Dekada '70

Dekada '70 is a movie adaptation of Lualhati Bautista's novel The movie is story of a family caught in the middle of a tumultuous decade, "Dekada '70". It details how a middle class family struggled with and faced new changes. The movie chronicles a middle-class Filipino family who, over the space of a decade, become aware of the political policies that have ultimately led to repression and a state of martial law.

The gender issues presented in the movie revolved around the dynamics of socialization inside a middle class Filipino family. Amanda, the wife of Julian was a typical Filipina homemaker who in her role as wife, turns into a woman who only follows the rules of appeasing her husband and bringing him honor in his circle of friends and the society. Amanda's life revolved around her five sons and her husband. This situation in the movie suggested that Amanda had gradually forgotten her "being a woman" and her sense of value as a woman in the society. There is a conflict presented here of how a mother becomes torn between the letter of the law and her responsibilities as a mother. As Amanda's sons grow, from individual beliefs and lead different lives, Amanda reaffirms her identity to state her stand as a Filipino citizen, mother and as a woman.

Although Lualhati Bautista is a feminist, I could see from the movie that she had presented Amanda's role to be conservative. Lualhati Bautista somehow presented the significance of a homemakers' role in a family whose facing a decade of an oppressive Marcos regime. There seems to be much burden for Amanda to take the role of a woman, a housewife and a citizen of that particular period in Philippine history. While Julian Bartolome had liberal values on raising his children, he had in the same weight, felt the burden of liberating their children while ironically having the fear of losing them in the process. He each lets them go in the end, holding firm his belief that, "a man should have something to die for," thus supporting Jules (Piolo Pascual) decision to be with the Communist left and rally against the Marcos Government, and supporting his third son (Marvin Agustin) to write illegal political exposes. He all gave his sons his support and providence allowing each of his son freedom to find their "truth." It was sad though that his fourth son (Danilo Barrios) fell victim to a corrupt police department.

Contradictory to what Julian believes, he does not allow Amanda to find a job for herself. This became quite uneasy for me to understand in the movie. I do not find it reasonable for a husband to liberate his sons and not his own wife. Liberating your offspring without doing the same for the coffer of the offspring must be contradictory. For me, liberating the men without liberating the women is meaningless. They were in the beginning created to purposely be a companion of each other and share each other's joys and sorrows. For the husband to go by himself is like wandering around the desert without the hope of finding an oasis. Man and Woman "is" one. It is I believe the greatest end of man and woman: to find that a man cannot be man without a woman, and a woman cannot be woman without a man. This is my own opinion. I may not share the same with you but I believe this with conviction.

As the movie progresses, I found that over the space of a decade, the family also grew out of each other's lives as the family became aware of the political issues happening around them.

In the end, Amanda and Julian stood side by side with each other. Each of them wondered how the two of them started and ended up left by their children still together. It was as if telling the audience that a man and a woman that starts with two and ends up two.