For Greater Glory
Metascore
35 out of 100

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 17 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 17
  3. Negative: 9 out of 17
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  1. Arizona Republic
    Reviewed by: Kerry Lengel
    May 31, 2012
    40
    The result is a pious mess of a movie that falls short both as history and as storytelling.
  2. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    May 31, 2012
    30
    Only Ruben Blades as President Calles and Bruce Greenwood as American Ambassador Dwight Morrow get out of this film with their acting dignity intact.
  3. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    May 31, 2012
    38
    Some bad movies can make you feel awful for the people who made them and worse for the audience that shows up. The actors, the script, the camera: There's nowhere good they can go. For Greater Glory is that kind of bad movie: a total embarrassment.
  4. Boxoffice Magazine
    Reviewed by: Mark Olsen
    Jun 4, 2012
    20
    The film's length and muddled message will likely keep it from reaching much of an audience, even within the presumed Latino faith-based target.
  5. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    May 30, 2012
    63
    In its use of locations and sets, it's an impressive achievement by director Dean Wright, whose credits include some of the effects on the "Lord of the Rings" films. If it had not hewed so singlemindedly to the Catholic view and included all religions under the banner of religious liberty, I believe it would have been more effective.
  6. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Robert Abele
    May 31, 2012
    40
    The film is ultimately a stodgy, overblown and repetitive slog.
  7. Movieline
    Reviewed by: Michelle Orange
    May 31, 2012
    50
    There's enough froth along the way to keep the memory of Will Ferrell's recent "Casa Di Me Padre" close at hand.
  8. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Joe Neumaier
    May 31, 2012
    60
    The actor (Garcia), whose banked anger has been a secret weapon since "The Untouchables" 25 years ago, paints a fascinating portrait of a man moved by fate.
  9. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    Jun 1, 2012
    38
    The sometimes painfully sincere and slow-moving For Greater Glory clearly aspires to be inspirational, but history won't cooperate. The Cristeros triumphed not because of their faith, but because the United States exerted diplomatic pressure to protect its oil interests in Mexico.
  10. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    May 31, 2012
    25
    If For Greater Glory were a person, it would be wearing two different socks. It is a scattered mess, as earnest as a folk song, but like a folk song that goes on for two hours and 23 minutes. Not only does it never justify its epic length, it gets even the small things wrong.
  11. Slant Magazine
    Reviewed by: Andrew Schenker
    May 27, 2012
    25
    The film is awash in blandly brown-toned cinematography, action scenes more violent than rousing, and a whole host of bathetic subplots.
  12. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Nathan Rabin
    May 30, 2012
    33
    With its shameless melodrama, ghoulish violence, and scenes of Christians being slaughtered en masse in holy places for the crime of publicly being Christians, the religious drama For Greater Glory feels an awful lot like evangelical Tribulation dramas such as "Left Behind: The Movie" and "The Omega Code."
  13. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Frank Scheck
    May 31, 2012
    50
    The sort of lumbering epic drama that went out of fashion by the late 1960s, For Greater Glory is mainly notable for shedding light on a little-known historical conflict, namely the Cristero War that took place in 1920s Mexico.
  14. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    May 31, 2012
    60
    Even at 143 minutes, For Greater Glory cannot satisfyingly fill out the stories of a half-dozen secondary characters, and there are frustrating gaps in the biographies of Gorostieta and José. The jamming together of so much history and melodrama makes for a handsome movie that is only rarely gripping.
  15. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Sam Adams
    May 29, 2012
    20
    Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, but let's not get carried away here.
  16. Variety
    Reviewed by: Joe Leydon
    May 31, 2012
    50
    Despite enough good intentions to pave a four-lane highway, the ardently sincere but dramatically unfocused For Greater Glory plays like a multipart miniseries that has been hacked down to feature length.
  17. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Nick Pinkerton
    May 29, 2012
    20
    It is plodding, lazily filmed, gassy with James Horner's score, and pads its runtime only by way of tolling repetition.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.2 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 30 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 17
  3. Negative: 1 out of 17
  1. clira
    10
    This is an exceptional film that clearly portraits in less than 3 hours the war for religious freedom in Mexico. If you did not experience the cruelty of the government against our people, our ancestors, in my case Anacleto Gonzalez Flores, and of all our relatives and beloved priests and children getting killed for practicing their religion, you will not understand this film. This is the best that could be done in less than 3 hours. I STRONGLY recommend this film. It was very close to reality. It was a bloody struggle, of course!! a bloody battle that the Mexican government of that time initiated. WE, the audience, LOVED IT!!!!! THUMBS UP!!!!!!!… Full Review »
  2. AmoaDios
    10
    Is the best movie I have ever seen about recent history.
    Show us how the gov secular and atheist of Mexico wants to destroy Catholic Church.
    I    s an epic and emotive movie.
    Inspirational, with real heroes, and martyrs.    … Full Review »
  3. seancriswell
    4
    An interesting story that needs to be told, but in a less manipulative way. The characters her are all cut from the back hat, white hat mold and consequently when the emotional scenes appear, we mostly know how they will unfold and care very little. The acting here was not bad but unfortunately the actors were not given a very good script to work with.… Full Review »
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