The Spy in the Sandwich

Sunday, July 07, 2024

9:00 AM | Eddie Romero: A Life

Today, July 7, is the 100th birth anniversary of Dumaguete filmmaker and National Artist for Cinema and Broadcast Arts Eddie Romero. In celebration of this milestone, Dumaguete City has geared up for a series of events—including lectures and film screenings, and by the afternoon of Sunday, also an unveiling of his bust at the Old Presidencia grounds and an exhibit of his memorabilia. The commemoration is sponsored by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, together with the Dumaguete City Tourism Office, Silliman University Culture and Arts Council, Robert and Metta Silliman University Library, Foundation University, Society of Filipino Archivists for Film, FPJ Archives, ABS-CBN Sagip Pelikula, and the National Museum of the Philippines–Dumaguete.

Edgar Sinco Romero, better known as the filmmaker Eddie Romero, was born on 7 July 1924 in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental. He was the only child born to José E. Romero, a congressman, Secretary of Education, and the first Philippine Ambassador to the Court of St. James in the United Kingdom, to his first wife Pilar Guzman Sinco, a school teacher, who died in childbirth in 1927. His father would later have seven other children with his second wife Elisa Zuñiga Villanueva. Romero grew up in a family that valued education, public service, and cultural enrichment, and in a city which provided a rich cultural environment that would deeply influence Romero’s artistic vision. Romero’s early education at the Dumaguete Elementary School and at Silliman University High School proved to be formative. Silliman University, known for fostering intellectual and artistic growth, was where Romero first encountered the diverse cultural influences that would shape his worldview. The vibrant academic and cultural community of Dumaguete, with its emphasis on literature, arts, and progressive ideas, left an indelible mark on the young Romero.

He began writing stories as early as seven or eight years old, and published his first short story at the age of twelve. One of his better-known short stories, “Oh, Johnny, Oh,” published in the 25 May 1940 issue of the Philippines Free Press, when he was only sixteen years old, revealed a young man reveling under the grit and thrill of film noir—and helped garner attention to his storytelling abilities by the film director Gerardo de Leon, who would also become National Artist for Cinema.

In his adult years, Romero’s life experiences instilled in him a profound understanding of conflict, resilience, and the human condition—themes that would later permeate his films, from the golden age of Philippine cinema in the 1940s and 1950s, to the Hollywood B-movie heydays in the 1960s and 1970s, and to the second golden age of Philippine cinema in the 1970s and 1980s.

According to IMDB, he directed 65 titles, wrote 49, and produced 23. His career spanned more than six decades, leaving an indelible mark on the Philippine and international cinema. His first foray into filmmaking was a script he wrote for the film Ang Maestra, directed by Gerardo de Leon in 1941. Anecdotally, he wrote the screenplay in English—considering his upbringing and education at Silliman University in Dumaguete—with the production translating his text to Tagalog.

After World War II, he helmed his first film, Ang Kamay ng Diyos in 1947, and soon emerged as a versatile filmmaker, adept at both commercial and critically acclaimed productions, and was particularly known for directing films starring the popular tandem of Pancho Magalona and Tita Duran, including Always: Kay Ganda Mo and Sa Piling Mo, both released in 1949.

That same year, his father was appointed as the first Philippine Ambassador to the Court of St. James in the United Kingdom by President Elpidio Quirino, and the young Eddie took the opportunity to join his family in London, apparently abandoning what was already a fast-rising career as a film director. In his recollections, he would consider these years as his “lost years,” when he grappled existentially with the possibility of pursuing further a career in the movie industry. But he also used these years in London to educate himself in world cinema, making acquaintances with such directors as David Lean, Karel Reisz, and Roberto Rossellini, and becoming familiar with the work of Yasujiro Ozu, whose film techniques he admired.

After he returned to the Philippines in 1951, Romero went on to direct films for Sampaguita and Lebran. He began directing mainstream films once more, including several adaptations of popular komiks such as Barbaro (1952) and El Indio (1953). He helmed two more Pancho Magalona and Tita Duran films, Kasintahan sa Pangarap (1951) and Ang Ating Pag-ibig (1953), and then directed the first Filipino movie to win an award at the Asian Film Festival, Ang Asawa Kong Americana (1953). He also produced and directed Buhay Alamang (1952), which he adapted from a stage play by his mentor Gerardo de Leon.

