FILM REVIEW: EKSTRA starring MS. VILMA SANTOS

Vilma Santos

EKSTRA AN ACTING COUP MOVIE

Yes it is an acting coup movie. From the the main cast to the subcast to the "talents" or better known as extras or bit player. Vilma Santos played the best in this movie. Not because she is Vilma Santos but because she is the best actor to play this part. The Ekstra.

Vilma Santos played the role single handedly as if effortless, just like a true actor as she is. Come to think of it she is a movie star, a Governor of a Province, Wife of a Senator and a Grand Slam Actress but she acted in this movie as if she is really a trying hard movie bit player.

LOIDA MALABANAN The movie is about the bit player named Loida Malabanan a single mom whos main objective in life is to provide a better future for her daughter. She is a profesional bit player all her life. She appeared in almost all movies and soap operas. She is either part of a crowd, or a double, or deliver lines in all her appearances. The pay is minimal. She gets P500 for being part of a crowd, P1000 for playing double, and P2000 for bit play with lines. She loves her job. She loves being a bit player. She is very professional. She is very diligent in bringing her own costumes on the set always ready for any role the director demands from her. 

THE SUPPORT CAST

Although Loida loves her job so dearly, it seems, the job does not love a bit player like her. Her job is to please a lot of people in the set. There is the Talent Coordinator, Ruby (played by Ruby Ruiz), who is at the mercy of the Assistant director Vincent (played by Vincent de

Marlon Rivera, Vincent de Jesus, Tart Carlos and Ruby Ruiz

Jesus) and the foul mouthed, ever hot headed, director from hell, Direk (played by Marlon Rivera who is a real director by the way in "Babae sa Septic Tank") .These three characters including Trina the Executive Producer of the soap are always getting into each others nerves. Blaming and bickering who did what, and who is suppose to do or not suppose to do what in the movie. Of course these bickering and blaming has to have a fallguy or girl...yes the bit players are always to blame for all their mistakes. So they are all putting all their anger to the innocent bit players or ekstras. Vincent, Marlon and Ruby played a major role in the movie for the acting prowess of Vilma to come out. I really love all their characters. But despite of this negativity around Loida in the set of the Soap "Una Kang Naging Akin" she have a friend to go to and pour out her problems and woe she is Venus (played by Tart Carlos). Venus was the only positive side of the movie for Loida because she is the best friend of Vilma here.

"Tao ba tayo dito? Props lang tayo 'no?" - Venus, Ekstra.

THE AUDITION SCENE

Loida and Venus auditioning for the maid role

So my favorite scenes in the movie are the time when Vincent the Asst. Director needs a maid in the scene they are making. He talked to the ekstras, and Loida and Venus where chosen from the group. The two have to outdo each other as in a competition to get the plum role. So they both gave their best. Acting out different scenarios of a maid and guess who got the part, Loida of course. Now Loida is now the maid and after all those audition antics all she has to do is hand over a bottle of gin and a glass to the lead actress (played by Marian Rivera). Thats it. The only shot taken of Loida is her back and that ends her role. Then she waits and waits for nothing anymore. Until she was forgotten.

THE DOUBLE

Vilma Santos acting as double for Eula Valdez.

Another favorite scene is when she got the part of a double of Eula Valdez in the torture scene. The scene required a double for Eula Valdez because she walked out of the set tired of waiting for her part to be shot. The director had no choice but to get an ekstra in replacement of Eula. So they got Loida, since the assistant director saw how good Loida is in the maid's role  mini audition. She got the part. The part was tough. She has to be gagged in the mouth and hands tied and wear a sack on her head the whole time of the scene plus being burned on the arm with a lit cigarette by the villain of the soap played by Cherie Gil. Then when the director says cut. Cherie Gil was so apologetic of what she did to Loida and Loida blurted out her favorite showbiz line "Its part of the job".

