Imelda (2003) Reaction Paper

"I'm very simple..."

The definition of simple is relative. And for the former first lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos, simple is her description on how she lived her life here on earth.

The documentary is very well made. From the screenplay to its cinematography, it was very well edited. But what make it "simply" amazing are the facts and the details that were shown all throughout the film. From Imelda's childhood friends, teachers, to the journalists, the researchers made a good job in seeking the fine points to be presented. The film achieved its goal in presenting Mrs Marcos both in the view of the Filipino citizens, people around the world, and Imelda herself. From her helping the poor, traveling in different parts of the world to close deals to her extravagant collection of shoes and questionable amounts of debts, it did not became bias in showing the good and bad points of Imelda's life.

What's very interesting about Imelda is her perspective that beauty is very important. She shows so many points on how beauty affects our lives and on how it should be shown to the public as an inspiration. Earlier in the film, she said "It is easy to be beautiful because it is natural." Also in the nick of death, she still thinks of beauty. Once she was having a speech and a man in black suit got up on stage and stabs her 11 times with a bolo, in her interview she said when she realized that she is on the thread line between life and death, she still thought that why she should die in an ugly fashion with an ugly instrument. The killer should've put a yellow ribbon to make it more attractive, she noted.

She also shared that "It is not expensive to be beautiful... Beauty is a discipline, an art; beauty is harmony in ideological sense... Beauty is God and love made real... And the ultimate rich in this world is beauty." It is very fascinating how she can say those words in spite of the problems that the country is facing at that moment. This may be due to the fact that when she was young, according to her classmate, she only wears dresses that were made from curtains and bed sheets when she was still a child. The classmate also told that they also went to school bare foot. And this one, I think, explains why she is so enthralled by shoes. Having a pair of 3000 shoes is not a joke. She can wear shoes every day without repeating one for almost 3 years. And that's one heck of a collection. But her niece said in a rebuttal to that statement, she herself has a pair of 400 shoes in her closet. She's not even a first lady and she has those pair of shoes. But I must say, what are 400 compared to 3000 pairs? That's 7.5 times more than that. And not just shoes, she asked Christian Espiritu, a couturier, to weave up something for her. And from then on she started ordering loads and loads of garments from Espiritu. Though she prioritizes Filipino made products and designers like her shoes that were from Marikina and her gowns by a Filipino designer, I reckon it is still inappropriate to purchase that much.

According to her, she should be beautiful at all times. She thinks she is the standard, inspiration and star of poor people. And she thinks that "the ultimate rich in this world is beauty." But she didn't even think of how many poor Filipino families she could feed in exchange to her stupendous and extravagant collection. She said beauty is the ultimate rich when her country and fellowmen are