The death of Dr. Jose Rizal, national hero of the Philippines, by a
Spanish firing squad, increased the determination of the Katipunan,
the revolutionary force against Spain to overthrow the Spanish
colonial masters. This, in turn led to the events of the capture of
the Philippines in the Spanish American war and the subsequent
revolt against the United States by those same forces when it became
evident that the US intended to be a new colonial master.

In December Filipinos honor the memory of Dr. Jose Rizal as they
remember the anniversary of his death. The picture on the front
page of the Yahoo! Discussion Group, "RP-Rizal," is well known to
those who study the life of Rizal. Indeed, it is the only photo of
the event. But is it, indeed, Rizal? Is it, indeed, of his
execution? Ian Anders, Filipino musicologist and historian doubts
the authenticity of the photo. Look into our files section of this
same discussion group for this Power Point Presentation: "Original
Photo of Rizal's Execution: An American Hoax." You be the judge.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RP-Rizal

NOTE 1: To access this power point presentation you will need to
join the group.

NOTE 2: My personal speculation:
In 1912 the first two Filipino movies were introduced. They were
made by two American entrepreneurs and the subject was of Rizal.
One of these was produced and directed by Edward M. Gross. It's
title was "La Vida de Dr. Jose Rizal" ("The Life of Dr. Jose
Rizal). The second was by Albert Yearsley entitled "La Vida y
muerte del gran martir Filipino, Dr Jose Rizal" ("The Life and Death
of the Great Filipino Martyr, Dr. Jose Rizal"). It is quite
possible that the photograph we associate with the death of Rizal
came from one of the frames of one of these silent films.

[[ Of further note, Rizal became the subject of a number of
Filipino films. Two recent examples of these are "Rizal" directed
by Marilou Diaz-Abaya. It was produced at the cost of US $ Million –
a record for Filipino cinema. It became the most successful
Filipino movie to date. More recently there was the release
of "Bayaning 3rrd World" ("Third World Hero"). It was directed by
Mike de Leon who was first asked to be the director of "Rizal." He
quit production abruptly and produced an "artistic" film filmed in
black and white that created an open-ended depiction of Rizal which
intended to leave the audience with more questions than answers. ]]