Choices of the Heart


Choices of the Heart is an American made-for-television drama film based on the lives of Jean Donovan, Archbishop Oscar Romero, and three American religious sisters who were killed in El Salvador during its Civil War.

Plot

The movie is based on actual events. On March 24, 1980, Romero was killed, and three Roman Catholic religious sisters and a lay Catholic missionary were killed on December 2, 1980, by Salvadoran death squads, possibly funded by the United States. Three of the women dedicated their lives to helping refugees and sick people for years. Jean Donovan had been in El Salvador for over two years helping the children that she was so devoted to. Donovan says over and over in her letters to her family in the U.S. that God brought her to El Salvador. These women were raped, tortured, and killed by members of a Salvadoran death squad. Attempts from the Salvadoran and American governments were made to try to cover the murders up.

Production

The production was filmed mostly in Mexico. Mike Farrell plays Robert C. White, then U.S. President Jimmy Carter's Ambassador to El Salvador, who keeps running into official interference and noncooperation in his investigation concerning the murdered women. Martin Sheen appears as Matt Phelan, a Dublin priest whom Miss Donovan meets while spending her junior college year in Ireland.

Cast