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It doesn’t romanticize the life of a law student. It tries to lighten up the situations by focusing on its main characters, Tarron (Rocco Nacino), Chris (Enzo Pineda) and Eric (Carlo Aquino). They are supposed to be 4 friends enrolling at an unnamed law school. But the fourth friend, Josh (Kian Cipriano) flunked the entrance exams and left it at that. No drive to try it again in another law school. No other “direction in life” as some folks would rather put it. He went back to what he’s been doing before finding out the results.
I try not to put spoilers here since I just checked the social media feed and there have been block screenings for law students. The block screening that I got into was the one at SM City Tarlac organized by the Tarlac State University Student Council. It includes students from the TSU College of Law plus Bar Refreshers.
Humanizing the characters
Bar Boys was pretty honest about some things. Not all men enter law school for a noble purpose. Some of them are after power. Some treat that quest for power and influence as a joke based on the characterization of Tarron with the way he says “I’m a Lion!” Others take it so seriously that it taught them to make excuses for their attitude as “frat boys”.To rephrase what one “lord master” said: What about us students from the province? How can we compete against the money and influence that people like you (referring to Tarron) have if we don’t belong to a fraternity? (The scene involving the use of brute force on a “konyo” student was understated. But the subtext is clear.) The way fraternities were presented in Bar Boys was not sympathetic. But they are self-aware of the excesses that some members have. They believed that it can be addressed within the fraternity without having anyone from the outside interfering.
And for every excellent yet intimidating law professor that law students, there is that one professor with pronunciation issues. Worse, she somewhat rubbed it in to one of her students by calling him “former classmate”. (The side effects of power earned.) So, yeah, grammar is not that much of an issue anymore if one passes the Bar Exams and ends up earning a professorial post in a law school. I prefer to think that this angle served as motivational tool for other students to pass the Bar Exams.
Of course, it addressed the issue of how there are no dumb students. Just people with confidence issues. Eric keeps using his ailing father as an excuse to keep pushing for that LLB degree. But he ends up using that excuse to quit in the middle of his studies and pursue any job like waiting tables or working at a call center. He’s not dumb. He just isn’t confident enough of his skills.
Going the motivational route
For a realistic movie, it works as a motivational tool for law students anywhere in the country. Everyone wants to survive law school. If ever it really wanted to motivate students, it is pretty honest about the sacrifices that come with earning that LLB title at the end of your name. Tough part to address when it comes to studying anything. But there’s no way around it.Bar Boys works best as a motivational tool through Eric. Because in law school, there are no losers. Only quitters. Each character has its own way of coping with law school. Even the supporting characters are fleshed out as human beings with their own ways of keeping their sanity. Like that girl that Tarron met at an acquaintance party who didn’t want a relationship but needed sex to put her back in good mood. (I think that scene got too real.)
“I think ….”
It doesn’t matter what you think, or so that law professor in the movie said. Opinions are not welcome in the classroom not because your right to express yourself is suppressed but because everyone is expected to speak based on legal provisions by the time they reach senior year in law school. I don’t know how long will I get over the “I think …” clause. But for sure, it would affect the way I write some of the articles. The next articles that I might be writing should include footnotes or urls then.I almost expected any of the law professors to ask their students “What is the legal provision for your answer to my question?” (I know a Bar Lecturer who often said that.) Instead, the law professors are presented as humane characters in Bar Boys. Some can’t help but be the tyrants that the late senator Miriam Defensor Santiago wrote in her book “Stupid is Forever”. (“Law school is like a walk in the park. Jurassic Park.”) I suppressed my laughter at the sight of that pretty student reduced to tears simply because she can’t answer the question her Taxation Law professor threw her way. It is not funny when it happens to you.
