Outlaws - For Greater Glory (2012)

Simply A Masterpiece

Nice effects though.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

first, for the theme, not real known out of Mexico frontiers. for the performances. and for the inspired way to define the roots of this movement for the protection of Church. it is a large fresco, dramatic, realistic, inspiring. because it gives not only portraits of martyrs - the torture against Saint Jose Sanchez del Rio is one of remarkable episodes - but one of profound portraits about the brutality of a regime against its citizens. a film like remember. about faith and its relevance in personal life. about victories and theirs sacrifices.. about hope. and, sure, about resistance for support a noble cause.

It is disturbing how these known American actors were willing to be part of this extreme right wing Sinarquist propaganda movie. Maybe sometime we Mexicans will afford making a movie about American history where we get everything wrong, like for instance making a movie glorifying and raising Timothy McVeigh to the status of a martyr; yeah, nonsense, that is what this movie is, a bunch of nonsense.The events of the movie happen when Mexico was in a stage of reconstruction after several decades of civil war, after an endless list of random generals tried to seize power and kept killing one another in the middle of countrywide chaotic uprisings.At that point in history, when we finally had achieved peace and the last thing we wanted was yet another uprising while nurturing our young democracy, letting the Church interfere in politics was more than unacceptable. What happens next? These bunch of cristeros upraise against the government.Mexico would be worse than it is now if those religious extremists had won. Mexico would not be a secular state now if Calles had not acted as he did.Why people would bash Calles for defending our laical state? Mexico would be worse if it was one of those religious wackos driven states.Achieving the separation of the Church from the State cost us too much blood in the 19th century just to let an uprising of traitors change that. And now it turns out that keeping our country secular was some sort of deranged Calles' evil agenda. Stupid movie.Those people hanging from those posts, had it coming.Oh and portraying the Catholic bishops as innocent servants of God with no other agenda than serving Jesus was laughable. I wonder if someone actually believes that.Finally, that kid being tortured like Jesus Christ was too much. Sinarquist propaganda.

You can tell that a lot of the people involved in "For Greater Glory" really believed in what they were doing but unfortunately that doesn't cancel out the film's glaring weaknesses. FGG tries to tell too many stories at once and as a result, the entire production seems to meander endlessly without getting to any point. There are, by my count, five major sub-plots in FGG besides the central story of General Gorostieta (Garcia's character). Even at 144 minutes, the movie just doesn't have enough time to deal with all of this material and in trying to do so, it bogs down and doesn't even tell Gorostieta's story all that well. To me, the big change of heart the General had at the end seemed to come out of nowhere.Also not helpful, given that it's a war movie, is that the numerous action scenes are not well paced. Another minor prob was that Eve Longoria was not believable at all as Gorostieta's pious Christian wifey. Yet another weakness was the relationship between Peter O'Toole (as an old priest) and Mauricio Kuri (as a cute, little altar boy). In this day and age seeing a Catholic priest kissing and stroking the brow of an altar boy is freaky to say the least. Unless you're a very devout Catholic, the scenes between them are probably going to creep you out. People of a saltier temperament may laugh at loud...On the plus side, the cinematography is often beautiful. Andy Garcia gives a good performance and has enough screen time to make seeing FGG worthwhile for his fans.

This story is a one-sided view of a war in Mexico. It is filled with fabrications and historical inaccuracies. It's nothing more than a pro-Catholic self promoting vehicle filled with overly simplified dramatization of historical events.The only thing which is true about this movie was there were people fighting each other and thousands of people were killed. One side was pro-government and the other side was pro-catholic. Oh and that it took place in Mexico.Overall the movie was a waste of time and resources. It didn't win any awards from the ALMA, though it was nominated for five awards. The amount of money it took in was also less impressive with $9.6 million earned but cost $12 million to make.