Module 3- Lesther Papa

Critical Reaction: American Adobo

After watching the movie American Adobo I noticed that there was a common theme of the comparison of rights here in America and the Philippines. Two characters in particular who grabbed my attention for this theme were Gerry and Mike. Gerry’s sexual orientation, his view of “Filipino complacency”, and Mike’s view and reasons for abandoning his children and wife were the specific elements that helped me get an idea of how rights differed according to country.
Therefore by comparing his mother’s beliefs and reaction, his friend’s reactions, and Gerry’s fear of revealing his sexual orientation one could conclude that his relationship wouldn’t have been possible at all if he were still in the Philippines. Only in America would it have been possible for Gerry to have a homosexual relationship, even though for most of the movie it was kept secret.
Gerry is gay, but didn’t let anyone in his circle of friends know except for Tere. He was also in a relationship with another man named Chris. When Gerry was asked about his relationship he resisted giving up any information and insisted it was because he was a secretive person. Most importantly he didn’t want his mother knowing about his relationship with Chris. Gerry and his mother were both Catholics and were both religious and because of this he kept his relationship a secret from his mother; despite the fact that she keeps on insisting he meet women that she and her relative pick out for him. Gerry eventually came out to his friends and most importantly his mother. His friends, having lived and adapted to the rights and attitudes here in America, were very accepting. His mother on the other hand, refused to accept her son’s sexual orientation and expressed openly her disappointment in her son.
Mike’s situation was much more different but it still dealt with the same theme. Mike was married and had two children. His wife inherited some money and so in turn they as a family were pretty wealthy. But despite this wealth and their comfortable way of living, Mike was still unhappy. His wife didn’t work but instead spent most of her time leisurely playing Mah Jong, because of this she spent almost no time taking care of their children. That in turn allowed Candy, the eldest child, to go around gallivanting with her boyfriend until late at night, leaving her younger sibling to look after himself. Mike also worked a lot as a newspaper editor so he’s not able to look after the children himself. This lack of parental authority of the children causes Candy to be rebellious and extremely disrespectful towards Mike. Eventually Mike resolves to leave his children and wife behind to pursue his options in the Philippines. His justification had been simple, he wants to know what his life would be like and he didn’t want to sit there just wondering.
Mike’s decision confused me at first because he decided to just leave instead of getting a divorce. Then I decided it was probably because of his religious attitude. In the Philippines he wouldn’t be able to just get a divorce. The Catholic community would’ve frowned on it and it would also be difficult to get someone to actually perform the duty of divorcing the couple. Therefore he’d resolve to just leaving instead. Had he taken the American way, I would suspect he’d want a clean divorce, severing his ties with his wife and deciding custody of the children.
Finally there was something Gerry said at the end of the movie that made me think about the connection between rights and happiness. He stated that Filipinos were complacent and made allusions to the 300-year-old rule of the Spaniards and the 20-year-old dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. He also stated that maybe that complacency can explain why Filipinos were happier than Americans.
This made me think about how rights were not really proportional to the amount of happiness it can bring. I think this idea especially rings clear in the movie because as you can see from the earlier examples there is more freedom and an abundance of rights here in America. But despite that many problems still followed. Gerry’s sexual orientation can illustrate this. Gerry being homosexual wouldn’t have the chance to develop a relationship in the Philippines, but instead would have to keep that side of his life secret and remain “complacent” towards the attitudes and beliefs of the Catholic Church. In America he was able to have his relationship, but this didn’t make him any happier because he still couldn’t be open about it with his friends or his mother.