Laura Menzel Blog #6: Can you hear me now? Communication and film

The importance of language as both a unifying and divisive agent is a common theme in Anderson's Imagined Communities.  Vernacular language served to unify citizens of a particular imagined community and separate them from other nation-states.  The rise of the vernacular as languages-of-state spread "the conviction that languages ... were the property of quite specific groups - daily speakers and readers - and moveover that these groups, imagined as communities, were entitled to their autonomous place in a fraternity of equals" (Anderson, 84).  Language - the ability to communicate at all - is a tangible divisor or unifier.  After all, it is extremely difficult to build trust with someone you cannot understand.

Language plays an important role in the film, Amigo.  There is a multitude of languages spoken in the film, including English, Spanish, Tagalog, Chinese, and Latin.  Although many period dramas opt for English to be spoken with whatever accent of the region the film is set in, Sayles opts for the authentic languages to be spoken and translated for the audience by subtitles.  This makes the barrier between the Filipinos and the Americans, Filipinos and Chinese, and Americans and Chinese even more tangible.  The priest is the only character who can speak both Tagalog and English to communicate between the villagers and the American soldiers.  The Chinese characters are completely isolated.  There is no one to speak for them.  Even though the village is unjustly occupied, the atrocities the Chinese suffer from both sides are far worse.

The language barrier was also seen in the relationship between the young American soldier and the village girl.  Neither character is able to understand what the other is saying, and yet the boy develops a crush on the girl.  The audience might be expecting a Romeo-and-Juliet-type romance that somehow survives against all odds, but this relationship is much more realistic.  The audience watches the soldier gushing at the girl while on guard, and as he does, a rebel soldier slips through the barbed wire.  There is one tender moment between the two she she accepts the gift of a necklace, but their next encounter is more sobering.  The girl brings the soldier soup after he has been paralyzed, and he turns away.  It seems even this somewhat promising relationship between two people of different cultures will not survive.

It is important to note who the directed audience for Amigo is.  The film is not for the average American moviegoer or for the oppressed subaltern.  It is directed toward a smaller subset of the population who watch small independent films.  The film poses some poignant questions on the events of the Philippine-American War, including relationships between men and women and relationship between people of different cultures.  The film was not designed to convince the subaltern to rise up but to enlighten those who were outside the conflict.  As Spivak has shown, the subaltern have no voice.  But, can others speak for them?