'For Greater Glory' a simple, but interesting Mexico history lesson

Give this to the mostly gripping, old-school historical epic “For Greater Glory”: The movie will have viewers looking up the history of the Mexican Revolution. Once you do, you’ll encounter a whole cast of interesting characters — and not only Porfirio Diaz, Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa.

“Glory,” though, concentrates on the little-known Cristero War, a conflict at the tail end of the revolutionary era in the 1920s. It was a bloody and frequently brutal battle between devout supporters of the Catholic church and President Plutarco Elias Calles government’s attempt to secularize the country and blunt the power of “anti-revolutionary” sermons from the pulpit.

The movie — which occasionally veers off into melodramatic territory and includes too many people making what feels like long-winded statements of ideals — squarely comes down on the side of the clerics, including an early scene in which Mexican soldiers drag an elderly and frail priest (Peter O’Toole, looking like death warmed over) out of his church and setting up an impromptu firing squad. Equally brutal is the lynching of another priest by government forces inside the sanctuary of a church.

Once the filmmakers establish the villains — mostly standard sadistic government types, aside from Calles, who is portrayed as a cross between Machevelli and Stalin by musician Ruben Blades — we get to meet the heroes among the faithful.

Most interesting is Enrique Gorostieta Velarde (a solid Andy Garcia), an agnostic military man hired by the Catholic faithful to lead rebel forces. The movie argues he joined the struggle out of boredom — as the story opens he’s running a soap factory — but slowly became to believe in the cause.

Even more colorful is the charismatic bandit-turned religious warrior Victoriano “El Catorce” Ramirez (Oscar Isaac) and Father Vega (Santiago Cabrera), who turns in his priestly collar for a rifle and a general’s title.

Interestingly, the movie gives short shrift to some of the atrocities Vega purportedly committed — burning civilians alive and the summary execution of captured government soldiers — while dwelling on the government’s act of barbarities. The most difficult to watch is the torture of an angelic altar boy turned rebel, Jose (Mauricio Kuri).

The movie — which clocks in at well over two hours, but doesn’t feel long — throws in a lot of history during its running time, but also does a good job of personalizing the events, especially with the character of Jose. Telling the story through the eyes of an innocent simplifies what was no doubt far more complicated.

So yes, “For Greater Glory” is manipulative, simplistic and probably twists the historical record for its own purposes. In other words, the movie might not be good history, but it makes an entertaining movie with a compelling central story and colorful characters.