The movie "Amigo" has been my favorite movie we have seen so far. The head of the village is torn between being the "amigo" of the new American colonizers and the Philippine rebels. Rather than digging into a character-driven narrative and allowing the resonances to flow naturally from it, the director seemed to begin with a set of inferences to modern American imperialism and work backwards. He sort of set up a question for the viewers of what is morally right during wartime; instead of focusing on the human composure of a vastly complicated historical, political, and emotional scenario, he draws back to the bigger the picture and abandons dramatic tension for an observation that contains the general truth.
Rafael kind of fades into a powerless position once his village is under attack. But he wins the trust of troop leader Compton which was difficult to maintain because as the American occupation policy got tougher, friendship didn't really have a place in war; so it was hard for him to keep peace. However, in my eyes, he was honestly a true hero because he maintained his composure and stayed loyal to his neighbors. It was easy to see that he was doing the best he could to keep his loved ones safe.
I also found it interesting how the director decided to keep a language barrier between one of the American soldiers and a village girl because that was definitely a rare choice but I'm sure he did so for dramatic realism. Normally in movies, the language barrier is randomly broken all of a sudden in ways that don't make sense. However it make sense over all to display the nervous vulnerability that gives a human dimension to the loneliness on all sides of an active conflict. Speaking of language barriers, even though there is a barrier between the lieutenant and Rafael they both share this hate for war and violence because they believe that its injustifiable at heart.
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