Amigo Film Reflection

REFLECTION: AMIGO (2011) ( 2011)

The film Amigo is one of the best feature films that is available about the Philippine American war written written and directed by John Sayles. It was able able to present present a broad broad view view of all the social classes and people that were in the Philippines during that period. It ranges from fallen Spanish, the invading nited States Americans, !hinese migrants, and the local "ilipino people. The film presented the brutal reality of armed conflict to all the sides that were dragged in the war. #y 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 ma$es Amigo a %uality 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 "ilipino side. !learly, the Americans had the technological superiority in terms of weapons, communications, logistics and even in tactics. &uring that period, the nited States was the rising power in the world. 'n the other hand, the "ilipino 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 "ilipinos were using against the newest and best weapons of  the time that the nited States produces and used in the war. 'n paper, one may assume that it should be an easy war for the Americans. (owever, this was not the case as was shown in the film. After some time from the onset of the war, the "ilipinos reali)ed 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 %uic$ly 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 e*pected to some young and recently formed government in a former Spanish colony in the Pacific. +hile on the other hand, the "ilipinos were slowly losing the war and are e*periencing hardships under the  Americans as the invaders try to impose stricter rules and regulations within its assimilated towns,