For Greater Glory: The True Story of Cristiada
Director: Dean Wright * Cast: Mauricio Kuri, Peter O’Toole, Adrian Alonso, Rubén Blades, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Patricia Garza, Alan Ramirez, Estefania Alejandra, Oscar Isaac, Raúl Adalid. (2012. 143 minutes)
This is a dramatization of the historic Cristero Revolution of Mexico (1926-29), when the Church was brutally persecuted in Mexico. The hero is General Enrique Gorostieta, a retired general called back to the battlefield at the request of Catholic leaders. The war raged for almost three years, killing about 90,000 Mexicans. The persecution of the Church began when the revolutionary government installed a new constitution in 1917, severely hampering religious rights, exiling clergy and even ordering them to be killed and confiscating church property across the country. When the militantly atheistic Calles came to power, he began to persecute the church in a brutal and systematic manner. The Catholic uprising was mostly led by inexperienced peasantry. General Gorostieta, though an atheist, is prompted into the battle out of his outrage at the denial of religious freedom to his compatriots.
In the beginning, the movie focuses on José (fictionalized version of Saint José Luis Sánchez del Río, beatified in 2005), a mischievous little boy who plays a practical joke on Father Christopher, an aged parish priest, who soon befriends him. José is later to witness the public execution of Father Christopher, which prompts him to join the Cristeros. General Gorostieta employs the boy to look after horses, and entrusts him with some secret missions. The soldiers catch the little boy and kill him. The US government is indifferent to the persecution, more interested in protecting its oil business. The Cristeros’ campaign had surprising series of victories against the state troops, thanks to the seasoned leadership of Gorostieta. In June 1929, peace was established through the mediation of the US ambassador and the Pope, restoring freedom of worship in Mexico. Many of the Catholic soldiers and priests who were killed, including Jose, were later elevated to martyrdom by the Church.
Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace.
Director: Eric Till * Cast: Ulrich Tukur, Johanna Klante, Robert Joy Ulrich Noethen. (2000. 90 minutes)
This is a closely realistic dramatization of the true story of the German Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, executed by the Nazi regime when he was thirty-nine years old. The story begins with Bonhoeffer’s life in the US, where he was a visiting professor. By then his anti-Nazi stances became well known and his friends, fearing for his safety, asked him not to go back to Germany. But his conscience draws him away to Germany where he is certain to face persecution from the Nazis. He would rather suffer with his fellow Christians than enjoy the safety of a US Seminary. He gets active in resisting the Hitler regime. He establishes contacts with church leaders in neutral countries to build up resistance. He meets Maria, who gets engaged to him in the middle of the World War. His inner conflict is heightened by the reports of the Nazi atrocities and he is invited to join a plot to assassinate Hitler in the midst of the war. Bonhoeffer, attracted by Mahatma Gandhi’s non violent resistance, wished to visit him and stay in India, but he felt that he had to be with his countrymen. A call to action against the supreme evil of Hitlerism makes him contemplate the possibility of assassinating the Nazi dictator. He begins to get convinced that Christians are to act appropriately in the dire situation rather than escape into a world of piety. The question is whether a great evil could be put an end to by killing one man and save millions of lives, but he had no part in the plot to kill Hitler, which fails. Bonhoeffer is arrested, imprisoned, and hanged.
Prof Gigy Joseph
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