JOHN SAYLES SCORES ANOTHER HOME RUN WITH AMIGO
Feature films are often more effective than documentaries because they humanize issues, depicting interpersonal relationships that symbolize policy problems. From 1899-1902 the United States conquered the Philippines by suppressing the independent Philippine Republic in a war with perhaps 1.5 million casualties. In Amigo, Political Film Society awardwinner John Sayles uses fictional events in the town of San Isidro as a paradigm case. Barrio captain Rafael Dacanay (played by Joel Torre) tries to uphold the status quo when in 1900 along comes American Lt. Compton (played by Garrett Dillahunt) to take control. Spanish friar Padre Hidalgo (played by Yul Vasquez) seeks a different kind of control, while serving as (mis)interpreter for the Americans. Rafael hopes that the Americans will not find out that his brother, guerrilla revolutionary Simon (played by Ronnie Lazaro), is holding out in the jungle, soon joined by his son Joaquinito (played byJames Obenza). The film faithfully shows rural Philippine life, including rice growing, a cockfight, and a fiesta. The revolutionaries are seen as brave but clueless: Locsin (played by Art Acuna), a revolutionary, brutally slaughters Chinese laborers, seen as collaborationists, and the rebels even try to assassinate Dacanay for trying to appease Americans, though he clearly tries to walk a tightrope. The young American soldiers are indeed charmed by the Filipinos, some despite their racist prejudices, but too much so for Col. Hardacre (played by Chris Cooper), who uses crude waterboarding on Dacanay to find out the hiding place of the rebels, followed by an ambush while Dacanay leads soldiers on a wild goose chase. A hanging is to be carried out on Dacanay soon after Emilio Aguinaldo ends the war by surrendering in 1901, leaving suspense about whether a telegraphic message about the leader’s action will cancel the execution. Parallels with America’s wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Vietnam are obvious, most ironically when the military order is for villagers to hold a democratic election, almost at gunpoint. The Political Film Society has nominated Amigo for best film in all four categories—democracy, exposé, human rights, and peace.