Last Friday the film 1898 was released. The last of the Philippines , a remake of the homonymous 1945. I admit that I have not seen it, but I have read quite a few criticisms, not from professionals but from viewers, for the treatment and approach to what happened on the Baler site. Leaving aside the logical artistic licenses, I believe that the worst mistake that can be made in historical films is to try to judge the facts and interpret history with the mentality of a 21st century Spaniard. During that siege of almost a year, in addition to hunger or disease, that church also breathed honor and patriotism. Today outdated values, empty of meaning or even terms used contemptuously, but full of meaning and booming in that so-called Disaster of 98 . Logically, those soldiers, and the entire country, were victims of oblivion –in fact, when the Americans took the island of Guam on their way to Manila, the Spanish did not even know that we were at war with the US– and of the decisions of politicians and soldiers who were not aware of the situation in an already decadent Spain and where the "Empire" was too big for us. Their country forgot them, but they...
If you want to have a more accurate view of what happened, I strongly recommend the audio «The last of the Philippines » by master Juan Antonio Cebrián.