"For Greater Glory" Movie Review by Eddie Montemayor

If you were not able to see the movie "For Greater Glory" in the theatre, hopefully you will be able to watch it when it is released as DVD or is shown on television.

Here is a review of the movie.

Eddie Montemayor

For Greater Glory Movie Review:

What if the government one day enacts laws that dictate what you can and cannot worship?  What if they are willing to use violence to force secularism at the expense of religious liberty?   At what cost will ordinary people fight for the freedom to believe in accord with their consciences?  A recent film helps to answer these questions.

The movie For Greater Glory tells the largely forgotten story of the Cristero War fought during the late 1920’s in Mexico. Catholics and freedom fighters, known as the Cristeros, took up armed resistance when the Mexican government, under President Plutarco Elias Calles, brutally enforced anti-clerical and restrictive religious provisions in the Mexican Constitution of 1917.  Priests were killed and tortured in public without trial.  Citizens who resisted, even peaceably, were also given the same barbaric treatment— not even children were spared.  I advise caution for young children as the film does portray some of these harrowing events.  

As there are many important players portrayed, this action epic mainly follows the characters of General Enrique Gorostieta Velarde (Andy Garcia), the unlikely leader of the Cristeros; and Jose Sanchez del Rio (Mauricio Kuri), a young teenager who is forced to grow up through these events.  Both characters cross paths and each discover their core convictions that ultimately manifest themselves toward the end of the movie. 

While the film understandably takes licenses in condensing the four years of war into a two and a half hour movie, it accurately depicts historical events in terms of setting and capturing the overall motivations and mood of both sides.  The cast does a superb job in its dedication to the authenticity of the characters save the fact that the movie is mostly in English.

Although detractors would have you believe that For Greater Glory is about Catholicism or about Mexican Culture in attempts to alienate mainstream audiences, it is precisely these elements that give humanity to the universal theme of fighting for religious liberty and puts into perspective the risks that ordinary people had to take to preserve their dignity as individuals.

Even though we see one religion persecuted, we must remember that liberty selectively guaranteed is not liberty at all.  Thus, all religions would be in danger.    

 I highly recommend this movie for people of all faiths and beliefs.