Probably
only former First Lady and Chair of the Philippine Red Cross Aurora Quezon is
more revered in Filipino history than her husband, President Manuel Quezon, the
man responsible for negotiating his nation’s independence. Her countrymen were
horrified when she was assassinated by the Communist Hukbalahap terrorists
(quick, let’s elect a president who shares their ideology)—and with good
reason. She reportedly endured her husband infidelities in order to encourage
his humane policies, including an unlikely scheme to provide transit and
sanctuary for European Jewry fleeing National Socialist death camps. The
President’s righteous campaign gets the big-screen treatment in
director-cinematographer Matthew Rosen’s Quezon’s
Game, which opens this Friday in New York.
In
the late 1930s, Pres. Quezon was riding high in polls. Although he had already
accepted a party of refugees from Shanghai, his greatest concern is lowering
American tariffs. Ominously, an SS officer has been assigned to the German
embassy, but Quezon and the Philippines remain squarely aligned with the U.S.
In fact, his informal kitchen cabinet includes U.S. High Commissioner Paul
McNutt and the American military attaché, an Army Colonel on the fast-track, by
the name of Dwight David Eisenhower. Nevertheless, as word reaches the
Philippines of the National Socialist oppression and murder of the Jews, Quezon
is stirred to action (an impulse supported by the First Lady).
Inconveniently,
since the Philippines was not yet independent, its immigration policies were
still controlled by Washington DC, where Roosevelt was to wary of riling up the
opposition of segregationist Congressmen and the State Department was rife with
anti-Semites (probably the ambassador to the UK was the most notorious). Of
course, getting exit visas and transit permits from Germany was no small order
either. However, they had no trouble getting names of potential emigres, thanks
to the small but organized local Jewish community.
Quezon’s Game suffers from many
of the problems that commonly afflict high-minded historicals, starting with the
portrayal of its protagonist, which is more akin to a Quezon passion play than
a flesh-and-blood drama. However, it also has many of the hoped-for merits.
Both
Raymond Bagatsing and Rachel Alejandro act like they are perched on pedestals
as the Quezons (and understandably enough). On the other hand, David Bianco is
terrific as Ike (shockingly so). He looks the part and has the proper military
bearing. James Paoleli also convincingly humanizes McNutt (and Americans).
Yet,
some of most engaging and humanistic work comes from Billy Ray Gallion,
portraying Alex Frieder, the leader of Manila’s Jewish community. Plus, Natalia
Moon has a pleasantly sultry scene as a big band vocalist at Quezon’s opening
soiree. It looks like a big, well-crafted period piece, even though it is often
not immediately apparent why Rosen’s constantly shifts from color
cinematography to black-and-white.
There
is no doubt Quezon’s Game is pro-Ike,
pro-McNutt, anti-FDR, and anti-MacArthur, which makes it rather interesting
from a political standpoint. The film does not always cast America in a
favorable light, but its knocks are fair and it can’t be dismissed as kneejerk
anti-American, because of its treatment of Eisenhower and McNutt. (Frankly,
given where we are as a country, maybe it is time to re-examine and re-embrace
Ike’s legacy of leadership, but that’s getting slightly off-topic.) It almost
seems like the film ends prematurely, since our knowledge of the impending
Japanese occupation looms over every scene, but it is still a logical time-period
to discretely focus on. Recommended as a sturdy dramatization of a historical
episode that ought to be more widely known, Quezon’s
Game opens this Friday (1/24) in New York, at the AMC Empire.