For Greater Glory

Mexico’s Cristero War of 1926-29, an uprising of Catholic rebels against president Plutarco Elías Calles (Ruben Blades) and his oppressive anticlerical laws, forms the spine of this movie from writer Michael Love and director Dean Wright. The story deserves a better movie than it gets here, but almost any story would. Despite the bracing presence of actors like Blades, Andy Garcia (as rebel general Enrique Gorostieta), Peter O’Toole (a martyred priest) and Bruce Greenwood (U.S. ambassador Dwight Morrow), many performances are amateurish, and Wright’s pacing is a leaden, enervating slog. The atrocious handheld cinematography of Eduardo Martínez Solares doesn’t help, weaving drunkenly from one face to another, often cutting off chins and the tops of people’s heads. An epic story becomes an epic bore.