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Based on true events "For Greater Glory" is the story of a dark, sad, violent time in Mexico; a time when brave men and women sacrificed everything, sometimes even their lives, fighting for the most fundamental of freedoms - the freedom to worship God. This movie is accurate in its description of the era, beautifully filmed on location, the actors are superb, and although it is a bit long, you will get so involved with the characters, the time will go fast.
I have a personal connection to this story: My beloved maternal grandfather, Rossendo Casarrubias and his brother Daniel, joined the Cristero movement in 1927. In fact one of the dialogues in the movie sounded to me like a direct quote from my grandfather, one I had heard Mamita repeat many times: when the main character is asked by his wife why he would fight for something he did not believe in, the answer is "I believe in freedom." Indeed, my grandfather believed everyone has the right to worship God and practice their religion.
At a time when "political correctness" seems to be running amok in our society and the intolerance of a few succeeds in their effort to delete any vestige of religion or faith from our history, even removing a small cross from our seal, "For Greater Glory" is an important reminder of what could happen when a few godless are allowed to impose their views, all in the name of "tolerance." Religion is not the problem; fanatics on either side are.
Take my Jewish word: "For Greater Glory" is a must see, regardless of religious affiliation or non affiliation.
What really struck Garcia about the story when he first read the script, he told me, was the way it “reeked of classic Hollywood epics, like John Ford used to make, like How the West Was Won.” The script reminded him of the kind of movies he loved to watch growing up.
What Garcia didn’t realize, at least not at first, was that the script was based on real events. Like most Americans, he had never heard of the Cristero War. When he asked Mexican-American colleagues, they seemed to know next to nothing about it, either. He even asked friends who were born and raised in Mexico—they too knew little if anything about the Cristero War.
The whole story seemed to have been forgotten, Garcia said. “Even my friends who went to parochial and Catholic schools in Mexico didn’t know this story.” No one wants to talk about it. No one teaches it. And among those who did know about it, the Cristero War was “taboo subject matter.”
Once you learn the story, it’s not too hard to understand why.
Graham Greene—whose novel The Power and the Glory is easily the best well know (albeit fictional) account of this dark period in Mexican history—famously called the Calles regime’s brutal suppression of the Catholic Church the “fiercest persecution of religion anywhere since the reign of Elizabeth.”
In 1926, there were some 4,500 Catholic priests in Mexico. By the mid-1930s, fewer than 340 remained. Tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands were killed, including many martyrs for the faith.
Born of that ruthless persecution, the Cristero rebellion lasted the better part of three years. (The rebels were known as Cristeros for their battle cry: ¡Viva Cristo Rey!)
Having witnessed the brutal suppression of faith for decades (mothers side of the family is from the Ukraine), this film is up there on my "to do list" this spring. 2 hours to civilization for us but I want to see this one.
Thanks for the write ups.
