Now that the Edison cameras have made their way out into the world, they’re in a position to capture moments of actual history. Maybe at the time, this didn’t feel any more significant than the films of fire wagons going to put out a fire, but looking back, there’s some historical interest here. These ships are, as the title indicates, bound for the Philippines, specifically Manila, during the Spanish-American War. The Spanish-American War is one of those historical events that I think of as happening before movies had really come around, so it’s of some interest to see soldiers on their way to fight. 0 stars.
tl;dr – this film captures historically significant images of soldiers on their way to fight in the Spanish-American War; but that historic interest is all it has going for it. 0 stars.