” is almost certainly among the worst the year will produce. As a historical account, the melodramatic hit depicting the last days of Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ family in the presidential palace is a travesty.This has been the family’s year. In May, son Ferdinand Marcos Jr., known as Bongbong, won the presidential election with a landslide – the culmination of a decades-long effort to rehabilitate the deposed kleptocrat’s name.
In another scene, one of several overwrought tete-a-tetes, Bongbong comforts his impeccably coiffed mother Imelda as she weeps. “We will come back,” he says. The camera turns to her bejeweled shoes and a cataloguing sticker on the sole. 2022. Just in case viewers were unclear.Using silver-screen glitz to sell a more palatable version of history and reality is not a new tactic. The Soviet Union did it.
The movie makes no effort to deal with the proximate causes of 1986’s uprising. The context – the assassination of opposition leader Benigno Aquino, the rise of his widow Cory, a snap February election and Marcos’ effort to claim victory – are barely dealt with. The regime’s cruelty and large-scale corruption are swept aside. In the movie, Imelda frets over photographs and children’s mementos as she leaves – never mind she actually took cash, gold and millions of dollars in jewelry.
The departure – an embarrassing defeat in the face of popular anger – is depicted here as a selfless act, and a dignified one. The family have time to debate clothes, to discuss the future, to give motivational addresses to distraught staff. They help rip Imelda’s gowns to tie yellow scraps around servants’ heads , and still walk out calmly to waiting helicopters. The reality was different.