Highly Overrated But Still Good

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Although not a very well made movie (the writing and editing are especially weak) the late Raul Julia's performance is stunning, as are the performances of many of his supporting cast. The journey his character (and presumably the actual archbishop Romero) makes from innocence to awareness is deeply moving and very convincing. His story is remarkable and well worth forgiving the director and editor for not realizing it's full potential. The impact is in Julia's performance and you'll be with him from the moment he fills the screen. Probably one of Raul Julia's most remarkable performances. Another performance worth note is that of the late Richard Jordan who, as Father Grande, helps lead the archbishop to an awareness of the suffering of his people.

This film presents a completely one-sided and often false portrayal of the situation in El Salvador in the late 1970s and 1980s. It offers no context whatsoever, and like so much propaganda out of Hollywood, the movie completely ignores Marxist revolutionary violence in Central America at the time. One is reminded of the movie Outbreak, in which the US Army is portrayed as the villain by Hollywood, when in truth Army doctors saved people from a vicious virus outbreak, as Richard Preston documented in his excellent book, The Hot Zone. It was in fact communist guerrillas who said they would murder anyone found with voting stamp dye on their hands during the El Salvador elections portrayed in the movie. But in a truly heroic act of defiance El Salvadorans stood in long lines for hours to vote under the threat of death by the guerrillas -- not, as the movie would have you believe, the Savadoran army. Similarly, in 1990 Nicaraguans voted against the communist junta led by Daniel Ortega. After watching the movie Romero you would never know these things, but the facts can be easily verified in authoritative historical sources. Of course, as you might expect, the US is another villain in the movie like the brutal El Salvadoran army, and the communists are of course just trying to help the people in a terrible situation. The movie only hints at the role "Liberation Theology" played in the thinking of some Catholic theologians at the time. All in all, this movie is hardly worth the effort and only worth it as a study in propaganda, despite the overtly religious context of the movie. Unless you believe Central America would have been better off under communism, watch this movie with a great deal of skepticism.

Raul Julia's finest moment as an actor was also one of the finest Latin American-themed films of all time. Julia portrayed the diligent bishop Oscar Romero with an aplomb which few actors could have embodied. Sadly, this film ends up as nothing but a blip on the map. Few people have actually experienced the power and creativity placed into this film. Perhaps it was too political or too dark, what ever the reason, it will remain one of my favorite films of all time. Perhaps years from now, the appreciation this movie deserves will be given to it.

This was a pretty good film, about the real life story of the archbishop of EL Salvador, Oscar Romero. Raul Julia gives a good performance as the title character. The music is effective and interesting; at times it sounds almost like helicopter blades. If you close your eyes when you watch the beginning, you could almost think this film was about Vietnam. Some aspects of this film were not that great though. Some scenes appeared to be cut off too early or in odd ways.