By the end of the 1950s, he would enter his second chapter as a filmmaker. He set his eyes on international productions, sensing seismic changes in the local film industry that would see most of its major studios closing shop by the 1960s. He began directing B-movies, mostly action fares and World War II extravaganzas, for Hollywood. This includes Day of the Trumpet (1957), Man on the Run (1958), Terror is a Man (1959), Raiders of Leyte Gulf (1962), Lost Battalion (1961), The Walls of Hell (1964, co-directed with Gerardo de Leon), and Manila: Open City (1968).

Romero would later venture to the more profitable horror genre, starting in 1964 with Moro Witch Doctor, and continued with Mad Doctor of Blood Island (1968), Beast of Blood (1970), Beast of the Yellow Night (1971), The Twilight People (1972), and Savage Sisters (1974). He produced many of these for his own outfit, Hemisphere Pictures, including the “Blood Island” series, which he would later describe as “the worst things I ever did.” Some of these films were made in collaboration with Roger Corman’s New World Pictures, which was known for its commercially successful run of Hollywood B-movies. Romero’s Black Mama, White Mama (1973), a blaxtaploitation/women-in-chains film starring Pam Grier, has since become a cult classic favorite. He also worked with Jack Nicholson, who starred in the films Flight to Fury and Back Door to Hell, both of which he produced in 1964.

His 1966 film The Passionate Strangers, produced by the American actor Michael Parsons and co-written with fellow Sillimanians Cesar Jalandoni Amigo and Reuben Canoy, was Romero’s first film to use Negros Oriental as a backdrop. The film noir-tinged drama, about murder and labor unrest in a small Filipino town with an American-owned factory at the center of it all, uses Dumaguete and nearby towns as significant settings for the story. This experience would lead him to film the entirety of his pre-colonial epic fantasy Kamakalawa in Negros Oriental in 1981.

Kamakalawa would come after a string of critically-acclaimed films he made starting in the mid-1970s, when he transitioned once more from his focus on international productions to a new focus on Filipino stories, challenged by the cinematic fare that directors such as Lino Brocka and Ishmael Bernal were bringing to the world stage. He was also increasingly conscious of his legacy as a Filipino filmmaker, and thus made an effort to return to artier fare. He began this pivotal period by writing and directing Ganito Kami Noon...Paano Kayo Ngayon? (1976), following a young man confronted with the idea of being a Filipino, an epic that remains one of his most celebrated works. The film, set against the backdrop of the Philippine Revolution against Spain, showcased Romero’s ability to blend historical context with personal stories and national yearnings, earning him the prestigious FAMAS Award for Best Director.

While he would direct two more films for the B-market in Hollywood, and famously was part of the production of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now in 1980, this part in his filmmaking career allowed him to pursue more serious and artistic fares, including such personal films as Sinong Kapiling? Sinong Kasiping? (1977), Banta ng Kahapon (1977), and Hari sa Hari, Lahi sa Lahi (1987). But many critics consider his crowning achievement to be Aguila (1980), an epic that traverses several generations of a Filipino family through several socio-political upheavals in the country, and starring the legendary Fernando Poe Jr. In the later years of his career, Romero turned to television and gave the world the critically-acclaimed adaptation of Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere, a major television series that aired in 1993.

Romero’s immense contributions to Philippine cinema and broadcast arts have been recognized by many award-giving bodies, including the Luna Awards of the Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP), the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS), Gawad Urian, the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), the Catholic Mass Media Awards (CMMA), among several others.

In 2003, Eddie Romero was conferred the award of the Order of National Artists, the highest national recognition given to Filipino individuals who have made significant contributions to the development of Philippine arts. This accolade was a fitting tribute to a career marked by innovation, dedication, and an unwavering commitment to storytelling. Romero’s films are characterized by their rich narratives, complex characters, and a profound understanding of the human condition. Throughout his career, Romero remained a visionary, constantly evolving and adapting to the changing cinematic landscape.

He married Carolina Gonzalez of Pangasinan in 1948. He had three children: Jose “Joey" Romero IV, Ancel Edgar, and Leo John. Joey Romero would later follow in his father’s footsteps, becoming a noted filmmaker in his own right.

His passing on 28 May 2013, at the age of 88, marked the end of an era in Philippine cinema, but his legacy continues to inspire. Romero was not just a filmmaker but a storyteller of unparalleled depth, whose life and work remain a testament not only to the entertainment industry but also to the rich cultural heritage of the Philippines. [With contribution from F. Jordan Carnice]