History Film / HeneralLuna

* PerspectiveFlip: of sorts, to the 2012 Aguinaldo biopic ''El Presidente''. In this film, Luna (of course) is the HotBlooded patriotic protagonist while Aguinaldo is depicted as a well-meaning yet manipulative President who is more than willing to have his best General assassinated in order to consolidate his control over the Government, while in ''El Presidente'', Aguinaldo is the protagonist and Luna depicted as a well-meaning yet hot-headed and tempestuous commander whose temper causes his untimely demise. The earlier film had drawn wide complaints that it whitewashed Aguinaldo regarding his controversies with Luna and Bonifacio.

* RapePillageAndBurn: The American soldiers did this.

* EvilColonialist: The [[EagleLand Americans]], of course, are the BiggerBad, OutsideContextVillain in this story, fighting the Malolos Republic as a whole—and then, of course, the [[VestigialEmpire Spaniards]], whom said republic also recently displaced. Not that this makes the infighting Malolos leadership that much better at governing.

%%*** BiggerBad: The Americans.

%%* DownerEnding

* GagPenis: "I pity you guys. Your captain is not using his right head when teaching you. And it's not even that big!"

* NoIndoorVoice: Luna.

* AmbiguouslyBrown: Many characters are some form of ''mestizo'', which is TruthInTelevision, given how Filipinos generally tend to be mixed to various degrees. Antonio Luna himself was apparently one of the less mixed ones (a point of contention with his older brother, Juan, the artist, who was acquitted of the murders of his wife and mother-in-law in Paris on effectively racist grounds—i.e., that his ''indio'' (native) race was predisposed to such anyway).

* ManlyFacialHair: Just look at any Heneral Luna poster for a starter, then it's UpToEleven in the film.
** It was intended by the film's crew that Luna's mustache is natural and the thickest to emphasize his masculinity, while Mascardo's mustache is meant to be unnoticeable.

* BadassMustache: Just look at any Heneral Luna poster for a starter, then it's UpToEleven in the film.
** It was intended by the film's crew that Luna's mustache is natural and the thickest to emphasize his masculinity, while Mascardo's mustache is meant to be unnoticeable.

%%** Heroes (''[[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment relatively speaking]]''):

%%** Villains (''[[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment relatively speaking]]''):

* FiveManBand:
** Heroes (''[[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment relatively speaking]]''):
*** TheLeader: Antonio Luna.
*** TheLancer: Paco Román. José Alejandrino sometimes plays the role.
*** TheSmartGuy: Eduardo Rusca, ever the guy with the [[DeadpanSnarker smartest remarks]].
*** TheBigGuy: The Bernal brothers.
*** TagalongKid: Joven Hernando. Who is technically also a [[JustForPun Tagalog Kid]].
** Villains (''[[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment relatively speaking]]''):
*** BigBad: Emilio Aguinaldo.
*** BiggerBad: The Americans.
*** CoDragons / {{Evil Genius}}es: Felipe Buencamino and Pedro Paterno.
*** TheBrute: Tomás Mascardo and his men.
*** TheDarkChick: [[GenderFlip Apolinario Mabini.]] (In RealLife, he actually recommended Luna's removal from the Revolutionary Army due to his HotBlooded-ness.)

* NotSoDifferent: Luna views the Americans as this to Filipinos. Like his country, America fought hard to win its freedom. Nonetheless, he notes wryly how despite having that much in common, they're so willing to deny him and his people the same thing ''they'' died for.

* PowerTrio: General Antonio Luna and his two aides: Colonel Francisco "Paco" Román and Captain Eduardo Rusca.

* RealityEnsues:
** The escalating and increasingly ludicrous animosity between Luna and Mascardo leads to Luna going on an ultimately pointless trip to Mascardo's headquarters with some of his men. [[spoiler:Men whose absence provides the Americans an opening in the weakened Filipino lines.]]
** The film makes a point to highlight how it's not enough to just ''want'' freedom, but to also ''earn'' it.

* ThoseTwoBadGuys: Felipe Buencamino and Pedro Paterno are usually seen together, though the former has more screentime.

*** CoDragons / {{Evil Genius}}es / ThoseTwoBadGuys: Felipe Buencamino and Pedro Paterno.

A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYK_6W_seNg sequel]] with the same cast and crew, ''[[Film/GoyoAngBatangHeneral Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral]]'' (''Goyo: The Boy General'') about Luna's contemporary General Gregorio del Pilar was released in 2018. A third film about UsefulNotes/ManuelQuezon, President of the later Philippine Commonwealth is also planned. [[SequelHook Both men appear here in small roles.]] Tarrog also did a short film, ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCBRjEuSQNw Angelito]]'', which takes place in between ''Luna'' and ''Goyo''. As of 2020, the full film is officially [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYWo6FoVacY free to watch]] as well.

* NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed: Luna's lover Isabel is supposedly an {{Expy}} of Ysidra Cojuangco, with whom Luna is rumoured to have entrusted the treasury of the First Philippine Republic, and who supposedly kept it after his murder—explaining the wealth of the Cojuangco political family (who the president at the time of release was currently related to, through his mother). Historians of course regard the story as made-up by the Cojuangco's rivals, starting in the 1970s, as there is no reak evidence that they were even an item.

* NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed: Luna's lover Isabel is supposedly an {{Expy}} of Ysidra Cojuangco, with whom Luna is rumoured to have entrusted the treasury of the First Philippine Republic, and who supposedly kept it after his murder—explaining the wealth of the Cojuangco political family (who the president at the time of release was currently related to, through his mother). Historians of course regard the story as made-up by the Cojuangco's rivals, starting in the 1970s.

* HistoricalFiguresWereHarmed: Luna's lover Isabel is supposedly an {{Expy}} of Ysidra Cojuangco, with whom Luna is rumoured to have entrusted the treasury of the First Philippine Republic, and who supposedly kept it after his murder—explaining the wealth of the Cojuangco political family (who the president at the time of release was currently related to, through his mother). Historians of course regard the story as made-up by the Cojuangco's rivals, starting in the 1970s.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Luna's lover Isabel is supposedly an {{Expy}} of Ysidra Cojuangco, with whom Luna is rumoured to have entrusted the treasury of the First Philippine Republic, and who supposedly kept it after his murder—explaining the wealth of the Cojuangco political family (who the president at the time of release was currently related to, through his mother). Historians of course regard the story as made-up by the Cojuangco's rivals, starting in the 1970s.

** A {{flashback}} of Andres Bonifacio's messy death by machete.

* MacheteMayhem: The Filipinos use machetes. [[spoiler:Luna gets stabbed and hacked as well as shot, similar to what happened to Bonifacio.]]

* MythologyGag: Luna's lover Isabel is supposedly an {{Expy}} of Ysidra Cojuangco, with whom Luna is rumoured to have hidden the treasury of the First Philippine Republic—explaining the Cojuangco-Aquino political family's present wealth.

A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYK_6W_seNg sequel]] with the same cast and crew, ''[[Film/GoyoAngBatangHeneral Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral]]'' (''Goyo: The Boy General'') about Luna's contemporary General Gregorio del Pilar was released in 2018. A third film about UsefulNotes/ManuelQuezon, President of the later Philippine Commonwealth is also planned. [[SequelHook Both men appear here in small roles.]] Tarrog also did a short film, ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCBRjEuSQNw Angelito]]'', which takes place in between ''Luna'' and ''Goyo''.

* ManInWhite: Mabini, to reinforce his being the OnlySaneMan in Aguinaldo's cabinet, and the one [[IncorruptiblePurePureness who comes off the best]]. Especially highlighted in a scene with Aguinaldo and Luna's enemies, where he is the only one in the light and the rest are in shadow. In real life, Mabini was one of the first people to denounce Aguinaldo for his treatment of Bonifacio and Luna through his memoirs, written a few years later.

The trailer can be viewed [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_T1ykhy3Fg here.]] It's the Philippines' 2015 entry for [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestForeignLanguageFilm Best Foreign-Language Film]] in the 88th [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Academy Awards]]. [[http://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/shortlist-foreign-film-oscar-announced/ It didn't make it into the shortlist of nominees]].

Compare ''{{Film/Amigo}}'', which is set roughly around the same time, in the same war, but doesn't directly deal with RealLife personalities. It instead depicts a more generalized flashpoint of the Philippine-American War, set in a fictional village. Fun fact: Gen. Luna's actor himself, John Arcilla, was a minor supporting character in ''Amigo'' as the parish boy Nenong.

* EnemyCivilWar: The free-for-all, ''Series/GameOfThrones''-esque conflict amongst all the Filipino revolutionary leaders in the wake of the Spanish defeat. Granted, they're not openly going to war against each other, but their incessant infighting eventually kills off their best leaders[[spoiler:—Luna included]].

** EvilPowerVacuum: The cause of said civil war—the defeated Spanish tyrants have left a hole in the power structure that the Revolution's leaders are now fighting and backstabbing each other to fill.

** An unintentional one. Buencamino, the name of one of Aguinaldo's ministers, is Spanish for "good road"—to critics of the (second) Aquino administration's ''Daang Matuwid'' ("Straight Path") policy, which has been fraught with accusations of government incompetence and petty politicking, this counts as a cynical BilingualBonus.