Sam Troyer So there were a lot of things that were great about this movie. It had some awesome commentary on the reality and the struggle of Salvadorians living in the slums, and the harsh behavior of the police and the army on the people. The acting from most of the main characters was pretty great, although most of the army members were very blank and just not very good. Raul Julia did an excellent job, especially in the scenes in which he had to get emotional, although there were a few times in which his performance became a little bit worse in some of the scenes that he was screaming. The prison scene was odd, primarily because the make up was not believable to a dead person. He was supposed to be a man who was beaten to death, tortured until he finally decided to give up. However, the make up was similar to someone who got punched in the face once or twice and got knocked out. One of the things that restricts this movie, in my opinion, is that everything is just so black and white. The priests and the church are the good guys and then the rich and powerful people are the bad guys. Every single action that they take is therefore extremely predictable because you know what is going to happen as soon as the scene starts. This also makes it so that the only person you can rout for is Romero. There is no struggle, I don't have to make a decision, and I am not challenged as an audience member. This makes the experience extremely one sided and I am left with a feeling of emptiness.The other problem, although I already mentioned it before, is the actors other than the lead. The extras are pretty bad, and most of the people in the military just have a blank expression and sound like they are just reading their lines. I get it that it really isn't supposed to be about acting but you get the point.Overall good film, 7/10.

evm1265 The comment about the overall editing seems harsh. The first portion of the film is admittedly not the best editing, but after that it is bordering on great. One scene in particular is worth looking at again and again. The film has the feel of two different editors and in fact that is what happened. This film is one of my all time favourites. It evokes mood and place and emotion and passion and atmosphere. All the elements of exceptional visual story telling. The fact that it is based on a real man who followed a very disciplined life and belief system, and had the courage and desire to stand up to certain perils makes this film a standout on every level.

mikemangarelli This film shows clearly how the great archbishop learned of the atrocities of his government and how he eventually came to side against them. Romero was not a Marxist or a member of the FMLN, he was a liberation theologist, which contained elements of Marxism but ultimately is not Marxism.One user here wrote a comment that the film was a propaganda piece, completely ignoring communist atrocities. With the exception of FARC and shining path, the US's beloved right-wing dictatorships were responsible for the overwhelming majority of murders. 70,000 were killed in El Salvador, across the border in Guatemala 200,000 were killed. These are only two examples of many other in Latin America. If you want to understand the beginnings of what would become genocide in El Salvador in the 80s, or even just to see the commitment of a great man to the poor and actually carry out what Jesus asked then see this movie.PS - Romero will not be canonized, the current Pope waged a virtual war against liberation theologists, almost eradicating them from the church. What would you expect from a Nazi youth?

act-12 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.