Fresh Reviews: "Amigo" by John Sayles

Rated R for violence and strong language.

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It's a sad thing, I think, to realize that fifteen years or so ago, John Sayles... one of our truly genius filmmakers (and an actual winner of a MacArthur Foundation "Genius" grant) was able to not only get his films into the big art houses, but once in a while even into the commercial theatres... and that these days, the status quo has established itself so firmly in movie theatres that his movies often don't play at all in towns where they used to be easy to find, and when they do play somewhere, are only in one single arthouse for a week-long engagement. Such is the case again with "Amigo", one of the strongest movies in his repertoire, which is currently playing a week-long run in Minneapolis at the Film Society of Mpls./St. Paul's dedicated screen at the 5-screen St. Anthony Main multiplex. Thanks to Al Milgrom and the society for bringing it here for that long.

When doing research for his new novel "A Moment In The Sun" (about the American/Phillipine war at the turn of the 20th century) Sayles wound up with far more material than he could use even in his nearly thousand-page novel. Hence, this film (which does not feature the same characters). A U.S. army troupe invades and occupies a Phillipine village and uses it as its base, while allowing the village leader to remain the official head of the town. Soon, the local resistance group, lead by the Spanish colonists but with many locals in their ranks, begins a campaign to fight back by any means they have to use, a fight made more tragic by the fact that the brother of the village leader is one of their key members, and the resistance is becoming very suspicious of the village leader's seeming collaboration with the enemy... they may have to wind up dealing with him violently.

I have been very discouraged by the film reviews in the formerly liberal-leaning "alternative weeklies" over the past few years: they seem to be increasingly afraid of offending pro-war readers and following a pattern where they're required to pan their former hero by claiming that Sayles' films are filled with "typical liberal guilt" and "progressive cliches" to the exclusion of a simple, human story. As one of our great novelists as well as a film maker, the story has been and continues to be paramount to Sayles, and not only is "Amigo" one of the best examples of this, but its cast of characters is so authentically human that it becomes almost painful to watch the horrors of war as they go through them. And while it is true that there are a few isolated moments here and there that are clearly parallels to Iraq and other wars of recent vintage, "Amigo" is more than anything a comment on how very precious little war changes through the ages... it was the same in the Civil War as it was in the Phillipines and as it is now in the middle east.

Sayles never settles for the easy way out of making one side pure evil and the other pure good (though some reviews may claim otherwise). The American forces in this film are portrayed as going into battle because they genuinely believe that it's in a noble cause, but as they begin to really get to know the villagers and sympathize with them, they begin to doubt the wisdom of those who put them in harm's way and the policies of those leaders towards the Phllipines. In particular, Garret Dillahunt as the group's commander is a true wonder, a strong leader who isn't afraid of being compassionate. Chris Cooper, Oscar winner and Sayles regular, as Col. Hardacre, is his counterpart, a fierce, unfeeling tool of the government who feels mercy is for the weak... and who unfortunately is the man ultimately in charge. Joel Torre delivers one of the outstanding performances of the year as Rafael, the village leader... a man who wants the soldiers out of his land so his people can go back to their normal lives. A powerful blend of strength, determination, and love for his people make him an incredibly memorable character and Torre has tremendous power in the role, particular once it becomes clear that he is caught between aiding his brother and son (who are both with the rebels) and possibly destroying much of his village, or siding with the American forces and possibly causing the deaths of those two family members. (Here's where the old Civil War parallels come into action: the famous "brother against brother" situation.)

Sayles is unabashedly liberal, yes, and that makes itself felt in his movies, including this one... but why do critics never seem to complain about non-liberal, or politically neutral (or even Libertarian) sentiments when they turn up, not even critics from those aforementioned one-time left-leaning papers? So much for the liberal media. What this movie is about is not ultimately partisan politics, but about how war destroys all the values that most people hold dear and how compassion is always among the first fatalities. If it happens that there is a scene speaking specifically to Iraq where a prisoner is dealt with by a method of interrogation that is suspiciously close to waterboarding, and one of the military remarks afterward that it didn't qualify as torture, well... that sort of thing didn't begin with Iraq, did it?

"Amigo" is one of the most emotional, human (and humane), and (yes, here's that word again) compassionate stories to be told on film in the past several years. It illuminates in a well-researched and historically accurate tale one of the less admirable chapters in our history but doesn't pretend that this kind of behavior isn't typical of all men in all war zones through all time. It does this in a film filled with the kind of award-worthy script, direction and acting that would add to Sayles' list of Oscar nominations if this were an ideal world. And while I still love a really good commercial escapist Hollywood movie like the stuff I grew up with, I also think that if edgy, risk-taking independent work like this winds up vanishing from out screens for lack of audience interest, then the world of movies will be the poorer for it. If you have the chance to see this film, please do. We need to support these kinds of films while we still have them.