Thanks for the memories!

Fantastic!

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The 20'th century history of Central and South America can be compressed into the film "Romero". I'm not going to comment on why this part of the world has been so long plagued by such violence and repression; that's up to sociologists. Although things as they stand in 2007 are no where near as bad as they have been, there are still completely wild areas in the America's (parts of Columbia are in anarchy with rebel groups still fighting a very long war). Central America saw some of the most brutal and repressive civil wars and regimes. Guatamala and El Salvador saw exceptionally horrible levels of death and destruction. El Salvador, which this film depicts, was in the throes of yet another wave of civil disorder, pitting the large and very poor underclass against the small numbers of privileged upper class with predictable results. The army was used as a brutal and murderous machine, acting out the dark ideas of the right wing. The US aided the right wing because US foreign policy blindly labeled all rebellious groups in the America's as "Communist" insurgents and worked overtime to eliminate them. That's the backdrop to this film.The murder of Archbishop Romero was but the beginning of a ten year civil war that saw over 50,000 deaths in El Salvador. The film is hard on the nerves to watch as all depictions of depravity and death are. The actors have put their best into this important film. Two of them are sadly no longer with us: Richard Jordan and Raul Julia. Jordan shone in this film (and even more in one of my favorites - Gettysburg). Julia probably gives his most memorable performance. He is by turns shy, sedate, stirred, outraged, shocked and broken down. His depiction shadows that of the real Romero and one gets a sense that Julia had more than enough raw material to work with and that the script and storyline would support strong acting. In short, by the tragic end, we are emotionally drained and very upset, as we should be. If there is ever to be justice in this world, and it's a big "if", then we can start by demanding that perpetrators of violence are dealt with appropriately and not allowed sanctuary and support. Of course the chances of this happening while you live in a client state of the US is slim. A sad, wrenching depiction of both Romero's short career as Archbishop and of the black hole that overcame El Salvadore. As grim as they come but important to watch and take note of.

Raul Julia gives his routine wonderful performance as Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, capital of El Salvador, playground of right-wing paramilitary militia sponsored by successive military juntas subsidized by the CIA and successive US Administrations. Archbishop Romero slowly evolved from a bookworm to a politically aware activist as he came to realize what the military regimes were doing to the poor of his country. He paid the ultimate price willingly. Unlike today's cowards, who proclaim martyrdom and kill themselves and a few or many others in the name of some sterile ideology, Romero accepted martyrdom in the name of a living gospel he deeply believed in, in order to save lives, not to take them.Julia looks absolutely nebbish in his glasses, and proves his genius as a thespian. Alas, he is not with us any longer, so that pretty boys of 2005 can only watch his films and learn how to act.Highly recommended film, especially for the vast majority of US citizens who think that Ronald Reagan and his ilk actually did good things in El Salvador, Nicaragua and other places in America.

...of El Salvador during the late 70s. For all of its "humanitarian" committments, the Carter administration in the US went out of its way to arm, fund, and support regimes such as the quasi-fascists in El Salvador who are depicted in *Romero*. This practice of US support for far-right dictators was (and continues to be) par for the course during the Cold War, and it is of course completely reprehensible; the death of Archbishop Romero and 75K other Salvadorans is on the hands of the CIA and the Pentagon. For shame.The film understates this savage process very well, only casually hinting at US responsibility for the atrocious poverty and human rights issues in Central America (M-16s in the hands of the military, Romero's open letter to Carter, etc); jingos in the US probably won't notice the subtlety here, however. Indeed, such superpatriot fools will no doubt look at this film as yet more evidence of the greatness of "America" (whatever that is), and further demonstration of how the "Third World" can't get its act together. Little do these folks realize that US prosperity is directly related to the misery that the US produces across the globe, as in eE Salvador. Bravo, Julia and Paulist films.

This is another "sleeper" about totalitarian regimes in Central America. What is particularly fascinating about this one is that Romero, a non-political man, comes to the realizaton that there is no such thing as apolitical, apolitical ultimately being complicity, and recognizes his responsibility to take a stand for his people, despite pressure from Rome to refrain from doing so.I remember hearing about the events in this movie on the radio, when they were actually taking place.For me this reality is a major part of how I felt watching this movie. The movie is quite good, but I didn't enjoy it. I don't think one watches such movies for enjoyment. I give it a 10!