Set in Mexico, "Stronghold" is informed by a sense of history and an original screenplay that manages to combine the best of action movie techniques with a genuine insight into the values and mores of Mexico. Its swashbuckling sense of heroism is never dull, or preachy, yet it contains a wealth of characterization and context that make most Hollywood historical films seem dry and sterile by comparison. Perhaps it escapes cliché in part by putting a USian woman into the lead. It is her gradual education into an understanding of Mexico that is the real story beneath the guns and ambushes.
This film deserves to be much better known.
This film deserves to be much better known.