Romero Review
This 1989 production faithfully chronicles Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero's struggle with his conscience, his brother priests, and a brutal military regime during the seismic social upheaval in El Salvador in 1980. In a deeply affecting performance, Raul_Julia portrays the beleaguered Romero -- a kind of 20th century Thomas à Becket -- with such passion and dignity that it is hard to imagine anyone else right for the role. At the beginning of the film, Julia molds himself into a psychological and philosophical replica of Romero: a bookish, old-school prelate who eschews the political activism practiced by radical priests to bring down tyrannical government overlords. One must render to Caesar what is Caesar's, he believes. But after the murders of dissident peasants and priests, Julia's Romero abandons status-quo passivism for peaceful political activism. The transition is slow and subtle, sans epiphany, with Julia displaying as much fear and regret as courage and resolution. And then the day comes when Julia forms his character into a rock of defiance: "You are a liar," he tells the double-dealing El Salvadoran president. The gauntlet is down. Romero's fate is sealed. Like Becket eight centuries before, Romero meets his fate in a cathedral. And also like Becket, he does not die completely. His spirit lives on. Supporting performances are good, and the camera makes a significant contribution to the success of the film with scenes of peasant squalor and aristocratic plenitude. The Paulist Fathers, a Roman Catholic religious order, produced the film on a limited budget -- and prayers. Mike Cummings, Rovi
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