"For Greater Glory": Anybody else heard about this upcoming movie?

[Brigid]

It's about the Cristeros in 1920's Mexico. I had seen a few trailers on TV for it, but didn't know what it was supposed to be about until I saw a short film about the Cristeros just now on EWTN. It sounds fascinating.

http://www.forgreaterglory.com/

[CBHagman]

1. I was just reading about it in TNR this afternoon.

I should warn you that the The New Republic was approaching it in the current political context and as such may give DUers, even in this group, second thoughts.

So far I've not read a general review of the movie, just seen a still of Andy Garcia in one of the online ads, though that intrigued me.

http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/magazine/103392/greater-glory-health-services-garcia-cristeros-longoria-eva

[rug]

2. This is my problem with the Cristeros, and with a movie glorifying them.

"In Guadalajara, Jalisco, on 3 August 1926, some 400 armed Catholics shut themselves up in the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe. They were involved in a shootout with federal troops and surrendered only when they ran out of ammunition. According to U.S. consular sources, this battle resulted in 18 dead and 40 injured."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristero

Persecution or no, Jesus does not need an Alamo.

[brendan120678]

3. I was reading about it a few weeks ago...

in my father's copy of Columbia magazine (K of C magazine).
It actually sounds like it could be a good movie.

Link to the story is here

[hedgehog]

4. My fear is that it will take a complex piece of history

and simplify it beyond recognition in order to gin up feelings that Obama is persecuting the Church.

For example, the revolutionary government seized Church properties. That statement is meaningless without context. Coming our of colonialism, what percent of Mexican land was held by the Church?

During the Spanish Civil War, the government killed many priests and nuns, but that doesn't mean that Franco was the good guy!

Imagine an America in which Cardinal Dolan literally controlled the lives of millions of citizens, and you can begin to understand the complexities.

[hedgehog]

5. More about this here:

http://www.uscatholic.org/blog/2012/05/locked-and-loaded-knights-columbus-v-hhs?utm_source=May+29%2C+2012&utm_campaign=ebulletin+May+29%2C+2012&utm_medium=email



It might be a very striking movie, but it is set against a nasty political background just now!

[CBHagman]

6. For what it's worth --

-- and I add this without clicking your link and reading the story yet -- The New Republic pointed out that Eva Longoria, a supporter of the Obama campaign, is a member of the cast.

Also, I understand they fudged the history a bit, but that's nothing new in period drama. In fact I've come to expect it and wind up looking up factoids when the credits roll...

[demosincebirth]

7. My mother, now dead, told me about this portion of Mexican history. She said it was terrible. The

government was trying to eliminate the Catholic faith in Mexico. Hard to believe, but it did happen.

Checkout the movie The Fugitive 1947, starring Henry Fonda. Tells a good portion of what really happened during that time


The PRI was in power at that time

[hedgehog]

8. Another story inspired by this history is

Graham Green's The Power and the Glory.

which, when I went to Wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_and_the_Glory

I discovered was the source for the Harry Fonda film!

In a way, we see the same conflict played out here on DU on a much smaller scale. The sins of the institution are projected on to the entire Church, and people seem unable to separate one from the other.

[rug]

11. Oh, they're able but it would it would change their script.

[hedgehog]

9. "'For Greater Glory' moving, but glosses over aspects of war"

http://ncronline.org/news/people/greater-glory-moving-glosses-over-aspects-war#comment-337648

[demosincebirth]

10. I seen it today and I don't care what the critics say (mostly negative). It was a very heart

wrenching movie about people who refused to deny their Catholic faith even if it would save them from execution. If you see it, don't leave until you see most of the credits

If you're and emotional person, bring lots of tissues

[rug]

12. I'm glad you saw it. I probably will at some point.

How did they handle the concept of Catholics taking up arms in the name of Jesus? It strikes me as an oxymoron.

[Brigid]

13. Self-defense, basically.

I saw the movie today too. And yes, when you go take a box of Kleenex.

As the deeply anti-Catholic Calles regime became more and more oppressive and violent, and the non-violent means some groups used to protest the restrictions placed on the Church proved ineffective, more and more people began joining the Cristeros. Make no mistake -- the Cristeros were no angels. But if Calle was half the psychopath he is in the movie, I find it hard to condemn them.

I am a sucker for stories, especially true stories, about people fighting back against oppression. Always have been.

[rug]

14. I must be in the pacifist wing of the Church.

[demosincebirth]

15. They handled it, more or less, as freedom of religion. But,their battle "cry" was "viva Cristo Rey."

Which means (I guess you already know) Christ the King lives.

[hedgehog]

16. "The Mission" explores the same conflict between self defence

and pacifism.

Michale Collins is another film that examines the morality of war especially the lure of battle.

I like the film and story discussions here. As a sacramental people, I think it is in our genes to explore life through stories.

[rug]

17. That's one I intended to see but never did. Thanks for the reminder.

[rug]

18. Here's a review.

http://www.eagletribune.com/lifestyle/x1561301181/For-Greater-Glory-isnt-the-glorious-epic-its-backers-hoped-for

Here's a disturbing paragraph.

"And as with "There be Dragons," the history itself is dodgy. The horrific excesses of a government determined to reign in a church thoroughly allied with the former ruling classes are documented, but there's nothing about the Cristeros' mass slaughter of rural school teachers who dared to teach Evolution."

This is from wikipedia.

Many Cristeros took up arms again, and they were followed by other Catholics, but this time unarmed teachers were among the main targets of Cristero-associated atrocities.[57][58][59][60][61]

Rural teachers did not take up arms,[62] but some of them refused to leave their schools and communities, and many had their ears cut off.[52][63][64][65] This is the reason why those teachers who were murdered and had their corpses desecrated are often known as maestros desorejados ("teachers without ears&quot in Mexico.[66][67]

In some of the worst cases, teachers were tortured and murdered by the Cristeros.[58][60] It is calculated that almost 300 rural teachers were murdered in this way between 1935 and 1939,[68] while other authors calculate that at least 223 teachers were victims of the violence between 1931–40,[58] including the assassinations of Carlos Sayago, Carlos Pastraña and Librado Labastida in Teziutlán, Puebla, hometown of future president Manuel Ávila Camacho;[69][70] the execution of a teacher, Carlos Toledano, who was burned alive in Tlapacoyan, Veracruz;[71][72] and the lynching of at least 42 teachers in the state of Michoacan:[60] J. Trinidad Ramírez in Contepec, Pedro García in Apatzingan, Juan Gonzalez Valdespino in Huajumbaro, José Rivera Romero in Ciudad Hidalgo, María Salud Morales in Tacambaro; et al. The atrocities by the Cristeros against rural teachers have been criticized in essays and books published by the Jesuit Ibero-American University in Mexico.[73][74]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristero_War