Like most people, I was at the top floor of Trinoma last Sunday, standing in line for half an hour before I could buy my tickets. It was a particularly great weekend to go to the movies, featuring the final installment of the final installment of the Harry Potter series, along with Transformers 3 (two cinemas devoted to 3D!) and this year’s remake of Temptation Island. It promised to be a titillating night at the movies; the only problem was getting good seats.
I had the opposite problem. I was lined up at the ticket counter to watch a relatively obscure little film called “Amigo”. I had no problem getting good seats; the problem was I didn’t know whether to expect any excitement or titillation.
Amigo is American filmmaker John Sayles’ take on America’s first forgotten war: the Philippine-American War. As far as I’ve read, it is one of only two films that tackle that forgotten part of American history (the other being The Real Glory in the ‘30s.)
And quite like its subject matter, it’s been all but forgotten at the box office. If not for a handful of professors, I would never have heard about it. There were maybe 40 people in the cinema, most of them my age. Maybe they were there on assignment, too.
Via Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation
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