolution, the American resistance was bought out, and the victory in the Japanese war was credited to the return of General MacArthur. In fact, the only Filipino in history who had a major dream in changing our country and saw it through was probably Ferdinand Marcos. But we know what happened to him.
I mean, is it really something to be proud of? A country with a half-baked history? Then again, our ancestors weren't crazed prisoners and con-men like those of Australia's. Sigh. Well, we can't change the past. Just learn from them.
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Btw speaking of Greek... i took this test...
?? Which Of The Greek Gods Are You ??
brought to you by Quizilla
So umm...
Hades IS a nice guy right? :)
1 comment:
I havent seen Spiderman 2 nor the LOTR series. I think I beat you on that one.
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