[2][3][4][5][6] It stars Andy García, Eva Longoria, Oscar Isaac, Rubén Blades, Peter O'Toole (in his last film appearance released in his lifetime), and Bruce Greenwood.

Civil war erupts when newly elected Mexican President Plutarco Elías Calles (Rubén Blades) begins a violent crackdown against the country's Catholic faithful.

The film depicts the carnage by showing churches being set on fire, Catholic priests murdered, and countless faithful peasants killed and having their bodies publicly hanged on telegraph poles as a warning to others.

[14] The latter site states: "It has laudable aspirations, but For Greater Glory ultimately fails to fulfill its goals due to an overstuffed script, thinly written characters, and an overly simplified dramatization of historical events."

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two and a half stars, and concluded that "it is well-made, yes, but has such pro-Catholic tunnel vision I began to question its view of events.

Club panned the film and called it, 'an endless, plodding educational tool of unusual bluntness and dull force, a blood-soaked primer on intolerance and religious persecution that would benefit from even the faintest tinge of moral ambiguity or narrative sophistication.

'[17] In more positive reviews, Stephen Holden of The New York Times described the film as an "old-fashioned, Hollywood-style epic" and said that it compared favorably to Christian mega-hits of the 1950s such as The Robe.

"[18] Phil Boatwright of the "Baptist Press" called the film "a compelling, thoughtful homage to religious freedom" and said that it brought back memories of El Cid and A Man for All Seasons.