In 'Dekada '70', we see a suburban family slowly transforming and maturing as each of its members lusts for their own respective freedoms. The minute we see them, we are questioned on under what circumstances can a happy and peaceful family like this change in the course of the film. Ferdinand Marcos, on his first term, seems like a promising President. Even so, the father of the Bartolome family, Julian (Christopher De Leon) was very happy with how the government was performing that he put his money on Marcos for a second time. But in 1972, a re-elected Marcos declared martial law on television. At this moment of the film, as the Bartolome family gathered around the television to watch the announcement, is where the story really starts. That jolly family we saw minutes ago is no more.
Even the children start to unfold before our eyes: Jules (Piolo Pascual) became a high-ranking official in a resistance movement; Emmanuel (Marvin Agustin), because of his love for literature, started to write revolutionary pieces in a time when such content is banned for good; Gani (Carlos Agassi) wants out of the Philippines to work as a soldier in the U.S.; Jason (Danilo Barrios) hits puberty and would normally go home after midnight because of his girlfriend and presumed drug influence; and Bingo (John Wayne Sace) is the sole child that doesn't do much, but instead plays as the spectator of his brothers as they are slowly molding into completely different people. These different ambitions for different freedoms played as the moral center of the film. But what is the best freedom worth fighting for: the freedom for our own self, our family or the whole nation?
The battle for the whole nation became a very big priority for Jules and Emmanuel that they would occasionally forget to fight for their own family, as shown in their apparent indifference to the death of their brother Jason. Amanda, the five children's mother, would even scold them because according to her, family triumphs over everything and warned them to abandon their revolutionary actions. But in a time where the whole country needs one another, our own family would create the impression of a second priority because a life is worth sacrificing for the lives of many rather than for one.
The striking image of a kite waving through the air was prominently shown a few times in the movie. It denotes Filipinos who tried many ways just to go higher to reach their own independence. A kite made out of a propaganda newspaper was even shown flying in one scene.
'Dekada '70' is a celebration of the facets every Filipino faces in order to reach the uppermost layer that is freedom. That despite the challenges and obstacles each one of us faces, we knew in our own selves that there is no point in stopping. Whether that fight is for our love of our self, family or the whole nation, there is freedom out there that's worth reaching. And at the end of the movie, the Bartolome family rallies with the resistance movement to overthrow Ferdinand Marcos from his presidential position which, although never shown, they succeeded. But the question now is whether this new-found independence in them actually prospered.
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