Saw the new Andy Garcia film about the Christero Revolt last night, yet another film "based on true events."
Sort of like if they made a movie about the civil war and Grant kills Lee at Gettysburg and they don't even mention slavery.
I love Mexico and there is some great scenery from Durango and San Luis and the best collection of hats and mustaches since Miller's Crossing. Maybe better.
But its history is too complicated to be reduced to a two and a half hour movie, even if it just covers a couple of years and is told through the eyes of one man.
SPOILER: the priest/warrior knew there were people on the train when he torched it; he and the general did not die in the same incident, the general did not go to confession before he died and there were a lot of legitamate reasons to want to bring the church to heel after the Revolution. They supported Huerta and the murder of Madero, etc.
The movie is worth seeing if you love Mexico or are a blind faith Catholic willing to overlook a few hundred years of support for misrule.
Just don't believe any of it.
Garcia plays the general and there are a lot of other very good actors scattered throughout; Eva Longoria is almost unrecognizable and has a negligible role and Peter O'Toole looks to be dead before he gets shot.
Sort of like if they made a movie about the civil war and Grant kills Lee at Gettysburg and they don't even mention slavery.
I love Mexico and there is some great scenery from Durango and San Luis and the best collection of hats and mustaches since Miller's Crossing. Maybe better.
But its history is too complicated to be reduced to a two and a half hour movie, even if it just covers a couple of years and is told through the eyes of one man.
SPOILER: the priest/warrior knew there were people on the train when he torched it; he and the general did not die in the same incident, the general did not go to confession before he died and there were a lot of legitamate reasons to want to bring the church to heel after the Revolution. They supported Huerta and the murder of Madero, etc.
The movie is worth seeing if you love Mexico or are a blind faith Catholic willing to overlook a few hundred years of support for misrule.
Just don't believe any of it.
Garcia plays the general and there are a lot of other very good actors scattered throughout; Eva Longoria is almost unrecognizable and has a negligible role and Peter O'Toole looks to be dead before he gets shot.
