Andy Garcia on the Movie About Freedom Hollywood Would Not Make

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CNSnews:

(CNSNews.com) - Andy Garcia’s new movie—co-starring Peter O’Toole and Eva Longoria—is an epic story of freedom that Hollywood would not make.

“It’s a completely independent film,” Garcia told CNSNews.com. “It is being distributed independently and it’s being financed independently.”

And it is the true story of men and women—and children--who lived 90 years ago in Mexico and whose struggle for liberty could echo powerfully in the United States today.

The movie is about the Cristeros, a group of reluctant and unlikely rebels who rose up against the government of Mexican President Plutarco Calles after he outlawed the free exercise of religion for Mexican Catholics.

Some of the heroes in For Greater Glory are Mexicans who in real life were literally martyred for their faith—and who have since been beatified by the church. Among these is Jose Sanchez Del Rio, a teenage boy, who joined the pro-Catholic guerilla forces ironically led by the skeptical and mercenary general whom Garcia depicts in the movie.

Del Rio is who Saint Thomas More would be if he were brought forward in time to the 20th century, moved geographically to Mexico, and placed into the body of a 14-year-old child. For Greater Glory is A Man for All Seasons of the 21st Century.

 

Eva Longoria in For Greater Glory

In the mid-20th century, however, Hollywood not only made A Man for All Seasons, it gave it the Academy Award for Best Picture.

In 2012, no Hollywood studio would touch For Greater Glory. They would not make it. They would not distribute it.

Like A Man for All Seasons, For Greater Glory tells the story of what happens when a government is determined to force people of faith to act against their consciences—and they resist.