Gabriel Kean T.

Ebeo
GEUSELF

REFLECTION: AMIGO (2011)

The film Amigo is one of the best feature films that is available about the
Philippine-American war written and directed by John Sayles. It has themes of mental
awareness since when it comes to war, there will for sure be injuries physically, and if
not physically, there will be damages mentally. This is why it is about mental
awareness. It was able to present a broad view of all the social classes and people that
were in the Philippines during that period. It ranges from fallen Spanish, the invading
United States Americans, Chinese migrants, and the local Filipino people. The film
presented the brutal reality of armed conflict to all the sides that were dragged in the
war. By all sides, he was able to show that even the people whose countries of origin
are not supposed to be included in the war are dragged into and affected by it, mostly
negatively. Sayles was able to portray that war is never good for anyone, not even for
the side that is supposedly winning or those who are not even supposed to be direct
participants to it. This is what makes Amigo a quality movie that is able to realistically
portray the harshness of the Philippine-American war.

In the film, there were two main sides that were presented mainly the American
and the Filipino side. Clearly, the Americans had the technological superiority in terms
of weapons, communications, logistics and even in tactics. During that period, the
United States was the rising power in the world. On the other hand, the Filipino armed
force consists of recently and hastily formed and trained military units all over the
Philippines that mainly procured or based their weapons off their Spanish counterparts.
It is good to note that to begin with, the weapons that the Spanish had in the Philippines
were not the best that the era could offer and could be considered old or nearly
obsolete. These were the weapons that the Filipinos were using against the newest and
best weapons of the time that the United States produces and used in the war. On
paper, one may assume that it should be an easy war for the Americans. However, this
was not the case as was shown in the film. After some time from the onset of the war,
the Filipinos realized that they were vastly inferior to the Americans in all aspects that
are directly related to the war effort. Therefore, they resorted to guerrilla warfare. As
was shown and also mentioned in the latter part of the film, the Americans had a hard
time to deal with such a tactic. It was the first time that America had faces such indirect
and peculiar resistance and warfare abroad. Pointing it aside, it can be quickly seen that
both sides were actually suffering from the war. The Americans as a foreign and
superiorly more advanced war machine is losing more men than expected to some
young and recently formed government in a former Spanish colony in the Pacific. While
on the other hand, the Filipinos were slowly losing the war and are experiencing
hardships under the Americans as the invaders try to impose stricter rules and
regulations within its assimilated towns,