JOHN SAYLES is an American indie filmmaker acclaimed for such films as “Passion Fish”, “Lone Star” and “Eight Men Out”. He now wrote and directed “Amigo”, about the forgotten Philippine-American War from 1900 to 1902 when Pinoys fought against U.S. colonization after driving Spain away. Set in a small farming village, the American soldiers who occupy the town is headed by Lt. Compton (Garret Dillahunt). He coordinates with the barrio captain, Rafael (Joel Torre, who co-produced the film), whose brother (Ronnie Lazaro) is the leader of the local rebels hiding in the mountains. The film offers some good acting by Torre, Rio Locsin as his wife, John Arcilla as his envious brother in law and Yul Vasquez as the Spanish priest who acts as translator for the Americans. Often slow moving and uninvolving, this film reminds us that Vietnam is not the first war the Americans waged allegedly to introduce democracy but, mainly, to protect its own imperialistic interests. We wish this was a more engaging film, considering the very relevant material, but the script just fails to grip us, with the cast looking like they’re dressed in newly made costumes and walking around newly built sets in Bohol where it was filmed entirely. The villagers just fail to get our full sympathy, even more so the homesick Yankee soldiers.
