Film

Romero

Name: Romero
Genre: Drama, History
Released: 1989
Cast: Raúl Juliá, Richard Jordan, Ana Alicia, Eddie Velez, Alejandro Bracho

Biopic

A measured, urgent portrait of Archbishop Oscar Romero's transformation from cautious bureaucrat to moral force against a military regime's violence in 1980s El Salvador. Raúl Juliá delivers a performance of quiet conviction as Romero grapples with conscience, faith, and the cost of standing against state terror. For anyone moved by faith tested by history.

TMDb rating

3.5

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a patient, grounded portrait of a reluctant man whose conscience slowly changes his politics, and you are happy to watch conviction build through small, uncomfortable choices rather than spectacle.

Skip it if you need fast pacing or a tidy crowd-pleaser, since it moves deliberately through meetings, sermons and rising unrest, with its sympathies openly on one side.

What it asks of you: A measured, unhurried runtime of about an hour and three-quarters, with long stretches of talk and ritual; the drama lives in faces and silences more than in action.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

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Daniel Day-Lewis and Pete Postlethwaite in a piercing account of wrongful imprisonment and a son's fight against systemic injustice in Northern Ireland. The emotional and moral stakes build unbearably.

But It's bleak and the legal machinery grinds slowly. Some find the father-son dynamic overwrought.

Spotlight2015

Methodical, thrilling account of Boston Globe reporters uncovering Catholic Church abuse. Shows how institutions protect themselves and how ordinary people dismantle them.

But Procedural pacing means it avoids melodrama—some want more emotional catharsis. Anger simmers rather than explodes.

The Mission1986

Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons in a visually ravishing film about Jesuit priests defending indigenous people in colonial South America. Asks whether faith demands action or acceptance.

But Occasionally indulges in beautiful suffering. The politics can feel safely distant from its 1986 vantage point.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Romero

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

A Prophet2009

Both track a quiet man's ascent to moral leadership within an oppressive institution, and both ask whether such leadership inevitably makes you a target.

An imprisoned man gains moral authority among fellow inmates and discovers conscience through will and intelligence rather than faith. Beautifully acted, morally complex, about power dynamics and unexpected nobility in the worst places.

But French, three hours, set almost entirely in prison. The violence is graphic and the ending offers no catharsis, only clarity.

12 Angry Men1957

Sidney Lumet's masterclass in moral persuasion: one juror persuades eleven others that rushing to judgment about a poor defendant is unjust. Tense, intelligent, deeply fair-minded.

But Claustrophobic single room for 95 minutes. The resolution feels almost too neat in retrospect.

The Killing Fields1984

Harrowing true story of a New York Times photographer and Cambodian journalist covering the Khmer Rouge. Visceral, political, an indictment of complacency and American foreign policy.

But Brutal and relentless. Some of the atrocity scenes are nearly unbearable to watch.

Cry Freedom1987

Attenborough's account of Steve Biko's resistance to South African apartheid. Gripping, moving, unflinching about a system designed to erase a man's humanity.

But Focuses partly on a white journalist's perspective rather than Biko himself. Some see this as deflecting from the central moral clarity.

The Year of Living Dangerously1982

Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver caught between passion and politics during Indonesia's 1965 upheaval. Dense, romantic, politically complicated—asks what we owe to strangers.

But The romance can overshadow the political machinery. Linda Hunt's dwarf cameraman is done no favors by the casting.

The Lives of Others2006

East German secret police surveillance thriller about a Stasi officer who begins to doubt the system he serves. Tense, morally intricate, quietly devastating about complicity and conscience.

But Subtitled. Paced deliberately—rewards patience but can feel slow if you're not engaged.

Z1969

Costa-Gavras's electric thriller about the assassination of a political dissident in a military dictatorship. Fast, fractured, formally inventive, radically angry about state violence.

But Deliberately disorienting structure. Its 1969 technique can feel mannered compared to political thrillers made after.

Stalker1979

Both are about men who lead others toward something transcendent, and both suggest that the real test isn't reaching the goal but what you become in pursuit of it.

Tarkovsky's meditative science fiction about a guide leading two men through a mysterious zone toward a room that grants wishes. Hypnotic, philosophical, about desire, faith, and the weight of choosing.

But Glacially paced, subtitled Soviet cinema from 1979. If you need plot momentum, this will frustrate you profoundly.

Come and See1985

Like Romero, it's about what happens to a man of conscience when confronted with systematic cruelty—but stripped of any faith or institutional structure, showing the raw cost.

Elem Klimov's shattering Soviet war film about a boy conscripted into the Red Army during WWII. A portrait of innocence destroyed by industrial violence—devastating, unforgettable, one of cinema's greatest moral statements.

But Genuinely traumatizing. Not recommended if you're fragile. The atrocities are real, the suffering is unsparing, and it will stay with you.