Government
Gone Wild: For Greater Glory and the Cristeros

by Ryan McMaken

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I’m not one
to automatically like a movie just because its politics agree
with mine. The
Lost City, for example, an anti-socialist historical drama
about Cuba, while not horrible, left me wishing it was a much
better movie, and less of a long slog through 45 minutes that
should have been edited out of the what could have been a great
90-minute movie. So, I was a bit worried that I might be in for
a similar experience in watching For
Greater Glory. Like The Lost City, For Greater
Glory has been lauded to the skies by some libertarian and
conservative reviewers while being absolutely, and predictably,
vilified by many critics in the legacy media. So, as For Greater
Glory started to roll on the screen, there was a nagging fear
deep down inside me that maybe, just maybe, this movie deserved
the bad reviews.

I am happy
to report, however, that For Greater Glory is an entertaining,
well-crafted and well-acted film about a historical episode that
is apparently unknown to most Americans. The film covers a period
of Mexican history during which there were a series of anti-clerical
purges following the Mexican Revolution which led to a harsh repression
of Catholic laypeople and clergy in Mexico. This led to the desecration
of churches, widespread executions without trial, and the brutal
suppression of Catholic resistance. Eventually, a group of rebels,
called Cristeros, took up arms against the central government
and demanded the free-exercise of religion under the leadership
of the initially-atheist Gen. Enrique Gorostieta (Andy Garcia).

Dramatically,
the film is dominated by Andy Garcia, who delivers some of his
best work here as the religiously-ambiguous General Gorostieta
who is known for his military prowess in previous Mexican wars.
Garcia provides the gravitas necessary for a film, which lacking
good acting, could easily have become something resembling little
more than a series of historical re-enactments. Also key to the
dramatic arc of this film is José Luis Sánchez del
Rio, played quite competently by young actor Mauricio Kuri. Sánchez
del Rio, also a historical figure from the war, was a flagbearer
for some of the Cristeros and was eventually captured, tortured
and murdered by the Calles regime.

The film
is punctuated with portrayals of the sheer brutality of the Calles
regime, and it shows the torture, the firing squads, the hangings,
and the desecration of churches which so characterized the tyranny
of the period.

This has
led some reviewers in the legacy media, who apparently know nothing
of Mexican history, and who are clearly programmed to regard Catholics
as always the oppressors and never the victims, to describe the
film as heavy-handed. This description clearly shows a certain
bias, since For Greater Glory is decidedly less heavy-handed
than, say, Amistad
or Dances
with Wolves, to name two similar historical dramas. Those
films, however, expressed political ideals that are politically
fashionable and thus received much critical acclaim, while For
Greater Glory expresses ideas that most journalism-majors-turned-film-critic
will regard as quaint at best.

If anything,
For Greater Glory contains more moral ambiguity
than many films like Dances with Wolves or Amistad.
Following Sánchez del Rio’s death for example, Gorostieta
is left wondering how God could allow such things to happen, while
the character of Father Vega, a priest who has taken up arms,
is a highly conflicted character.

Many critics
simply won’t allow themselves to believe, however, that governments
can and do behave like the Calles regime, and that some things,
such as the right to peacefully practice one’s religion, really
are absolutes.

It’s this
sort of raging naïveté, of course, that gave us an
America in which we have presidents who can legally kidnap, torture
and even murder Americans at will while the public declares itself
to be free.

Also scandalous
in the eyes of some reviewers is the obviously pro-Catholic slant
of the film. The movie is hardly some kind of course of Catholic
apologetics, but it is pro-Catholic in the same way that Braveheart
was pro-Scots or Thunderheart
was pro-Sioux. It portrays the victims of government oppression
for what they were: victims. However, while we can all agree the
Scots and the Sioux got the shaft at the hands of their oppressors,
Christians in film are rarely afforded the same treatment, unless
the victims happen to be murdered by other Christians as in the
case of the excellent film The
Mission.

Roger Ebert
even went so far as to declare that the movie’s themes of religious
liberty should have included other religions in the discussions.
This is a ridiculous statement, given that this is a movie about
the Cristero war, after all. Insisting that this film include
a discussion about other religions, which had virtually no relevance
to the historical topic at hand, is like suggesting that a movie
about Oliver Cromwell include a few conversations about Buddhism.

The worst
part of this movie, by far, is the overuse of the musical score
which, early in the film, is used to add drama to even the most
basic scenes of exposition. Fortunately, this overuse tapers off,
or at least ceases to be noticeable, as the film progresses. However,
this movie delivers what’s promised. It’s a historical drama which
delivers moments of suspense, some high drama and some well-done
battle scenes. It’s not a short film, but the early scenes are
necessary to allow the audience to get to care about the characters
before half of them are killed off.

If nothing
else, this film does us a service by entertaining while highlighting
a historical period that few Americans know about, although they
should. Those who have read Graham Greene’s 1940 novel The
Power and the Glory will be somewhat familiar with post-Revolutionary
suppression of the Church in Mexico, and For Greater Glory
may now be counted as perhaps one of only two well-known dramatizations
of this period which are easily accessible to English-speaking
audiences.