There are obvious par allels to more recent events in Iraq and Afghanistan in veteran political filmmaker John Sayles’ preachy drama about the 1900 conquest of the former Spanish colony of the Philippines by the United States, which retained sovereignty until the Japanese occupation of World War II.
Filipino star Joel Torre plays the mayor of a small hamlet who tries to cooperate with a group of soldiers led by a relatively open-minded lieutenant (Garret Dillahunt), even though the mayor’s brother (Ronnie Lazaro) is a resistance leader hiding with his followers in the nearby hills.
More and more, the occupiers fraternize with the occupied, at least until an Army colonel (frequent Sayles collaborator Chris Cooper) comes along with far more hostile techniques — including water torture — for winning the locals’ “hearts and minds,” as he puts it.
The overlong “Amigo” has its heart in the right place, but its approach to complex issues is too simplistic to win over unconverted minds.