Auteur Theory – Lino Brocka

Lino Brocka’s films usually depict the hardships of lower-class society, “Maynila sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag” and “Insiang” bring to life attributes of financial struggle to complement Lino Brocka’s artistic direction. The characters in both his films have faced with a common pattern of being imprisoned. Imprisoned in the sense that their situations seem inescapable given their circumstances. Insiang was abandoned by her boyfriend and left to endure her toxic household, taking matters to the extreme because she was left with no other option. In a similar sense, Julio is trapped in a situation where he is forced to sacrifice his integrity to get by in an urban environment, losing his only reason for staying in Manila, he sets himself towards taking revenge. Lino Brocka’s two films possess an identity that associates with revenge. In both stories, Insiang and Julio are lead to getting even with the society that’s wronged them, trapped by inescapable circumstances and forced to live and act at their lowest.

Lino Brocka, like many other film directors during Martial Law, integrates a handful of political metaphors in his projects. Insiang’s character relationships and plot developments tells a story of someone that desires to break free from their hopeless situation. Maynila sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag also shines light on the desperations of surviving. Julio’s endeavors in earning his coin in Manila takes a toll on his character and we begin to see his personality grow more violent. Lino Brocka is able to map out his characters to succumb to their anger, with their end-result leading to someone’s death. His films are written as if it were created for nihilists. The pessimisic nature of Lino Brocka’s projects give us a small taste of what it must have been like living in such desperate times. The effect of Martial Law on Lino Brocka’s creative process really shines through in his films. Situations given to the characters really make think to myself that “it must be miserable to live like that” which makes sense because it really must have been depressing to live in Lino Brocka’s time where it was hopeless to vocally express yourself.

Lino Brocka wears the mind of a pessimist as a filmmaker, I can feel the anger and frustration of his characters in face of the hopelessness before them. His stories are so easy to empathize with because these struggles are very much real. Though the stories may be a work of fiction, Lino Brocka is able to capture these moments of strife in reality and project them so strongly onto the screen that it feels as if we ourselves are facing the same struggle. His ability to take his own personal pains and share with the audience is a strong characteristic of his films that allows us to delve deeper and investing ourselves into the conflicts of his characters. Julio and Insiang are faced with very real issues, that itself is uncomfortable to witness, watching someone being exploited and desperately trying to live is enough to make me flinch away from a whole scene.

Maynila sa Kuko ng Liwanag follows a tragic story where the ideals of hope are quickly snuffed out. Lino Brocka delivers the film in a very straightforward manner as it follows Julio’s desperate attempts at survival in the big city. The film utilizes a lot of zoom shoots and panning motions to zone in onto a characters’ facial expression. The whole film is viewed from Julio’s perspective which makes his struggles much more unsettling to watch. As the film progresses Julio becomes much more impatient and violent. When he finds out that his romantic interest, Ligaya, was brought to Manila for prostitution, he agrees that they should escape and return back to the province. Though soon after it is revealed that Ligaya had died during a struggle with Ah-tek. It is then that Julio finally snaps, murdering Ah-tek after tracking him down. The scene of Julio stabbing Ah-tek brought emphasis to the violence that was occuring, zooming in on every strike from his ice pick followed by Ah-tek’s face screaming in pain and terror. The final scene shows Julio cornered by a mob who had witnessed the murder, the camera zooms into Julio’s face this time right as the mob was about to attack him. As mentioned before the use of camera-work in emphasizing the strength of a scene is a characteristic of Lino Brocka’s films. It may be that Brocka wanted the key elements of a scene to have more impact, especially during the death of Ah-tek where the aftermath of the attack had a shot which zoomed in on his lifeless, blood-covered face.

In the case of Insiang, this film utilizes similar techniques in telling its story. Insiang also tells an unsettling story that folllows a young woman’s experience of falling victim to sexual assault and exploitation. Insiang is a much more emotionally based film compared to ‘Maynila sa Kuko ng Liwanag.’ The moments of genuine emotional pain are heartwrenching and downright frustrating to watch. The audience is presented such a miserable situation that we can’t help but sit by and watch Insiang’s character unravel. The latter part of the film carries out the revenge plot typical of Brocka’s stories, but does it in a much slower pace. When the time for Dado’s end came, I couldn’t help but feel satisfied with the outcome. Lino Brocka was able to make Insiang an emotional rollercoaster that invested its audience into the character’s strifes and eventual retribution. Dado’s death was executed similarly to Ah-tek. Every strike of the blade was emphasized as we can see his face contort in pain, all the while Tonya screamed profanities at the dying man.

Brocka’s films are often at times dark and end with mixed-feelings that leave the audience either cheering or rearing back in disgust after witnessing the bloody end of the antagonist. These films are simply meant to carry out a message that represents the strife encountered by the people of Lino Brocka’s time. His films bring to light the stains of Philippine society, unafraid to expose the atrocities that were committed during his time. Brocka’s creative vision was able to bridge together the fictitious elements of film with the reality of the world he lived in, creating a medium that could tell the story of his time to countless generations.