‘Greater Glory’ a lesser effort
First-time director Dean Wright’s historical drama is violent yet plodding.
“For Greater Glory” gives war epic treatment to the 1920s Mexican revolutionary uprising known as La Cristiada — in which violently enforced anti-clerical laws under President Plutarco Elías Calles spurred armed resistance by rebels calling themselves Cristeros.
Handsome in period flavor and packed with name actors such as Andy Garcia (expectedly charismatic as a real-life retired general recruited to lead the rebels), Peter O’Toole (as a peaceful priest) and Catalina Sandino Moreno (as an ammosmuggling freedom fighter), the film is ultimately a stodgy, overblown and repetitive slog.
First-time director Dean Wright mixes heavy violence with martyr melodrama: Scene after scene is either a referendum on devotion — with James Horner’s hammy score routinely wielded like a crescendo cudgel — or a display of brutality that feeds the wearying good versus evil thematic approach.
Government soldiers are mown down for laughs by Oscar Isaac’s peasant gunslinger, whereas the sacrificial killing of a wide-eyed altar boy is milked for all the wrenching emotion the filmmakers can muster.
Although lip service is given to the diplomatic efforts of the U.S. ambassador (an effective Bruce Greenwood) that eventually led in real life to a truce, “For Greater Glory” is mostly single-minded, dying-for-thecause fodder, catnip for crusaders but not so interesting to those looking for a deeper view into how politics and religion can tragically clash.