THE ATTORNEY SCENE

Vilma Santos played an Attorney

And then my most favorite part of all is the scene where Vilma has to play an attorney role. The assistant director was irked of the talent coordinators choice for the attorney role because she speaks english with a bisaya accent. So they have to look for a replacement. Well fortunately the AD liked the looks of Loida and ask to read the script. She did good in reading it and she got the role. Now this a role with speaking lines and the pay is much bigger than just being a crowd or double. So she made an effort to do her best to deliver the part. This is for her daughter, who is taking nursing. Loida's daughter here has been texting her all day about payments in school. This distracted her a bit and put a preasure in her. But she used this to be good in what she will do. Anyway she is doing this for her daughter. She memorized the lines. Internalized her role as an attorney. Now its taping time for the scene.  She is ready. But when the camera starts to roll. All things bad happened. She buckeled her lines and missed her blocking a lot of times. Which caused the scene to be retaked again and again. This made the Director very furious. He could not take the fact that an ekstra like her will cause delays in a very important scene in the soap. So he came rushing out of his airconditioned tent and started shouting at everyone and that includes poor old Loida. She was shouted at, cursed and crucified infront of all the cast and staff. Even infront of her long time idol actress, Amanda (played by Ms. Pilar Pilapil). And her celluloid world started crumbled into pieces infront of her. The job the she loves so much is persecuting her. Thinking: "Is this the job that I fought for all her life?" You can see the look in her eyes during this time that she was humiliated. She was tired.  Her body aches  because they have been on the set since the early morning the day before now its again almost dawn. She can take all the aches and pains. But she cannot take this maltreatment and humiliation from the director. She cannot fight back, remember she is just an ekstra. Then her eyes started to speak volumes, no dialogs, and then tears started to roll from her eyes and that was a heartbreaking moment of the film.

MY LEARNINGS

This movie changed my perspective of my favorite pastime, watching telenovelas / soap operas. This movie has dramatically shown to us how tedious the task of the directors, the assistant directors, the staff , the props man, the art dep. and of course the actors and the 

Ekstra a very good movie.

talents for them to come up with a TV show for us to watch during our rest time during primetime. Its laborious, tedious, imagine going on far flung places just to shoot a couple of sequences then pack-up again to go to the next location. And on top of that are the irregularities that happen on the set like generator sets left behind, catering services delayed, actors being late on the set. And the most unpredictable problem is the weather, is it going to rain or not. You must have a lot of energy and creativity and patience for you to surpass all those challenges. Imagine the toll it will take on your body and your psyche when faced with endless problems like that. I cannot blame if the directors have very thin and sensitive patience. Imagine aside from the problems on the set they have deadline pressures  and "for airing" pressures and the bosses that nags on their backs for budget control, plus the pressure of pleasing the sponsors and the naging ratings game and all that. Our telenovela pastime is their work. Hard, freakin, work. I salute the production team of these teleseryes for doing the hard work for us the televiewers. Thank you.

MY LESSON
But the other side of the coin is this and the lesson that I got after watching this movie. No matter how pressured you are, No matter how hard working you are or how high your position in anything that you are doing, it will not be an excuse for maltreating, maligning, and harassing  equally hard working people below you. It will not solve any problems, worse, it will worsen it. Do not blame your people if they are not working as good as you expect them to be. You have to blame yourself for being disorganized and not guiding them with what you expect the outcome to be. Remember as a leader you have the power. And with power comes the responsibilty to teach your people and not always blame them for your lack of organization and concern for them. 

I will remember this movie everytime I see myself leading people. As a teacher I lead my students in the classroom. I sometimes get irritated and impatient with them when they are not getting the lessons I teach. This movie opened my eyes to be more patient and nurturing to my pupils for them to get to where they want to go. To be educated.

Thank you Vilma Santos for this great learning that I get in this movie. Thank you Jeffrey Jeturian for directing this gem of a movie. Thank you Star Cinema for distributing this movie for us to see it in mainstream theaters.