Film Review: Philippine-American War Epic AMIGO

When I first heard that the San Diego Asian Film Foundation was screening a film about the Philippine-American War, I was immediately on board. Dubbed "The Forgotten War," my high school history textbook devoted one short paragraph to the subject. Unlike the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War II, and the Vietnam War, this was a war hardly covered in American cinema and television. In fact, the only film I have seen about the Philippine-American War was a silent propaganda film that was contemporary to the time and depicted Americans as the benevolent saviors of the Pilipinas/os.

The film opens with a brief subtitle synopsis of the events preceding the film. The Spanish American War of 1898, fought mainly over Cuban independence, resulted in American indefinite control over Spain's colonies. This brought the U.S. halfway across the world to the Philippines.

It is 1900 in a small baryo [neighborhood] in Luzon, Philippines. Rafael Dacanay (Joel Torre), head of the baryo, argues with his son Joaquinito (James Obenza), who wants to join the revolutionary army like his Uncle Simon (Ronnie Lazaro). Shortly after, American troops charge into the baryo, rounding up its residents and demanding to speak to their leader. Then they announce that they are here to stay.

Immediately, the language barrier becomes a problem, but the baryo's Spanish friar, Padre Hidalgo (Yul Vasquez), steps up to be the interpreter for Rafael and the Americans. American Lieutenant Compton (Garret Dillahunt) tells Padre Hidalgo to warn Rafael that if anything goes wrong, "it's his head."

And this sets the tone for the rest of the film. Rafael constantly struggles to appease his armed American "visitors," all while protecting the revolutionaries who hide in the caves--two of which are his own brother and son, while many others are men from his baryo. One scene says it all: Lt. Compton reads out a declaration to the baryo stating that anyone who helps the revolutionaries will be put to death; while the revolutionaries read a statement that anyone helping the Americans will be considered a traitor and will be executd. Rafael says at one point, "We're f*cked on both ends."

Based on the trailer and the movie being marketed as an "epic film," I was expecting something very dramatic, with plenty of war sequences and violence. To my surprise, there was not much of this at all--and I was quite pleased with this. I feel kind of guilty for hoping this film would be a glorious war epic that romanticized the Philippine revolutionaries and demonized their American colonizers.

Rather, the characters on both sides were very real, very human, very complex. Yes, the American soldiers were racist pricks. But as the film progressed, it was clear that they were also just pawns on a political chessboard, miles and miles away from home. They clearly didn't want to be there, either.

And many of the Pilipina/o characters weren't angels, either. Rafael's own brother-in-law, Nenong (John Arcilla), betrays him constantly. Locsin (Art Acuna), a revolutionary, brutally slaughters innocent Chinese laborers despite being part Chinese himself.

The only character I completely disliked in the film was Padre Hidalgo, who deliberately misinterprets what Rafael says to the Americans and continuously manipulates the residents of the baryo through religion. His role appears to be allegorical, though. Despite the end of Spanish rule in the Philippines, Catholicism is ever-present in the baryo and Padre Hidalgo exerts much influence over its residents, who he calls his "children."

Overall, the film is captivating, both visually and story-wise. It has themes that go beyond the war. By the end of the film, Rafael asks his wife Corazon (Rio Locsin) to tell their son that he was right all along for following his heart. Meanwhile, a fellow revolutionary tells Joaquinito that the country's future is ultimately up to the younger generation. The film closes with a freeze frame of Joaquinito's face, leaving the ending rather open-ended.

My only major complaint about the film is that the ending was almost too open-ended. I was hoping the film would at least close with a word or two about the subsequent events following the war, but it didn't. The United States remained in the Philippines, granting the Philippines "autonomy" in 1916, "self-government" in 1934, and finally full independence in 1946. However, the U.S. continues to maintain a heavy military presence in the Philippines to this day thanks to the Military Bases Agreement, which granted the U.S. the right to build and maintain bases in the Philippines with virtually no restrictions. The film's tagline, "The heart remembers what even history forgets," affirms that this has indeed been a forgotten war and the film intends to change this. However, we must not forget the consequences of this war, either.

For the list of Opening Day Releases of AMIGO:

AMIGO releases list of Opening Theaters Nationwide

Video Interview by: Samantha Nicole Delara