The recent projects of director Brillante Mendoza all have something to do with the drug war. In 2016, he had "Ma'Rosa," tackling police corruption in the drug war. In 2017, he directed a TV series for TV5 called "Amo" (now on Netflix) also about police corruption in the drug war. Last year, he came out with "Alpha:The Right to Kill," and yes, you guessed right -- it was again about police corruption in the drug war.
Sgt. Moises Espino is very active in the anti-drug campaign in his district of San Miguel. He employed a young ex-con "asset" Elijah to penetrate the drug dens and do the dirty job. The two have a little extra business on the side with some of the stash they confiscate during the raids, and things were going swimmingly for their partnership. However, when police intecepted a homing pigeon with a pack of meth crystals taped to its legs, the two began to feel the heat.
The film immediately began with a written disclaimer that it was not intended to besmirch the integrity of the Philippine National Police. Instead it acknowledges the fact that there are those among the ranks of the policemen who go against the basic principles of their sworn service. At that point, we already expected that it was going to revisit issues which had already been tackled in previous films about the drug war (and there had been quite a number of them lately), probably those of Mendoza himself -- and it really did.
Exposing dirty cops working the drugs beat.had already been done very damningly in "Ma'Rosa." However, "Ma'Rosa" focused more on the dynamics of a family involved within the drug trade, led by their matriarch Rosa, played by Jaclyn Jose, who went on to win the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival that year. "Alpha" focused more on parallelizing the life of a crooked cop and his asset, family men both. "Alpha" did not have a Jaclyn Jose to boost up the acting department.
Allen Dizon's Moises Espino in "Alpha" was practically the same character as his Camilo Molina in "Amo" -- a cop involved in the drug business. He knew this character very well. Aside from Dizon, several cast members in "Amo" were also seen here in "Alpha." These included: Elijah Filamore (who played the title character Elijah, Espino's alpha or informer); Jalyn Taboneknek (who played Elijah's consenting wife Rhea), Apollo Abraham (who played Espino's chief of police Abraham), Dante Wayan (as pigeon breeder Mang Dante), Angela Cortez (as Espino's wife Angela), among others. The only other known actor is Baron Geisler, who was a very realistic drug lord.
Most of director Mendoza's signature stylistic shots to were also seen here to evoke grit and realism. We see the long tracking shots, the extreme close-ups, shaky cam, shots going on and off focus, the shots taken from floor level (all of which we also saw in the State of the Nation addresses by President Duterte, which were also directed by Mendoza). From the first episode of "Amo" there were already several similarities noted, like singing the National Anthem, random checks by neighborhood inspectors, gethering "suspects" without a warrant, sneaking drugs with children, etc.
There were several ironic juxtapositons made by the director to deliver his message. The dirty cops all had Biblical names. A policeman killed someone in one scene, then in the next scene he was attending Holy Mass at the Lamb of God part. Children of a policeman recite an earnest rhyme extolling the heroism of policemen in one scene, then in the next scene, a corrupt policeman was ambushed. The fillm as a whole was not bad at all,with moments of effective tension and dread. The topics and the execution were just so familiar such you feel you have seen it before. 6/10
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