If you missed the talk with Amigo‘s director John Sayles, you can still see the film at Cinestudio, but what you will not be able to get is the refresher Imperialism 101 lecture that he provided for the audience on Wednesday evening. Having this context in which to view the film is not necessary, but does add depth. It’s historical fiction, based on no singular figure or battle, but made from many truths. While this story focuses on the Philippines, it should not be forgotten that this was the same era when Guam and Puerto Rico were also annexed as territories of the United States.
In History classes, this period is typically represented as an eyeblink between the Industrial Revolution and World War I. Not much has been done cinematically with the Philippine-American War either. According to Sayles, Amigo is only the third American-made film about this subject.
A criticism of the film has been that it serves as a metaphor for the War in Iraq, which would be apt if the language and appearance of occupation had been invented in the last ten years. If there is an analogy here, it is a naturally occurring one, as the core experience of war and imperialism, aside from the technology angle, has not drastically changed. In his talk, Sayles explained how those who had opposed these actions — Mark Twain was a member of the American Anti-Imperialist League — were portrayed as “wearing dresses,” much like those who oppose war today are labeled as “wimps.”
“You always have to sell a war,” Sayles said. The first step that must be taken in order to do just that, he said, is to “dehumanize the enemy.” He explained that the more different one could imagine the enemy, the easier it would be to rally support. In his talk, he argued that this has happened throughout history, whether it was one American Indian tribe doing so while warring against another, or the United States building the case against Nazi Germany, or, as we see in the film, the United States fighting against the Philippines. In Amigo, as in life, the Othering is hardly one-sided, and only those most blinded by American chauvinism could miss this; the Imperialists refer to Filipinos as “monkeys,” and they refer to the Americans as “ghosts.” But it goes beyond name-calling. We see both sides struggle with understanding different cultures, or in some cases, attempt to strip away the culture of the colonized people.
Perhaps it’s the waterboarding scene that touches a nerve with those who think this is nothing more than a statement on wars the United States is currently involved in. Maybe it is a comment on torture today, but there is documentation showing that what was called the “water cure” was used during the Philippine-American War. Torture is nothing new.
Amigo is not the story of violence, more violence, and then a clear winner. There is moral ambiguity. There is a failing of what was, at the time, a modern technology. And, communication failures are central to the story. There are series of translations between the Americans, Filipinos, and Spanish. The priest, who translates between the Filipinos and Americans, is unreliable, often intentionally misrepresenting one or the other’s messages. He increases tensions and makes it clear that he is on his own side.
Sayles called Amigo “a snapshot right before we declared the war over.” He said, “somebody tells that story that way for a reason.” And, his reason, appears to be to shed light on the other “Forgotten War,” which Americans are not proud of having been involved in. As he said, we don’t like to think of ourselves as Imperialists.
Amigo is playing at Cinestudio on the Trinity College campus through October 29th.