Dear Friends,
My wife and I attended the opening-day showing of the new movie For Greater Glory, about the Cristiada Rebellion at a theater in Spokane last night. It is the amazing and stirring story of the 1920s Mexican civil war fomented by a revolutionary government against Catholic churches, leaders, and worshipers.
The attendance was what you would expect with this movie competing against several summer blockbusters. The movie’s production values are not as high as the tens-of-millions-of-dollars CGI extravaganzas, but still an A-quality production. The actors are convincing, the movie engrossing, no slow or boring parts, and it tells the story clearly and forcefully without, I might add, being preachy.
I’ve read a half-dozen reviews of the movie, including one in a Christian news magazine and one in the local newspaper that were infuriatingly critical, shallow, or missed the point of the movie altogether. There is no comparison between “For Greater Glory” and “The Avengers” – that would be like comparing a pickup truck to fireworks and asking which one was better. One has a purpose and is useful, the other merely great entertainment, but empty.
“For Greater Glory” means something. It will make you think. It will move you. It will make you wonder how come we never knew about this conflict with 90,000 dead, even though the daughter of the General (who is the central figure of the movie) only passed away in 2010. Who knew?
This movie will make you appreciate the wisdom on Reverend Martin Niemoeller’s famous quote “First they came…”, how that gradual process could have happened in Mexico, and how it could happen in the United States. It will make you appreciate how destructive and awful civil war is, but that war is not the worst thing imaginable.
Most of all it will make you realize that there is a price for loving liberty, for putting God first, for choosing truth, for taking a stand for justice. And that simply because your cause is right is no guarantee that you personally will not give your life for it. This movie will help you consider what IS worth living and dying for, and to make your peace with all of the possibilities should conflict ever come to our shores.
Don’t let people tell you this movie is some kind of Catholic propaganda piece. It’s production was begun before the current controversy over ObamaCare. If anything it’s timing is providential. Along with movies like the highly-recommended Defiance, it is a powerful and moving visual antidote to the modern passivity and tolerance of growing tyranny.
Just be warned, the film has an “R” rating because of its graphic images (not gory, but definitely disturbing), and the theater chain decided it would be appropriate to show trailers for several other “R” movies that are wholly inappropriate for conservative audiences, including an upcoming movie that appears to directly trash Christianity!
I’d like to encourage everyone to sit through the main body of the credits because the movie’s close shows actual pictures from that war. To look at the faces of the actual persons whose story was told in the movie was powerful.
Hollywood production companies shunned this story. I’m hoping preppers, Christians and conservatives alike will all support this movie and ponder what it means to us in our day.
Trust God. Be Prepared. The time is now! – ShepherdFarmerGeek