MOVIE REVIEW - For Greater Glory

This week Andy Garcia returns to the big screen in the limited release, For Greater Glory.

FGG is based on the true story of the War of the Cristero's in the 1920's in Mexico.   In short, the new Mexican government at the time installed basically laws that banned religion.  This is the story of the citizen uprising against the government, and fighting for not just religious freedom, but for freedom in general.

This movie has a few elements that to me make it interesting right of the bat. First, it's a story that you don't really know, and has not been told on screen before. That scores points right away.   Also, there is a real nice, essentially unknown ensemble cast that plays well defined and interesting characters that help tell a real well written script. 

Garcia plays a retired Mexican Army General that has been asked to come out of retirement and lead the uprising.   He is reluctant as he is married now, and has two young daughters.   He is also a non-believer spiritually and that plays into his initial decision.  But he then decides that freedom is worth fighting for, even if spirituality is not high on your list.  So against all odds, they take on the Mexican army, and try to restore their faith, and right to worship. And will he find his own faith? 

This is a movie you have to stick with.   The first 40 minutes or so were a bit disjointed, and it was hard to really keep up with all the side plots going on.  Also, very heavy spoken accents at times did make it hard to understand some of the characters.  But as time goes on the movie gets better and better.  This culminates in a very emotional ending, that frankly left me struck. 

There is a lot of violence in this movie, and some of this is hard to watch especially if you are devout in your beliefs.  Some of what happens here, is really hard to take.  But this is handled about as well as it could be, not to water down the story.  This is a tough, but good story worth telling filmed beautifully in Mexico. This though is a "movie goers" movie.  Because of the subject matter, and the length, this may not be for everyone, thus the limited release.  But this is worth it if you truly love movies.

For Greater Glory. Not for everyone for many reasons.  But in the end, after all clears,  and few hurdles are overcome, this is well done. 

FOOTNOTE:  Stay and watch the ending credits. Very interesting and informative.