'Greater Glory' a bloated, bombastic war epic

How could anyone screw up a story so ripe for being made into a big-budget, widescreen historical epic?

First-time director Dean Wright's bloated, repetitious, jingoistic, bombastic, platitudinous, manipulative "For Greater Glory" takes place during the Cristero War between 1926 to 1929 when Mexican President Calles (Ruben Blades) outlaws the Roman Catholic faith as a threat to national security.

Calles dispatches troops to convince churches to close and priests to get out of town.

When priests like Father Christopher (the fey but aging Peter O'Toole) refuse to budge, they're taken outside their churches and summarily executed.

"Who are you if you don't stand up for what you believe?" Father Christopher wheezes. "There is no greater glory than to give up your life for Christ!"

Meanwhile, the Catholics, called the Cristeros, pull together a resistance army of untrained, undisciplined soldiers who operate more on faith than anything else.

The Cristeros reach out to national war hero Enrique Gorostieta (Andy Garcia) for help. They need a leader.

Even though he's a lapsed Catholic, Gorostieta agrees to lead the Cristeros because of Calles' quashing of Mexican freedoms.

With Mexico's scenic vistas as a backdrop, a state-vs.-religion-inspired civil war for a subject, and "Untouchables" star Garcia as a bigger-than-life hero, "For Greater Glory" would sound like an automatic Oscar contender.

Man, what a bungled mess.

This movie goes on longer than the actual Cristeros War. James Horner's generically worshipful score (sounding like a retread of his "Cocoon") gets replayed so many times it begins to feel like sonic waterboarding.

The actors don't really portray characters in "For Greater Glory." They pose and posture and recite pronouncements and declarations. Nobody discusses anything or talks to one another in this movie. Characters pontificate and wax grandiloquently at the drop of a bullet casing.

"You must remember that men may fire bullets!" Gorostieta shouts, "but God decides where they land!"

While U.S. President Calvin Coolidge (Bruce McGill) supports Calles' war against the Catholics to gain political inroads in Mexico, it falls to U.S. Ambassador Morrow (the underrated Bruce Greenwood, turning in the movie's only spot-on performance) to understand the religion-based war being waged by a leader against his own people.

The cast gets filled out with a roguishly handsome freedom fighter (Oscar Isaac) who wants to do things his own way; Gorostieta's understanding sex-bomb wife (Eva Longoria) and a lovable Catholic boy (Mauricio Kuri) who supplies an over-the-top scene of martyrdom that verges on exploitation.

"These are dark times," a Mexican dad observes, and he could be talking about the state of Mexico-shot historical epics by first-time directors.

“For Greater Glory”

★ ½

Starring: Andy Garcia, Peter O'Toole, Bruce Greenwood, Ruben Blades, Bruce McGill

Directed by: Dean Wright

Other: An Arc Entertainment release. Rated R for violence. 143 minutes