The movie was perceived by critics to be a "revisionism" of the events of the last 72 hours of the Marcos regime in February 1986. An attempt to "revise history", the Marcos haters claim long before the movie was premiered.
I watched the movie as one who was already of reason and an active member of "cause-oriented groups" when the real events occurred, and I was able to compare fairly the movie with what was "in the news" then.
While the movie featured the family helpers and staff, the title did not refer to the household maids, but to the deposed President's eldest daughter whom the strongman refers to as "his strong and faithful assistant, his unpaid maid in Malacañang".
The movie in essence merely supplies "missing events" in the crucial 72 hours to place things into proper perspectives. In the write-ups during EDSA -1, among those mentioned that the Marcoses have left was "an opened can of caviar", to suggest that the family has lived utmost luxury and excesses. In the movie, however, it was impliedly explained that they have no choice but to eat the supposed delicacy because their food supply was cut off. "Kung kailan nagkakagulo saka naman tayo kumakain ng caviar", says Imee in the movie.
The well-heeled don't eat caviar as "ulam", and poor guys like me and Jack of "The Titanic" movie "don't like it much". And the 3,000 pairs of shoes? All were given for free by Marikina shoemakers.
The scene with Cory playing mahjong with nuns was irritating to many critics. It was long reported anyway that the "incidental President" was fond of the game, but the inclusion of the nuns was obviously merely symbolic of the participation or role of the religious sector in the uprising.
Another symbolic scene was the couple dancing with footage of the looting of the palace playing in the background. A question on Raymond Bonner's "Waltzing With A Dictator"?
The movie has also emphasized that the hyped EDSA Revolution was peaceful and bloodless because Marcos has refused to retaliate. Think about that in the case of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest that ended up in a massacre because the "EDSA pattern" did not happen as the protesters might have expected.
The nuns were not Carmelites whose habits are dominantly brown. They could be of another order only that it was accented by some pink on the sleeves, but in no way make them as referring to the order founded by St. Arnold Janssen.
Maid in Malacañang is ripe with family values, about loyalty trust, and wisdom, in funny and emotional settings. Whom to trust was Imee's argument, ungrateful people like snakes that slither on their laps.
I remember classmates who were working in Malacañang in the '90s and called it "a snake pit".
The only drawbacks of the movie were the technical aspects, though the audience seems not to mind as they were glued to the story. It could have been shot on a larger film aspect ratio and improved on the sound recording.
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